Calgarian serves his city by the slice, Saskatchewan’s soprano, Christmas trees make wildlife feel right at home in Edmonton, and Winnipeg film companies merge.
Richard Oslowy started Coco Brooks in 1999
After moving his family to Calgary from Regina in 1997, Richard Oslowy traded in his Journeyman tools for some different ones, a pizza cutter and spade. His garage soon became a test kitchen after he attended a Pizza Expo in Sin City and his satisfaction wasn’t quite met with the other pie places around.
The first Coco Brooks opened in 1999 after Oslowy took his love for pizza and built it into a rising business. Now with 110 employees, 15 locations, 12 of them being in high schools, he is serving his community by the slice. Oslowy wanted to be more involved with the community and with the amount of frozen pizzas he’s seen served up at school fundraisers he knew he could do one better.
“We’re in the pizza business and we serve individual size pizza, pasta and salads. We have dine in, take out and delivery. We have hot, take and bake, and frozen. We do a lot of school hot lunches. We provide food service in 12 high schools in Calgary and we have a very big fundraising component,” says Osiowy.
Source:http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Love+pizza+leads+thriving+Calgary+business/7781590/story.html
Saskatchewan’s Ileana Montalbetti begins her new concert series
Saskatchewan has something to sing about. The 2013 Lyell Gustin Recital series kicks off this Friday with Saskatoon’s daughter Ileana Montalbetti at the helm. This Saskatchewan soprano, whose mother Barbara is the director of Saskatoon Opera, was bred in Saskatoon, achieved her vocal performance undergraduate degree at the University of Manitoba and continued on to be a graduate of Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio.
She has begun turning heads in the international opera scene and will continue to do so in her concert series that features her angelic voice, a flute, and two pianos. Rachel Andrist, the pianist accompanying her studied with Lyell Gustin in Saskatoon.
Source:http://www.thestarphoenix.com/entertainment/Local+soprano+launches+recital+season/7763922/story.html
Edmonton wildlife need your Christmas trees.
It’s that time again to un-trim your tree and rather then leaving it curbside the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre of Edmonton wants first dibs on your firs to provide a safe-haven for local wildlife.
“They provide the animals with a place to hide, a place to perch, stash their food if they want to,” said Holly Duvall with the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton.
Currently the wildlife shelter is seeing more boarders than usual as it offers a temporary home for about 30 animals right now. The shelter’s goal is to provide as close to a natural environment as possible for animals such as the resident great horned owl, Cecile. Trees can help the animals deal with stress as they recover from any injuries they may have, and any donated in January can last well into summer.
“In his pen we would fit up to 20 trees. So as many as we can get, we can put them all to good use.”
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2013/01/06/edmonton-owl-shelter-christmas-tree.html
Winnipeg’s Mid Canada Production Services and Frantic Films merge
Over the past few years Winnipeg’s film industry has been booming as it’s served as a backdrop for a myriad of movies and TV shows like Less Than Kind. Winnipeg film companies Mid Canada Production Services and a portion of Frantic Films have merged to form FRANK Digital.
The branded content and commercial section of Frantic Films is the portion that has moved over into FRANK Digital. Chris McIvor is the new company’s CEO. He says the strengths that are coming from both sides are sure to compliment one another.
“The merger with the staff is terrific. We’ve got a great team now … and we’re looking forward to just being able to compete now in a national market for commercials,” said McIvor. “Basically, we have this infrastructure built for the movies and the larger shows [and] we can now utilize all this hardware and all the technical expertise to build up the commercial side.”
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2013/01/02/mb-film-companies-merge-winnipeg.html
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Chadd Cawson is an intern at Spectator Tribune. Follow him at: @ChaddCawson
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