The Weekly Albertan

More Calgarians are choosing smaller cafés instead of Canada’s big chains to get their coffee.

Chantel Traub, 21, is a student at ACAD who prefers to go to her favourite café, Artigiano, rather than the Starbucks across the street.

Resolution Local Art Gallery in Kensington is pulling local artists together in March for a month long exhibit dedicated to Haiti relief.

Lack of grammar studies, text messaging, instant messaging and social networking sites like Face

book and Twitter, are all being blamed for an increasing number of post-secondary students who can't write properly.

 

The University of Waterloo in Ontario is one of the only Canadian universities that require potential students to pass an exam testing their English skills. The Canadian Press Association has reported that 30 per cent of students are failing the exam.

Local servers at Moose McGuire’s Pub in Calgary have banded together to raise money for Haiti relief.

A free program has been giving smokers in Calgary support in order to kick the bad habit with the help of health specialist and proven techniques.

QuitCore began in 2008. A branch of the Tom Baker Cancer Centre program, which has helped smokers quit for over 25 years, is based on the same core principles.

The program is offered province wide with 95 people registered in Calgary, and over 220 participants registered throughout Alberta.

The eight in-depth sessions offer participants the most effective methods and tools to help them become smoke-free.

Sessions cover various strategies to aid smokers in quitting such as: nicotine replacement therapy and prescription medications, how to deal with recovery symptoms and how to recognize and manage stress.

Support techniques and methods, which involve self-hypnosis, behaviour modification, and relaxation, have given the program a high success rate.

Karen Smith, who is part of the Tobacco Reduction Team, said that the average rate of participants who are able to ‘stay quit’ after the sessions is 30 per cent.

When compared to other group cessation programs as well as rates of those who try to quit on their own which averages around four per cent, QuitCore has a high quitting smoking rate.

“Our participants will struggle throughout the sessions but the biggest hill to climb is after the sessions have been complete,” said Smith.

She said that once the sessions are over, former participants tend to fall back into bad trends.

“QuitCore is the first step,” Smith said. “After it is entirely up to the individual to remain nicotine free.”

Although there is always a chance of relapse, QuitCore follows up with participants six months after the program, looking for past members who still require further help.

Tracy Chalaturnyk, of Alberta Health Services, said that although the program boasts impressive statistics for quitting smoking, QuitCore is always trying to improve.

“QuitCore has continued to evolve and grow to the program that it currently is through its participants’ feedback and evaluations of the program, as well as new research on the best practices to quit smoking,” said Chalaturnyk

The program generally has older participants, ranging from 50-60, but QuitCore plans to have a more diverse group.

QuitCore is planning to expand the program into other provinces and to inform post secondary institutions across the province.

“Expanding to post secondary schools will expose QuitCore to a younger group of smokers,” said Chalaturnyk.

More than 7,000 Albertans have quit smoking through QuitCore and the Tom Baker Cancer Centre program.

The program is offered only to persons over 18 because other programs, such as Kick the Nic, are targeting youth smokers.

QuitCore started on Jan. 26 and involves eight 90-minute sessions over 14 weeks, and goes from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesdays.

Some students at SAIT are finding better ways to spend money in a thrifty way with Valentine’s Day just around the corner.

It is that time of year again, the red colored hearts, the flowers, and the cards, which speak in volumes about the generosity of someone’s heart. As this special day in February approaches rather quickly, some students are finding different ways to celebrate this day without forking out a large amount of money.

The newspaper you are holding in your hands is a history-making collaboration between students in the DGC and journalism programs at SAIT.

 

SAIT reassured staff and faculty that construction plans are looking bright and on schedule, in an information luncheon held at the Orpheus Theatre on Jan. 28.

 

Wayne King, SAIT’s CFO and vice president-capital and corporate services, is positive about the progress and the future outcome of the project.

Is Valentine’s Day about sharing that special moment with the person you love unconditionally, that breath-taking kiss, or that endearing poem that just lights up your world?

Or is it a day filled with pressure, money and bogus ways to show your feelings toward the person you’re with, for just that one single day a year?

This celebration started in the name of Saint Valentine back in the 1800’s, in both Christian and ancient Roman traditions, when lovers expressed their feelings for each other by sending Valentine’s cards, presenting flowers or offering confectionery.

The Olympics in Vancouver will be a global spectacle viewed on television by billions worldwide.

But avid hockey fan and perpetual volunteer, Wes Jamieson, will be close enough to see condensation on the glass as 12 nations battle for Olympic hockey supremacy.