Tag: happy

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Kingsville Highland Games organizers ‘quite happy’ with event turnout

Kingsville Highland Games organizers 'quite happy' with event turnout


Thousands of people flocked to Lakeside Park in Kingsville Saturday for the return of the Highland Games. 


“After COVID everybody is looking to get out and get their yayas out and this gives an opportune event to get outside and mix it up with everybody. It’s good to see the crowd,” said attendee Jeff Coulter.


Fans of the games lined up to watch various events spread out through Lakeside Park.


“It’s so vital that people get out,” said Essex MP Chris Lewis. “Mental health is such a major issue that so many of us are facing so events like this get people outside, get people outdoors and get to enjoy a conversation again.”


Doug Plumb, chair of the event said not being able to build on the momentum created after the inaugural event three years ago was disheartening but is happy the tough side of the pandemic seems to be in the rear view mirror.


“A lot of people are in town, really wanted to get out and have some fun and they’re here,” he said.


Those people were uptown sparking the local economy before making their way to the waterfront park.


“It really does celebrate the strength we have together collectively and celebrating the success for businesses that have worked hard and tirelessly to make it through,” said Mayor Nelson Santos.  


Organizers were anticipating well over 5,000 people for the one-day event.


“(In) 2019 people loved it. A lot of people said I regret that we couldn’t make it for whatever reason and they’re here today. There was a lot of buzz around town about this,” said Plumb.  


There was a buzz in the park throughout the day.


The tug of war had the large crowd electrified many times. Sherry Coulter loved it.


“The tug of war was worth the price of admission,” she said.


Mitchel Colomba was one of the tug of war athletes who fed off the energy from the crowd.


“This is a real great opportunity for us to come out and practice and the comradery amongst the crowd. This is really awesome,” he said.


There was food, entertainment, dance competitions, heritage and culture to appreciate. “


The thought of it being like history is quite important,” said 94-year-old Hugh McDonald.  


Former CTV anchor Jim Crichton served as MC on the main stage. He celebrated his heritage by wearing a tartan made in Scotland.


“I wear this in honour of my late father,” said Crichton, whose dad was born in Scotland. “I had it made a year after he passed away so it’s very special to me.”


This was a special event for Santos who is not seeking re-election in October. He took part in a Haggis throwing competition against local mayors for the last time.


Although he didn’t repeat as champ, he is proud to have been part of an event he feels is set up for long-term success.


“The experience you get to have here hands-on is like no other and that is what is going to drive success forward,” Santos said. 

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Takotsubo Syndrome Also Linked to Happy Life Events

Takotsubo Syndrome Also Linked to Happy Life Events

Takotsubo syndrome, a condition that’s also been called “broken heart syndrome,” can be triggered by both positive and negative life stressors, especially in men, a new study suggests.

The findings show that although Takotsubo syndrome, a type of acute heart failure related to atypical patterns of transient left ventricular contraction abnormalities, is often triggered by negative emotional stressors, it can also stem from positive life events, something the researchers are calling “happy heart syndrome.”

In this registry study, males were more likely to experience Takotsubo syndrome from a positive life event, as were those with atypical, nonapical ballooning, report Thomas Stiermaier, MD, of the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein in Lübeck, Germany, and colleagues.

Patients with negative and positive emotional triggers experienced similar short- and long-term outcomes, they found.

The results were published online May 4 in the JACC: Heart Failure.

Previous studies have shown that Takotsubo syndrome can be related to negative emotional triggers, physical triggers such as heavy physical activity or medical procedures (or, in some cases, neither of these), or even a combination of emotional and physical triggers, the authors say. Research shows that physical triggers are most often linked to poor outcomes.

A vast number of clinical scenarios may lead up to Takotsubo syndrome, noted Jason H. Rogers, MD, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center, commenting on these findings.

“Examples would include other medical illness, such as infection or recent surgery, having a heated argument with someone, running to catch a flight at the airport, and even being awakened suddenly by a sick pet,” Rogers told theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology.

But not all patients experience unhappy life stressors before these events occur, he added. “It is possible for patients to have happy life stressors that can lead to Takotsubo syndrome also.”

For this analysis, the research team evaluated 2482 patients using data from the multicenter GErman-Italian-Spanish Takotsubo (GEIST) Registry, one of the largest of its kind. Of these patients, 910 experienced an emotional trigger; of these, 873 had negative preceding events, and 37 had pleasant preceding events. The mean age was about 70 years in both groups.

The study team then compared patients with negative emotional triggers to those with positive emotional triggers, which included weddings, the birth of grandchildren, birthday parties, or anticipation of a trip or Christmas.

There was a 1.5% incidence of pleasant emotional triggers among all Takotsubo syndrome patients.

Among patients with positive prior triggers, there was a higher incidence of atypical ballooning (27.0% vs 12.5%; P = .01), and a higher percentage of these patients were male (18.9% vs 5.0%; P < .01) in comparison with those with negative events prior to Takotsubo syndrome.

Long-term death rates (8.8% vs 2.7%; P = .20) and rates of in-hospital complication outcomes, including cardiogenic shock, stroke, death, or pulmonary edema (12.3% vs 8.1%; P = .45), were similar for patients with negative preceding events and for those with positive preceding events.

Study limitations include that it cannot provide insight into the specific mechanisms of Takotsubo syndrome, it was observational, the sample size of patients in the positive events group was small, and the contributing research facilities assessed cardiac biomarker levels differently.

“Additional research efforts are needed to explore whether numerically lower cardiac-related event rates in patients with happy heart syndrome would be statistically significant in a larger sample size,” the researchers conclude.

Stiermaier reports no relevant financial relations.

JACC Heart Fail. Published online May 4, 2022. Full text

Ashley Lyles is an award-winning medical journalist. She is a graduate of New York University’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program. Previously, she studied professional writing at Michigan State University, where she also took premedical classes. Her work has taken her to Honduras, Cambodia, France, and Ghana and has appeared in outlets such as The New York Times Daily 360, PBS NewsHour, The Huffington Post, Undark, The Root, Psychology Today, Insider, and Tonic (Health by Vice), among other publications.

For more news, follow Medscape on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

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Kiwanis Club of Penticton’s Easter Hop Along sees happy kids, has more events coming soon – Penticton News

Kiwanis Club of Penticton's Easter Hop Along sees happy kids, has more events coming soon - Penticton News

Successful event for the kids

Three hundred and four kids came through the sold-out Penticton Easter Hop-Along all with ‘happy smiles’ through the Safety Village collecting treats last Saturday.

The Kiwanis Club of Penticton partnered with the Penticton Safety Village to host this outdoor event, which also collected food donations for Fill the Food Gap Penticton. Plenty of local businesses were also in attendance.

“I think the event went very well, very smoothly. Going on the Halloween event, it was organic. It just went really well,” Kiwanis member Stormie Holland said. “All the sponsors were right behind everything.”

The ongoing success of the event only makes the Kiwanis team excited for their future plans.

“We have loose plans right now for something during the summer,” Greg Holland, Kiwanis club president said, adding that they’re hoping to put an event together in the park.

“I think we will have something during the summer. And certainly next Halloween will be our next major kids event.”

Total Restoration and Castanet’s colouring contest is still going on, with a chance to win one of three gift baskets. Participants have until April 29 to enter. Full instruction on the colouring page online here.

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Covid changes: Hospitality NZ disappointed, events sector happy

Covid changes: Hospitality NZ disappointed, events sector happy

Hospitality businesses are upset that the Government’s relaxation of Covid-19 health measures does not go far enough.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today announced the Government would lift vaccine mandates for a number of sectors including teaching and police from April 4 as the current Omicron outbreak nears its peak.

Vaccine passes would also no longer be mandatory to visit restaurants, coffee shops and other public spaces.

Hospitality NZ said while the end to mandates for staff and vaccine passes for customers is welcome news for its sector, increasing the capacity cap to 200 for indoor settings will make little difference for larger venues.

“Why 200? It’s nonsensical,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“The cap should be pinned to the capacity of the venue. Lifting it will not work for bars and other night venues. The seated model does not work for them, even with a higher cap.”

It said these businesses have higher labour costs to police the existing public health measures, and have been among the worst affected by the two-year-long pandemic with no extra support from the Government.

“Businesses are running out of patience.”

It accused the Government of haphazard planning, and was unhappy that some changes would not take effect until April 4.

The criticism was echoed by Heart of the City, which represents Auckland businesses.

It wanted a move away from the red traffic light setting (which will be retained until at least April 4).

Without this, there would no major indoor events; bars and nightclubs would not operate properly, and workers would not return in great numbers to the CBD.

Chief executive Viv Beck said: “Changes announced today will make a difference – but confirmation of a shift away from red would have made a major difference for planning and confidence amongst our businesses.”

She is pushing for targeted wage subsidies to support some businesses.

However, the changes are being welcomed by the events sector.

Business Events Industry Aotearoa chief executive Lisa Hopkins said the reduction of restrictions is a further move in the right direction after the border reopening was announced last week.

She said confidence has been at an all-time low since attendance at indoor events was capped at 100 people in August last year.

Hopkins said organisers of up to 100 international conferences and events are waiting to confirm bookings for New Zealand.

“Event organisers in Australia are telling us they want to bring their client business back to New Zealand.

“The positive messages from the Prime Minister today will now drive a sense of surety as we work towards fewer restrictions.”

Act unimpressed 

Act leader David Seymour accused Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of feeding “the fear factory” with today’s announcement.

“We’ve done the mahi, but we have to wait for visitors to arrive to get the treats. Waiting until 5 April for vaccine passes and mandates to go makes no sense. They should go immediately.”

He also criticised the 200-seat capacity for indoor settings, which would provide little relief for hospitality venues.

“New Zealanders are fed up. It’s time to move on. The traffic light system should go. We don’t need small tweaks; we need real change.”

National’s Covid-19 spokesman Chris Bishop welcomed the announcement, saying the Government had “finally caught up with reality”, but said the end of vaccine passes called into question the relevance of the traffic light system.

“The Government would be better to ditch the whole thing and create some simple rules around masks and perhaps venue limits, rather than persist with a complicated colour-code system that has never been used properly and that barely anyone understands.”

It should also signal a timeline for abolishing the remaining mandates, he said.

“After two tough years, it’s time to get back to normality and start thinking positively about the future.”

– additional reporting by Reuters 

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‘It was a pretty exciting and happy event’: Paramedics deliver baby on Highway 21

'It was a pretty exciting and happy event': Paramedics deliver baby on Highway 21


A Sherwood Park couple welcomed their newest addition on the side of Highway 21 with the help of local paramedics.


Baby Emi was born safe and healthy in the back of a Strathcona County ambulance on March 9.


Lee Dombrosky was one of the firefighter/advance care paramedics on shift when the call came in from Emi’s mom.


“We met up with the mom on her way to the hospital and we didn’t quite make it so she delivered baby Emi while we were in the ambulance,” said Dombrosky.


“This is the first one that’s been delivered in the ambulance so it was a pretty exciting and happy event to be a part of,” he said.


Seven crew members from the Strathcona station were on the call together, Dombrosky said it was nice for them to all be a part of it.


“And to welcome a new little one into the world was pretty special,” said Dombrosky.


On Tuesday, Emi and her parents stopped by the fire station to visit the crew on their day shift.


“Sometimes it’s more of… not good events that you’re bringing people into the hospital and once you drop them off you really don’t hear much from them after the fact, so to have the mom and dad stop by with their new baby was a really exciting part of our day.”


Dombrosky said it was one of the more positive calls the crew has done in the past few years.


“After a couple years of being in the pandemic and that sort of thing, it’s been stressful for everybody, so it was fun to be a part of that for sure.”