SADDLE LAKE – Saddle Lake is a community where traditions run deep. One of its most cherished traditions is the Annual Baby Celebration, held each January at the local Health Care Centre, in celebration of the new life of babies in its community.
The celebration, which has been running for the past 13 years, is also an opportunity to bring small families together to socialize and visit each other, according to Gloria White, health representative at the Saddle Lake Health Centre in a statement to Lakeland This Week.
“We will look forward in the near future to come together as one,” said White.
This year, Dior Rosalie Iverson-Houle is Saddle Lake’s 2023 New Year's baby, welcomed approximately at 2:13 a.m. by parents Miika Whiskeyjack and Dawson Iverson-Houle on Jan. 8 at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, according to information from the Saddle Lake Health Care Centre.
The Saddle Lake Health Care Centre gifted Dior with a crib and mattress, highchair, stroller, jumper, bouncy chair, play pen, tub, blanket, clothes, shampoo, body wash, pampers and wipes.
During the celebration, all the 44 babies born in 2022 were also honoured by Saddle Lake’s Elder Carl Quinn “with a song with the drum, and prayer and blessing for a good life,” said White. “We also have three rainbow babies in our community.”
The celebration also came with a feast, where community members shared a meal. It was a lively and joyful celebration, as games were played for the dads like “baby bottle sucking and baby food.” White said the dads “didn’t enjoy the baby food but ate it anyways.”
“They also won cash prizes for the games which made it exciting,” she said. Photos and T-shirts were also given to families during the event.
White also thanked all those who helped during the event, including “cook Teddy Cardinal and his crew for the awesome meal,” as well as “Natalie Wood and her crew” for the “amazing job.”
White concluded by wishing families to continue living a “good healthy life” with their babies, and “to be happy, kind and to love one another.”
“Remember that I’m always here to help the best way I can,” she said, and thanked everybody who came out at the celebration.
