Rashes of vehicle thefts, break and enters and drug raids plaguing the news in recent weeks can take its toll on a community.
With the recent criminal activity in Cochrane, it can be easy to lose sight of the small-town community feel this town still has.
Weekends like the one past remind us, that our prairie Alberta roots are still strong.
Thousands spent the weekend enjoying the 50th instalment of the Cochrane Lions Rodeo, lined up for daily pancake breakfasts, including Labour Day’s Activettes fundraising breakfast at Northstar Ford.
Full bellies, live music and a visit from Wish I May Princesses and other special guests such as Batman helped stave off the cooler temperatures before thousands lined the parade route to watch community and guest floats entertain the crowds.
Labour Day weekend, Canada Day weekend and similar days chockfull of community-oriented events reminds us how important community is.
With the staggering growth Cochrane has experienced over the past decade – the population has jumped by nearly 12,000 since 2006 – a lot has changed. We have many of the problems not unique to large and growing urban centres.
Traffic pressures, increased property crime and more people who work outside of the community. With that it can be easy to lose sight of what makes Cochrane unique and the elements that bind it together.
Events like those this past weekend are only one example of the many opportunities for friends and neighbours to get together, reacquaint and support each other.
Aside from special events, Cochrane also has elements such as the Historic Downtown, Cochrane Ranche and numerous recreation spaces that provide ample opportunity to gather and appreciate not only this town’s beauty but its history as well.
While it can be easy to become jaded, we should try to keep sight of the many positives Cochrane still has and not only embrace them but use them as tools to help fight the negatives.
Cochrane’s growth, while it comes with its downsides, is a product of people wanting to share the prosperity, stability and hometown feel Cochrane has to offer.
As Cochrane grows, there is no reason we can’t hang on to the elements that longtime Cochranites know and love and that draw new people to town.
Through encouraging the retention and development of our historic areas such as Historic Downtown and events such as the Cochrane Lions Rodeo, we can continue to be the type of community we can all be proud of.
At a small-city size of just short of 25,000 people, Cochrane might be growing but this past weekend showed that we still hang onto our small-town feel – there are just more of us to share that with.
