The inspiration for Rustic Crust Pizza comes from the traditional Napolatena style pizzas that were made by the Italian families who emigrated to our small city of Trail, British Columbia, in the 1900’s. It didn’t take long for the Italian people to infuse our community with a number of Italian customs, among them a huge passion for traditional Italian pizza, especially those made in authentic wood-fired ovens that were found throughout Italy. For the last century, these local pizza-makers have been producing unique mouth-watering pizzas using the freshest most flavourful ingredients harvested from their own back yard gardens.

Like the best neighborhood restaurants you’ll find worldwide, Trail’s restaurant scene in the past was primarily owned and operated by close-knit families. Their products were more a labour of love than a quick money-making scheme. The resulting pizzas, though most were unaware at the time, were of a world class standard. Though not Italian by any known blood line, the Wiley family, who have called Trail home for four generations, feel they’ve acquired some cultura italiana by osmosis.

Cooking out of a wood-fired oven began for the Rustics at Mirror Lake where Papa Rich, with a little help from friends and family, built their first adobe oven with clay dug from the banks of nearby Kootenay Lake. After a few experiments with chicken, bread and some other goodies, pizza night quickly became the favorite of the family for a little friendly competition, good eats and good times. It was during these evenings that the hunt began for the best crust and toppings they could create, and shortly after they developed a desire to share it with others.

The Wiley’s felt what was missing in Trail’s current culinary scene is authentic Napolatena style pizza — hence, the Rustic Crust.

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Did you know that stress in the workplace accounts for 19% of absenteeism? It also affects 40% of turnover costs, 30% of short and long term disability and 60% of workplace accidents. These numbers are significant to any workplace. If you want to decrease these numbers in your organization and save money in the long-term, you need to invest in professional support to assist employees. Early intervention helps employees stay at work longer or return to work sooner.

Who better to assist than Columbia Valley Counselling Centre Society. They are a local non-profit professional employee and family assistance counseling service located in Trail. The qualified professional counsellors are dedicated to improving the health of your employees. And of course, confidentiality is of utmost importance.

The full service counseling rate is $61 plus GST per full time employee per year. This includes spouses, dependents and retirees. If you are interested in improving your workplace by offering counseling services to your employees, contact CVCCS at 250-368-9118 or email cvccs@telus.net.

The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) branches across Canada provide a wide range of innovative services and support to people who are experiencing mental illness and their families. These services are tailored to the needs and resources of the communities where they are based. One of the core goals of these services is to help people with mental illness develop the personal tools to lead meaningful and productive lives.

CMHA Kootenays was historically involved with the Trail Chamber in order to connect with local employers. They no longer provide employment services in the Trail area, so they rely on the Chamber for support and promotion.

CMHA Kootenays is offering two important training sessions to communities in both the East and West Kootenay region: the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills and Training (ASIST) workshop and the safeTALK workshop. The ASIST workshop is 2 full days, whereas the safeTALK workshop is just a ½ day. Both training sessions require between 8 and 30 participants, and dates and times are flexible.

It would be ideal if most members of a community attended either ASIST or safeTALK training to learn these suicide intervention and suicide alert skills. They hope and believe that both workshops can contribute to suicide-safer communities. This is the beginning of such a great opportunity to make a difference in communities across the East and West Kootenays.

For more information on fees and booking, please contact Patricia Whalen, the Regional Gatekeeper Coordinator for the CMHA Kotenays at 250-426-5222 ext. 3124 or pwhalen@cmhakootenays.org.