Out Your Way: Delia, AB
Welcome to Delia
On February 2, CBC Calgary drove two hours northeast — across the Red Deer River, through prairie grasslands — and pulled up to a newly built facility, housing a school and municipal library. The team had arrived in Delia, a rural village of approximately 200 residents.
Inside the building, library staff, school faculty and students from kindergarten to grade 12 awaited CBC's arrival. A full schedule of activities had been planned for a day of fun and connection — an opportunity for CBC to learn about Delia, and vice versa.
The morning kicked off with classroom sessions, where students from grades three to six learned about news from a journalist and senior assignment producer. They talked about the daily volume of story options, the different ways to source news, and the importance of community news and how it helps people belong.
After a school-wide assembly in the gymnasium to welcome CBC and kick off the winter festival, students began rotating through activity stations.
At a TV and TikTok station, some students called the shots from behind the camera, while others were in front of the lens, practicing their interviewing and public speaking skills.
Other activities embraced the winter festival theme with hot chocolate and marshmallows, snowman bowling, an outdoor obstacle course and a ski relay race.
While the students kept busy, Delia seniors and other community members chatted with CBC reporters and producers in the library over coffee and pie.
At the community hall later in the evening, 100-plus people gathered — from infants to seniors, and everyone in between. Over beef-on-a-bun dinner, conversations from earlier in the day continued on, with new voices joining in.
After the meal, Delia resident Tom Devaleriola, who regularly calls bingo at the hall, stepped onstage as the caller for winter-themed bingo.
When the evening had wrapped up — the bingo cards collected, the photos taken, and the folding tables collapsed — volunteers offered beef-on-a-bun leftovers to CBC visitors. After spending the day with the people of Delia, it was clear this gesture was a reflection of their warm and generous community spirit.
Thank you, Delia
CBC Calgary is deeply grateful to the people of Delia for welcoming us into their community, and for collaborating on this initiative.
Delia on the airwaves
Out Your Way series
CBC Calgary and CBC Edmonton have been connecting with people from small towns, villages, farms and ranches. By meeting Albertans in their communities, CBC is able to gain new perspectives on community business and service opportunities, agricultural challenges, cultural values, local governance, and the benefits of modern small town life.