A wild-turkey chase, a sprinting senior, a snoozing coyote: Manitoba's best good-news stories of 2019

It was an interesting year for news in Manitoba. We celebrated the Golden Boy's 100th birthday. Winnipeg welcomed the Valour FC, a new professional soccer team. A Manitoba-born scientistwon the Nobel Prize in physics.

We scoured the archives to find some of the province's most memorable stories that made us smile in 2019. Then weenlisted Winnipeg-based artistKailey Sheppard to illustrate some of 2019's best good-news stories.

Here are some of our favourites from 2019.

Coyote behind the wheel

What do you do when you accidentally hit a coyote with your car, knocking it unconscious?

1. Feel guilty.
2. Check for vitals.
3. Leave it where it lies and hope for the best.
4. Pick it up, load it into your car, go to work as plannedand later discover a fully conscious coyote in your car.

In late November, a Manitoba man chose Option 4.

The good news? The coyote was safely removed from the car and recovered from the accident at theWildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre.

Here's the full story.

Love-struck turkeys

A trio of wild turkeys apparently on the hunt for love roamed aroundOsborne Village in March. The trio became Instagram famous. Spotting the posse and posting pictures on social media became sport.

Meanwhile on a farm in Anola, Man., Fernando the therapy turkey spent his days cozying up to strangers for snugglesand easing the stress of visitors on a petting farm and animal rescue. Here's the full story.

Pay-it-forward pizza

In May, a North End Winnipeg takeout pizza place used sticky notes and the generosity of strangers to help feed hungry people who couldn't afford their food.

Customers at SFC Pizzeriastarted donating$1 each and writingnice messages on sticky notes. Customers in need chose sticky notes off the wall to redeemfor a slice of pizza.

The pay-it-forward pizza was a big hit. Here's the full story.

Pants for the Grey Cup win

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers won the Grey Cup in November after a 28-year drought. That same day, super fan Chris Matthews put on a pair of pants camo sweatpants for the first time in 18 years.

Matthews had been wearing shorts, save to a few funerals, for nearly two decades, after he told friends he wouldn't wear pants again until the Bombers won the CFL championship.

Now his watch has ended. Here's the full storyand Instagram post.

Stamp and coin for Louis Riel

Louis Riel and the resistance he led to protect Mtisrightsare being honoured by Canada Post and the Royal Canadian Mint.

A special stamp, featuringRiel and his provisional government councillors, along with an image of Upper Fort Garry in the background, was released in November.

A month earlier, the Royal Canadian Mint released a commemorative coin depicting Riel on the 175th anniversary of the Mtis leader's birthday in October.

Here's the stamp story. Here's the coin story.

Kids create reconciliation book

Students at Winnipeg's cole Laura Secord School created kid-friendly versions of the TRC's 94 calls to action with pictures and poems.

The book published in June was a year and a half in the making, and 75 students in grades 4 to 6 contributed to the project.

They rewrote the calls to action in simple language and added their drawings and poems. Here's the full story.

Black bear binges

A startled cabin owner in Victoria Beach discovered a black bear chowing down on desserts inside her veranda in October.

The 400-500 pound bruin helped himself to trays of goodies, set for a Thanksgiving feast. He passed on the pumpkin pie, leaving them with some dessert after the cabin owner scared him away.

Check out the video here. Read the full story.

Refugee-run farm blossoms

A farming project for Yazidi refugees on a half acre has blossomed into an entire farming operation 10 times the size.

In 2018, the 200 refugees started by planting potatoes. Last summer they produced 9,000 kilograms of fruits and vegetables.

The yield was enough to feed themand sell the surplus at local farmers' markets. Here's the full story.

Lightning Lou sprintsto world best

Grandfather Lou Billinkoff, 96,ran the 50-metre-dash in15.61 seconds in June, besting his time the previous year.

His new time also beatthe 16.81 time of American runnerErvin Szewczuga, who had the fastest 2018 runin the 95-99 year old men's category,according to the World Masters Rankings.

Billinkoff was focused on beating his 2018 best time which he did by more than a full second.

"I thought, 'My God, I could easily beat that,' " said Billinkoff, whohugged his family after his triumph at the University of Manitoba. Here's the full story.

From plastic bins to powwow drums

Agroup of young boys from Mathias Colomb Cree Nation in northern Manitoba became stars in September after a video of them drumming on a plastic tote bin with sticks went viral.

The video of the four boyssinging and drumming was posted on Facebook and shared thousands of times.

Strangers offered to replace the tote bin with a real powwow drum. See the video and read the story here.