February 29, 2024

Hello Members and Friends,

I am pretty sure I’ve not put this leap year date on a newsletter before!

We celebrated our 73rd anniversary last Sunday at New Century Restaurant. Attendance was down a bit from last year but those of us who attended had a convivial time. Lana Rodlie was our guest speaker and she talked about the research she had done on the fur trade in the early 1800’s. I loved her book “Keepers of the Garden” when I first read it and, after her talk, I was motivated to read it again. It is one of those books I will read again. If any of you would like to borrow my copy for a good read, just let me know. Thanks to all of you who joined us.

Lana Rodlie

Jon Bartlett and his wife, Rika, were in attendance also. Jon and Rika were instrumental in putting together the BC Historical Federation’s conference in Princeton last summer. We have been invited to host the 2025 conference here in Grand Forks. Jon and Rika answered our questions and gave us their encouragement. They have offered to be our mentors and spoke of the help available from the BCHF. Jon and Rika graced us with a folk song about Grand Forks. The executive has not yet decided about this opportunity but will be deciding soon. We will be looking for volunteer help if we decide to go ahead. What do you think?

BHS Luncheon: Dan, Rika, Jon, Lana, and Joan

We have asked the Boundary Woodworkers to build a memorial bench for Al Donnelly. It will be placed in front of Gladys’ cabin at Jewel Lake. As mentioned previously, we will hold a memorial for Al in conjunction with our annual picnic in August. The Woodworkers are busy building the smaller picket fences to go in the Upper Cemetery. Bob McTavish showed us the style at our last meeting, and they look excellent. Come spring, the pickets will be installed, along with the cement crosses. Malcolm Anderson’s pickets will have a different style. His headstone is pretty-well ready – just need to have the plaque attached. I will be getting a plaque for Al’s memorial bench soon.

Les Johnson kindly supplied a microphone and speaker for our luncheon’s guest speaker on Sunday. Les, Mickey, and Doreen have volunteered to be the Report #19 committee. We are still trying to obtain the stories Al wrote for the new report. In the meantime, Les is preparing a file so we can send Al’s two books for printing. I have obtained ISBNs for them. We will need to send two copies of each of Al’s books to the Library Archives in Ottawa when we have them done. Les is also working on a PDF for Report #18. Since our printer in Kelowna has gone out of business, I have talked to Hall Printing in Trail about a reprint. We only have about forty copies of Report #18 in stock. This will be the 4th printing of this Report. We are so lucky to have Les on board with these projects.

I have sent out forty-two notices for membership renewal and our members have been responding with e-transfers, cash, and cheques. Thanks to all of you who have renewed already and hoping we will hear from a few more members in the next week or so.

We received our invite to Founders’ Days in Greenwood on July 13th and 14th, 2024. I will be sending off the form with a cheque this week. Registration fee is $50.00 – same as last year.

We received a great email from Chris Trudeau this morning. Chris is managing Gladys’ Floyd’s estate. He let us know that the final person he had to contact has been in touch with him. Now it will go through the courts again and he is hoping that he can distribute Gladys’ estate in the next few months. I will keep you updated.

Our next regular meeting is on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 – 1 p.m. at the Boundary Woodworkers Guild meeting room. We are so very thankful for all the help they give us. So great to have this partnership.

In history,

Doreen Sorensen

Secretary