December 17, 2024

Hello Members and Friends,

Another year almost ending. I hope you are all keeping warm and well this December.

We take a break from meetings in December, but our work does not come to a complete stop!!

Christmas Craft Fairs are a big part of our annual fundraising and Report sales. This year we fit in four. First was the Brown Creek Community Hall Society’s inaugural Craft Sale. What a lovely time we had there renewing acquaintances and meeting new people. Next up was the Grand Forks Secondary School’s huge craft fair which is a fundraiser for the grads. The grade 12s help out and it is always very convivial. Frank Talarico helped out with this craft sale – he loves talking history as much as I do.

The following Saturday saw Jakki Fryer and I heading for Greenwood and the Kettle River Art Club’s Christmas Craft Fair in McArthur Centre. It was a bit of slow day – it snowed the night before and perhaps our customers had to dig themselves out before they could think about Christmas gifts. Jakki and I had an enjoyable time for sure. There was a good number of vendors on hand. Jakki won a Grinch wreath which she was coveting, and I got one of Brigitte Huerzeler’s pictures from their raffle – a little owl Nice!!

December 7th saw Joan Heart and I heading for Rock Creek. Boy, the roads were a sheet of ice, but we made it there safely. Always fun to head west and meet the people of the Boundary there. We had our best sales day. Chatted with Ed and Mary Lautard and were so pleased to visit with Gloria Lautard – she is a Life Member. Art Harfman stopped by and so did Lorri Harpur. So nice to chat with our friends. The trip home was great albeit winter driving conditions.

We brought in over $800.00 in book sales and memberships thanks to these craft fairs.

We had our annual no host Director’s dinner at the Omega on December 6th and it was lovely to get together.

Ted Harrison has resigned from our Board of Directors however he is still keen to help with any of our projects at the Jewel Lake cabin or Phoenix Cemetery. Thanks go out to Ted from all of us for his research efforts, his help with our sales table and his valued input.

Les Johnson is continuing to work on Al’s second book. The first – “Heritage Comes Alive”- has proven to be popular. I had a request yesterday for five of them. We want to finish with Al’s book and then focus on Report #19.

Hoping you have a lovely, peaceful Christmas and we wish you all the best in 2025.

In History,

Doreen