April 29, 2025

Hello Members and Friends,

This has been such a difficult newsletter to begin. The loss of our past president and lifetime member, Les Johnson, hit us all pretty hard. Losing both Les and Al is a big blow to the BHS – they were instrumental in designing and compiling our Reports. I read in Les’ obituary that Les’ family are requesting any donations in his name go to the Liver Foundation. I’m hoping that you consider a donation in his memory. His celebration of life will be on July 17th – his birthday. Will let you know if and when I have more details. Our sincere condolences have been sent to Lorraine and family.

We feel very fortunate that we’ve had such a good number of members renew their memberships this year. This week we received payment from the Alan County Library for the reports they requested.

I’ve signed us up for Founders’ Day – July 19th – and also for the Greenwood Car Show on August 16th.

Saturday, June 14th is our upcoming potluck dinner at Brown Creek Community Hall. Social hour 4 pm, dinner at 5 and then we will view old pictures from the Brown Creek area. We will be mingling with the members of the Brown Creek Community Hall Society. I’ll send an RSVP invite out closer to the date. Hope you will consider attending – a supper dish is the only requirement – and a taste for history.

The Boundary Woodworkers did pick up the table from Gladys’ cabin and are repairing the legs so it can stand without aid, and we can move it around. Big thanks to the Woodworkers for all they do to help us with the caretaking.

Some of us are making a trip up to the cemetery on Tuesday, May 13th – want to check for necessary repairs – particularly to the IOOF fence and Jakkie and I are going to try to get rubbings of the wooden grave markers so we can identify who they belong to. We’ll take our Phoenix booklets with us. Our intent is to add an identifying plaque to these graves so that all visitors will know whose plot it is.

Not sure but I think we’ll need to get the grass cut at Jewel Lake – Bob McTavish said they had to dig their way through snow that had fallen from the roof to get the table. We want to get Al’s bench put out for the season, too. We are considering ways to honour Les’ memory.

I haven’t had a note from Paige but I noticed that the new URL to get to our reports at the UBC Archives is functional. https://bcrdh.ca/bcrdh/bhs

Attended the Grand Forks ATV Club’s Spring Fling last Saturday at the empty lot by Pursuit Sport. Bob, Jakkie and Tony all helped to set the tent up and all the accoutrements. Joan dropped by – she was a guest speaker. She read from BHS Report 1 about the Rock Creek Rebellion – nicely done, Joan. Didn’t sell anything but one shopping bag but we had a good time – the weather was lovely, and it was the beginning of our new season. Thanks to Doug Zorn and his crew for inviting us and for all the help.

Our next regular meeting is on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 – 1 pm . It will depend on the weather and the Kettle whether we are in City Park in the tenting area or back at the Woodworkers. Stay tuned.

In History,

Doreen Sorensen

Secretary

Some pictures to remember Les by – left – Les, Lorraine and “Willy” at one of our Jewel Lake picnics; bottom left – Les receiving his Life Membership from Joan. Right and bottom right – Les presenting Bob and the Boundary Woodworkers with a thank you for their work on the picket fences for Phoenix Cemetery and presenting Paul and Gloria Lautard with their Life Memberships Good memories.