November 1, 2016

Hello to all our Members, Life Members and Friends of the Boundary Historical Society;

It’s been a busy time since my last newsletter in August.

We partnered with the Boundary Museum in having a booth at the Grand Forks Fall Fair. As I told you in the September newsletter we were in attendance for three days and had a wonderful time. Personally, I learned a lot about historical artifacts and buildings. Did you know that the emergency escape chute from the hospital located where Overwaitea presently is, was taken to the Pines Bible Camp by Wilbur Bannert when he tore down the hospital? For years it was just “there” but now it has been incorporated into their Challenge Course. One of the murals commissioned by Pat Palmer of the Boundary Park Mall was of the Hospital and included the chute – however, from what I understand, the artist had to work from descriptions. No one seems to have a picture of the hospital with the chute showing. I’ve heard stories of young boys who slid down it while in the hospital. If any of you have a picture of the hospital with the chute, we would love to see it.

Irene Perepolkin and I continued to bake bread as volunteers at the Boundary Museum. The petch can be tricky to bake in but the tourists were always happy with the end results. Everyone seems to love homemade bread and bread baked in a brick oven is especially comforting. We met tourists from many of our Canadian provinces and saw many more tourists from the United States this year. Our “fire makers” Larry, Bill and Anton, managed to impart a lot of historical information to our tourist friends.

In September, Irene was asked to make and sell borscht for Grand Forks’ Annual Harvest Fest for the Boundary Museum. She had help from her daughter, Nancy, and did a riproaring business. I was in attendance, making and “supervising” the baking of my bread along with Irene’s. Along with bread, I made 6 dozen scones outside and Irene made rye bread and kalachi. Mickey Keller-Nadon, our Area E Rep, was also present with delicious goodies from her bakery. Lots of talk and good public relations!!

Irene Perepolkin

Irene Perepolkin

Doreen Sorensen

Doreen Sorensen

The day before our AGM on October 16th, Gladys Floyd and I were up at Jewel Lake picking up another artifact for her article which will be published in Report #17. We met up with Laura Lodder (Area Rep), Betty Talarico – a long time member – and Dorothy Zoellner, one of our Life Members honoured previously for her work with the Society. Dorothy had travelled with her son from Kelowna to visit with Betty and Laura. Dorothy and Betty both taught at GFSS at the same time. I was extremely happy to make Dorothy’s acquaintance. We’ve exchanged emails but were happy to finally meet. Unfortunately, Dorothy couldn’t stay over for our AGM but Les Johnson, our President, kindly took a picture of the three ladies after their lunch.

The following day our Annual General Meeting took place

L - R Betty Talarico, Laura Lodder, Dorothy Zoellner

L – R Betty Talarico, Laura Lodder, Dorothy Zoellner

at the Boundary Museum and Interpretive Centre. It was a wet, dreary day but we had a fairly good turnout – some new faces and many long-time members. It was great to see Life Members Paul and Gloria Lautard in attendance. They had travelled in from Midway. We were once again successful in electing a full board.

President: Les Johnson; Vice-President: Cher Wyers; Treasurer: Jo Ann Sergeant; Secretary: Doreen Sorensen; Directors: Irene Perepolkin and Pat Zorn

Following the meeting 3 people put forth their names as Area Representatives and at our Board Meeting on October 18th, Mickey Keller-Nadon, Laura Lodder and Randi DeLisle were confirmed as our Area Reps/ Directors. The minutes of our AGM are posted on our new website which Les has been working diligently on. Please check it out at boundaryhistory.com. A motion was passed unanimously at the AGM to send copies of our Reports to UBC to be archived and used for research. I have written and sent a letter to them asking if they would accept them. (We figured it’s better to ask before we spend the money on postage!) Jo Ann Sergeant, our Treasurer, handled the financial reports ably and has sent the necessary report to Revenue Canada and I have registered our Society online for this year. Later this month, a committee will meet to discuss the changes we need to make to bring us up to the New Societies Act requirements.

Les had set up a presentation highlighting our new website. Currently, he is running workshops for us each Friday so we can all become familiar with the methods of keeping our website up-to-date. Les “publishes” copies of very old Gazette papers on the site and they make for good reading. Our Reports and their contents are available. We cannot sell books off the site but perhaps in the future we will have that ability. Les dressed in “period?” costume to emphasize the fact that ‘what goes around comes around’ in politics.

2016_agm_refeshments1

Jo Ann Sergeant and Les Johnson

Jo Ann Sergeant and Les Johnson

Both pictures were taken by Lorraine Van Boeyen. Thanks, Lorraine!

 

At our Board meeting on November 18th, Les had good news for us. He had received an email from our RDKB rep, Roly Russell, stating that he was ready to approve a grant-in-aid of $2000.00 to help us in the restoration and management of Phoenix Cemetery and Vicky Gee, RDKB, Area E Rep, was also going to present us with $2000.00 with the same purpose in mind. Les, on behalf of the Boundary Historical Society, accepted the offer. Hopefully, next spring will see some improvements at the Cemetery. We have had a couple of assessment and work parties -the weather this fall just hasn’t been conducive to any actual work being performed.

A huge thank you goes out to those members and non-members who have submitted articles for our 17th Report. Laura Lodder and her committee are hard at work trying to pull it together in order for Les to perform his magic.

Just a quick reminder that our membership fees are now due on a calendar year basis. Hopefully, those of you who have not sent in your membership fees ($10.00 single/ $15.00 couple) will mail them in and save me a bit of work!!

Historically yours!

Doreen Sorensen – Secretary
Boundary Historical Society
Box 2346, Grand Forks, B.C. V0H 1H0