2015 Newsletter
ARROW LAKES HISTORICAL SOCIETY
written by David Coleman
We wish to extend to all a late but happy and good New Year!
1. Requests from far and wide for assistance continues and we are happy to be able to help – over 600 from as far away as England and the U.S. Many have come from emails from people who have looked at our website. If you have not looked at our upgraded site for a while, check it out- www. alhs-archives.com
2. Grants: We are very grateful for the Grants we received in 2014. These are much needed for equipment for our new building and for Kyle’s wages. Grants included B.C. Gaming ($6000); Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance – CKCA ($4000) to digitize photos. We have over 15,000 photos digitized so far and we are finally using up the CKCA 2009 grant of $20,000 for furniture and equipment; NACFOR ($6,000) and Nakusp Foundation ($500) for our entrance sidewalk. We thank Rosemarie and staff for all the hard work they have done to prepare and follow up the applications for these grants. We also wish to thank all of the volunteers who have contributed over a total of 2000 hours to our Society this year!
3. Highlights & Events in 2014:
- Our Opening Ceremony & Ribbon Cutting for our new building was held on April 5th with over 80 people attending. A surprise and much needed cheque for $9000 was presented to Rosemarie by Paul Peterson from the RDCK. We thank all those who helped with the heavy move of maps, file cabinets, books, binders and furniture, from our old offices to our new building in February.
- Our AGM was held in April at our new building. Bruce Rohn’s photos were a big success as was Greg Nesteroff’s post card collection.
- We hosted the AGM for the Heritage Foundation of South East B.C. at our new building in September.
- Our field trip this year was to Birds Landing and Old Arrow Park. Members and guests toured the sites of these pioneer communities in September and enjoyed a picnic lunch at the Old Arrow Park Memorial Grounds. Booklets showing maps and notes about these places were prepared by Ollie Roberts, Kyle and David and were given to participants.
- Kyle prepared and presented many Slide Shows on the history of Nakusp and the Arrow Lakes. Presentations were given at the Archives, the Seniors Centre and Selkirk College. The shows are for education and are also used to raise funds for the Society.
- Ken Williams and Kyle presented a slide show on the 100th Anniversary of WW1 held at the Archives and a slide show on the 70th Anniversary of D Day at the Legion.
- A DVD on the MINTO, done by Milton, is now available. The 10 minute video can be purchased for $5.
- An 80 inch TV and sound system was purchased and installed for our slide shows.
- Our members volunteered at many fundraising and promotional events for the ALHS including Meat Draws at the Legion, Bingo and Silent Auction, PALS “Creative Hands” Craft Fair, the sale of used books, and slide shows.
4. Upcoming Events and Activities for 2015:
- A Celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the ALHS will be held on Saturday, January 24 from 1:00 to 5:00 at the new Archives. The actual date of our Anniversary was in December, 2014 but it was too busy a time of year to hold the celebration then. We hope all members and many others from the community can attend.
- Our AGM will be held on Friday, April 10 from 1-5 p.m. We encourage all to come and bring friends if you wish. The BC Gaming Grant requires that we send in the AGM minutes and want to see a good attendance of members at the meeting. We are hoping Hal Wright from Sandon will speak about Sandon’s history. It is possible that our field trip for 2016 will be to Sandon.
- A new book on the MINTO is being written by Bruce Rohn and we hope it will be published next year.
- Our field trip for 2015 will be to the old Fauquier and Needles area on September 19th. Peggy is preparing maps for the tour and Bruce and David are adding information about these communities.
- Digitizing Photos: Kyle will be helping four of our members who are interested in learning how to do work with photos. He is continuing to work on thousands of photos by Milton and those donated by several families.
- Landscaping of our entrance with a garden of plants and bushes is planned for the Spring.
- The BC History magazine will have a feature article about our Society in the Spring edition.
- Slide Shows: Kyle will be doing more of these in the upcoming year.
Hopefully, you will continue to support our society by keeping up your membership with us.
Memberships are $5 per year, Life Memberships are $50
Meetings are held at our office during the day – the 3rd Thursday of the month at 3 p.m. We don’t meet during the summer or at Christmas but we do have a Christmas party mid-December for members and guests. New members are always welcome.
Our office hours are yearlong – Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10-3, except for 2 weeks during Christmas. We hope that you will visit our office and see what we have and what we have accomplished. Also if you have any archive items or information that you would like to donate, we would appreciate receiving them.
Mailing address: Box 819, Nakusp BC V0G1R0
Phone/Fax: 250-265-0110 Alternate Phone: 250-265-3323
Email address: [email protected] Alternate Email: [email protected]
Website: www.alhs-archives.com
Our location is the new annex to the Nakusp Library and Museum. Our offices are on the second floor. The building is wheelchair accessible and an elevator is available. Our parking lot and entrance are behind the Post Office. Come and visit us!