With
that one simple statement, Wayne LeBelle, publisher of the Valley East
Centennial Book, describes how the Valley East Heritage Committee is
looking at accomplishing the mammoth task of putting 100 years of
history of this great community into a 250 page document.
Three
thousand copies of the book will be ready to go on sale in the spring of
2002 to coincide with the centennial celebrations of the Blezard Valley
Centennial. The books will be sold for $29.95 and it is expected that
many of not all of the copies will be presold prior to the printing
date.
Residents
are still encouraged to submit old photos and stories. The deadline for
submissions is June 15, 2001. You can drop off your contributions to The
Vision Paper at the top of the hill in Hanmer.
A
number of people gathered at the Percy Street Community Centre in the
former Our Lady of Fatima building on May 1 as the Heritage Committee
said thank you to the many volunteers who have been taking “small
bites out of the elephant” during the past couple of years.
Shown
in the accompanying photo are, from the left: Ron Mrochek, Claire Blake,
Leo Burns, Aline Belzile, Roger Simard, Lois Simard, and Claudette
Lahti-Ouwens.
Mrochek
is the Overall Research Coordinator of the project. He has been assisted
by three sub-committee chairpersons, namely: Lois Simard (Blezard
Valley), Fern Gascon (Capreol) and Agathe Dube (Hanmer). To date,
approximately 1500 photos have been gathered. As many as possible will
be used in the book along with small captions or articles to describe
their historical significance.
The
money raised from the sale of the books is going to be used to establish
an historical archive or museum for Valley East. At the present time,
the location is not yet finalized, however, information will be
forthcoming. Some are hoping for the formation of a Heritage Foundation
which will be responsible for raising money to purchase and maintain a
museum building in Valley East. It has been suggested that a location in
a house donated in memory of some key historical personality would be
the ideal setting since it could contain display space as well as office
space for the foundation. Any member of the community who may be
interested in such an idea is asked to drop by The Vision Paper and this
information will be forwarded to the proper people on the Valley East
Heritage Committee for consideration.
For
now, the best news of all is that the book project is “on budget, on
deadline and on target.”