Haysboro and other communities celebrate history

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Haysboro and other communities celebrate history

Postby newsposter » Wed Jul 30, 2008 10:37 am

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/new ... 3da5c900ec


The story of a Community
Book projects capture heritage

Pamela McDowell For Neighbours

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Back in 1958, the new community of Haysboro was a sea of mud.

"There was no pavement, no telephones and no power," says Pat Minton, a long-time Haysboro resident and part of the committee gathering stories for a book on the community's history. "A lot of the old-timers write about the mud that year. And the windows. One woman wrote an entire story about the windows."

Residents concluded that the Pearson windows that were used in Keith-built homes in the community must have been designed for a different climate, perhaps California. The four panes of glass slid in wooden troughs and could easily be lifted out to clean both sides, without going outside or using a ladder.

"But they are so heavy!" says Minton, whose daughter's Haysboro home still has these original windows. "And heaven help you if you don't label the panes as you remove them. If you put them in wrong, they won't slide."

Strangely enough, it's stories like these that unite a community, according to Bob van Wegen, a board member with the Calgary Heritage Initiative and community planner of the Federation of Calgary Communities.

"It may not seem like heritage at the time, but 20 or 30 or even 50 years later, stories like these become part of a shared experience," he says.

Van Wegen applauds projects like the history book that Haysboro is compiling because it requires a real collaboration.

"It creates an opportunity to share stories, to look at what distinguishes (this community) from its neighbours," he says. The process itself helps build a sense of community.

These historical perspectives are very popular among rural communities, with a focus on homesteading and settlement of the area. But many Calgary communities have published similar books. In 2005, the Bowness Historical Society published its first community history titled Bowness: Our Village in the Valley, after almost four years of work compiling stories and photos. The Society is already hard at work on an update due out in 2009.

Haysboro started the ball rolling two years ago by establishing a core of people willing to dedicate themselves to the project. Then they applied for, and received, a federal grant from New Horizons for a senior-driven project.

"Next we began looking into publishers," says Minton, who was delighted to find Jim Beckel, the Alberta rep for Friesens. "He's done hundreds of these books and was a big help in clarifying the process for us."

The publisher provides style guides and detailed information on photo and layout requirements so volunteers with no publishing experience can produce a book. After distributing 2,000 brochures to community residents, the stories began coming in.

"Every story is different," says Dorothy Block, also on the Haysboro committee. "We interview people who don't feel confident recording it themselves. Everybody's story is different and important."

Block admits it has been difficult to trace people who have moved away and requests that former Haysboro residents contact the committee through the community website, www.haysboro.org.

Block has also unearthed some contentious issues in Hayboro's past, like the early presence of two community halls, a kindergarten program that developed irksome enrolment requirements, and development near the Glenmore Reservoir.

"Everybody's story that has anything to do with hockey talks about the outdoor ice we have here in Haysboro. It's the best in the city."

Now, at about half-way through the process, the committee is looking at putting the book together. Family stories and hundreds of photos must be combined with articles on the general history of Haysboro, its development and issues specific to the community.

The Calgary Public Library is an excellent source of information for community history questions.

"We see a lot of queries from groups like Haysboro," says Carolyn Ryder, librarian in the Local History Room on the fourth floor of the Central Library. "Communities established in the mid-20th century are coming up on significant anniversaries and are doing their histories."

The Glenbow Museum archives and University of Calgary libraries have much of the same material, but Ryder believes the Calgary Public Library has the most extensive and browsable collection.

"We help people quite a bit," she says. "They feel comfortable coming to us."

Ryder explains that the room is a locked collection because it houses many old, fragile and difficult to replace items. Communities that publish their histories often give one copy to the public library and it will be found in this room, out of circulation and in little danger of getting lost.

Geneology is a big part of the local history collection and electronic databases are available through the library's website. The growing awareness of community history has also prompted an increase in local history programming since 2005, according to Ryder.

The Community Heritage Roundtable is a series of meetings where community groups and heritage interests can exchange ideas. "It's a very informal way of finding out what communities are doing in regards to heritage," says van Wegen. Past topics have included community heritage partnerships, cultural landscapes, heritage trees, and Calgary's new heritage strategy.

The Calgary Heritage Initiative's website, www.calgaryheritage.org, provides information on the next roundtable meeting as well as postings about the variety of heritage projects Calgary communities are working on.

Haysboro's book is a common way for a community to gather and begin discussing heritage in a focused way. According to van Wegen, the book can also become the springboard to many more heritage projects.

"The book is a great source of information that the community association can mine. It can provide stories for the newsletter for years to come. It can help identify places in the community they want to preserve."

"There are lots of projects we could do," says Block, sounding a little weary. "But right now we're looking forward to a book launch in June 2009. I hope it's a big party."

© The Calgary Herald 2008
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Postby newsposter » Mon May 25, 2009 4:34 pm

The Haysboro 50th anniversary book: Haysboro Reflections 1958-2008 will be launched June 13 at Haysboro Community Centre. Call 403-253-1563 if you want a copy. There is a story on the front page of the May newsletter of the Federation of Calgary Communities:

http://www.calgarycommunities.com/FCCSe ... 052009.pdf

Calgary Real Estate News article, April 23, 2009
http://www.cren.ca/content_view?CONTENT ... dy+Stephen

Brentwood is starting a similar history project... info to follow...



Wildwood scrapbook project:

(from the Feb 2009 Wildwood Warbler)
http://www.wildwoodcommunity.com/www/wa ... Feb_09.pdf

DO YOU HAVE MORE INTERESTING NEW TREASURES FOR THE
WILDWOOD SCRAPBOOKS?

MORE WILDWOOD MEMORABILIA ARE BEING COLLECTED for the UPCOMING ENCORE VIEWING OPPORTUNITY (TBD)

Mara Riordon, Maxwell Canyon Creek, your
Resident Realtor, is once again busily working
on the Wildwood Scrapbooks in order to have
them up-to-date and available for an upcoming
viewing planned for sometime in the first half of
2009!

Many people at this time of year are going
through things that they have in their homes to
make space for new things, because they are
moving, downsizing, or preparing for the New
Year. If you have anything in your home, or
another family member’s home, having to do
with Wildwood history (i.e. old Warblers, event
tickets, photographs, team rosters, interesting
documents, etc.) that you would like to
contribute to this effort to have forever
preserved, please call Mara at 403-836-3383 or
email her at mriordon@maxwellrealty.ca. She
will pick-up, copy and return the items to you if
you would like them returned. They will then be
added to the existing scrapbooks, which she has
already worked on for over a thousand hours.
These books are very interesting and full of
wonderful Wildwood memories. She is looking
forward to hearing from you soon and seeing
you at the upcoming viewing opportunity.

Hounsfield Heights-Briar Hill

A bit of information on a project in Hounsfield Heights-Briar Hill - excerpted from an article in Calgary Real Estate News:

http://www.cren.ca/content_view?CONTENT ... UE_ID=2704

Excerpt from "Glenbow great source of community archives"
Community Ties | Vol. 27 No. 4 | January 22, 2009

...Linda McKinnon of the Hounsfield Heights Briar Hill Community Association sits on the history committee. She says they were able to trace people and events dating back to 1910, but relied heavily on material that was in the personal possession of past and president residents in addition to photos and information they found at the Glenbow.

“We had the first newsletters, debentures that were sold to raise money to start the community and sports teams, newspaper clippings,” says McKinnon, who also hosts a community history website. “We learned so much about our community--about how hard people worked to put parks in place, the Bethany Care Centre and the North Hill Shopping Centre. I mean, Riley Park was land donated to the city. I think city council forgets things like that. City council changes but the people in the community live on. They know the lessons learned.”

McKinnon says once historical material was reviewed, it was packed up and donated to the Glenbow. She advises new communities to keep track of everything.

“Don’t throw it out. People will want to know what was happening, what life was like and what lessons you learned. One day, city council can learn from the decisions that were made in your community,” she urges...
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