On April 17 Dundurn celebrated their 100th anniversary with the opening of their new maintenance shop located north of Dundurn.
The emcee for the afternoon was Cynthia Block. She is a Dundurnite and stated that she was very happy to be able to be here for this event. Her father Henry Block was former reeve of the R.M.
The reeve and councillors and invited guests were piped into the shop by Greg McKay, son of Eldon McKay, mayor of the Resort Village of Shields. The piper was sad to admit he should have been in kilts, but they were too small for him. Marching in with the council were former reeves, Peter Neufeld, Ron Lamabe and Henry Block. The only other surviving reeve is Vern Lindberg and he was unable to attend.
A former administrator, Jack Dubenen, was able to attend.
The contractor, Doug Lyons and his family were in attendance and Reeve Fred thanked him for the excellent building.
Cynthia also introduced the Reeve Fred Wilson and his wife Joan, councillors, Werner Falk and his wife Vera, Wayne Oleniuk and his wife Barb, Glenn Cline and his wife Norma, Fred Baran and his wife and Rick King. Our foreman Travis Libke and his family were in attendance. Our operators Barry Ambler and his wife Fran and Dwayne King and his wife Glenna and their children were present. Our administrator Vi Barna and her husband Zolie and our assistant administrator Cassy Lindberg-Scott and her family were present.
Cynthia introduced the dignitaries. They were the Honourable Lynne Yelich, MP for Blackstrap, Greg Brkich, MLA for Arm River, and Don Morgan, MP for Saskatoon East.
Cynthia introduced Richard Porter, SARM Division 5 Director. Also present were the Reeve of Rosedale-Hanley, Nick Patkau and his wife Erma and the Mayorof the Resort Village of Shields and his wife. Major Bob Barrett and his wife Wanda were representing the local military base.
Shannon Libke and her children, Leah and Kennidi Libke sat at a very beautiful leather tooled guest book made by Stan Korchinski of Saskatoon.
The Prairie Spirit senior band played "O Canada".
The ribbon cutting was done by Henry Block and Peter Neufeld holding the ribbon and it was cut by former senior Reeve Ron Lamabe.
Lynne Yelich brought greetings from the Prime Minister and Don Morgan brought greetings from his constituency.
The band then played numerous numbers for us. The band made up of grade 8 to 12 students in the school district has been selected to go to Ottawa to perform at the National Band Festival. The centrepieces were auctioned off and the funds from that amounting to $365 was donated to them. The R.M. also presented them with a cheque for their trip.
Charlotte Pryor-MacGregor representing the Royal Bank at Hanley was in attendance.
Before the entertainment we were treated to some excellent desserts made by Nicole.
We had Betty Gjevre and Sandra Graham favor us with some old-time music. They sang and Sandra accompanied them on the guitar. Then we had the delightful singing of "Bald Prairie" consisting of the four Freeden brothers, Warren, Wes, Kevin and Darryl. They are great singers and we enjoyed their western music.
Ted and Sharon Lehn and Per Vinding favoured us with some songs. She plays the autoharp and Ted plays the guitar. We were then very honoured to have Per Vinding do some whistling for us. He has won many awards for his whistling in Branson. They also sang a song Per had written especially for the occasion.
After some visiting we were favoured with an excellent catered roast beef supper. Grace was said by Ted Lehn.
To entertain the children, we had Norma Edmunds do face painting and an excellent clown, who made the most wonderful balloon animals. They also had drinks and snacks for the children.
There were many door prizes donated by the councillors and local businesses. Councillor Rick King thanked the many sponsors.
After supper, Reeve Fred Wilson thanked everyone including Lynne Yelich for the over 20 million dollars she has been able to get for our R.M. We have gotten many grants for water and other work projects.
It was nice to see so many former people from the community at the event.
There were presentations given to the R.M. Greg Brkich gave them a certificate for 100 years and a new Saskatchewan flag. They received a lovely bronzesculpture from the Resort Village of Shields. They also received a certificate from the federal government.
Cassy cut a large beautiful anniversary cake made by Nicole Zacarkiw. It was served to all.
Richard Porter brought greetings from SARM. He presented Fred with a plaque for the R.M. |
