Residents from in and around Pelly wrapped up months of interagency planning on July 1 with a celebration of the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
“We had a great time,” said Pelly Mayor Sharon Nelson, who officially opened the event with the singing of O Canada by Sylvia Negraeff and Sara Genaille at the Mackenzie Square Park.
Mayor Nelson and Georgeanne Genaille sang Happy Birthday to Canada.
“A huge thanks to all who volunteered their time to make this event a huge success,” Nelson said. “It was a great community building exercise.”
Many village organizations and individuals collaborated in the planning and management of the day's activities, which began with a morning breakfast benefiting the Pelly Lions Club.
The breakfast was followed by a celebratory parade led by Henry Goodsman of the Regina Conservatory of Performing Artson bagpipes and RCMP Cst. Kim Lam.
Almost 30 parade entries featuring businesses, non-profit and family ventures snaked through the village and then assembled back at the village hall for a Fort Pelly-Livingstone Museum benefit lunch.
Entertainment continued into the afternoon at the hall and across town in a newly-renovated outdoor venue at the Happy Hearts Drop-in Centre where members prepared and sold snacks and meals and served the celebratory Canada 150 cake, ice cream and coffee.
Area musicians played and sang until dusk with dozens of guests availing themselves of the entertainment and the fellowship, said information from organizers. One highlight act was the Whitehawk Singers, a local traditional drum group which performed.
Pelly village Councillor Georgette Genaille, who is a musician, played with the family band called Patches.
“Great music, great weather, great dancing, great food, great camaraderie,” Genaille said, summing up the afternoon of musical entertainment.
Back at the village hall a number of events, including a magic show, continued into the afternoon with guests traveling back and forth between the hall and the drop-in centre.
A bouncy castle, funded by the Pelly Recreation Board and provided by Keeseekoose First Nation, entertained children throughout the afternoon.
The Pelly firefighters provided security for all the events, including the wind-up concert by The Crawdaddys at the Pelly Arena. The day concluded with a huge fireworks celebration managed by the Village.
Yvonne Hotzak, museum president, provided the historical context to this Canada 150 event.
“Our area, with its Canadian history centred at our two National Historic Sites, Fort Pelly and Fort Livingstone, was critical to the early development of our great country,” she said. “Our museum is proud to participate in this 150th anniversary of Canada’s Confederation.”
Funding for the celebration was made possible by a grant from the Community Spirit Fund of Affinity Credit Union and a separate shared-cost grant from the Community Fund for Canada’s 150th, which is a collaboration between the South Saskatchewan Community Foundation Inc., the Government of Canada, and “extraordinary leaders from coast to coast,” according to information from the Village of Pelly.
