The Preeceville and District Heritage Museum is celebrating its 10th anniversary this fall, said Agnes Murrin, a museum spokesperson. It informally opened in the fall of 2005 with 15 theme rooms.
It started as an idea of the six founding members: Mary Grimsrud, Nellie Long, Joyce Gulka, Mary Petrowski, Lorna Brodziak and Lorne Plaxin. The official opening was held in June 2006 with the Mayor Grant See cutting the ribbon. The first fundraiser was a fall supper and a soup-and-sandwich lunch.
The theme rooms were popular and the artifacts started to arrive from families in the area, Murrin said. All were documented and placed for display. The popular clay oven was added in 2009 and, with some minor repairs, is still working well and is used for baking home-made bread all summer.
“The old nurses’ residence was chosen to house the museum and continues to be a great building, with its many rooms, to house our theme-room based museum,” she said. The museum’s themed rooms has now expanded from 15 to 22, with the most recent being the children’s room.
“Next year, we will be adding an electronics room, a hair salon room, laundry room, a ’50s room and will be expanding the fashion room,” said Murrin.
“Sadly we lost one of our founding members, the late Mary Grimsrud. Mary loved the museum and was always the first to volunteer to be at the museum and always had the coffee on. The present museum board continues to miss her presence,” she said.
“The Town of Preeceville has been very supportive to the museum and the museum board would like express thanks to our mayor and town council. The residents of Preeceville and area have been very generous with their family artifacts, monetary donations and support for our various fundraising activities. We are always looking for different fundraising activities that are fun and which will ? t in with the purpose of the museum.
“We often heard people say they would like an opportunity, in the evening, to go out for coffee and a sweet, so to celebrate our 10th anniversary, we decided on an ethnic dessert night. This will be at on September 25 to coincide with Saskatchewan Cultural Days. It will be fun and you will get plenty of sweets and drinks. There will be coffee/tea, punch and other beverages and desserts from at least 10 countries. We will also have artifacts on display from some of the countries and we are sure you will have a good time.”
Murrin encouraged guests to wear any ethnic clothing or vintage items like hats.
“We encourage you to wear them but they are certainly not necessary. So come and enjoy the evening and taste something different. Tickets are available from board members or at the door.”
