Looking back article from April 10th 2013

With one year to go until this community’s 100th birthday the Pitt Meadows Museum is already planning for the big day.  Next month we will be launching our Memory Band project and are asking the citizens of Pitt Meadows to join in by helping us with the woodworking, the construction and the selection of the words, dates and phrases that will make up the band.

 

What is a Memory Band?  In short, it is a band constructed of wood and inscribed with one hundred words, dates and short phrases that are linked to the heritage of the community and with those words, dates, and short phrases linked back to an e-document with a description of their historical significance.  For example:  April 28, 1914 – the date the Provincial Order in Council states the community can start calling itself incorporated as the District of Pitt Meadows.  Or, W.J. Harris – pioneering resident of Pitt Meadows, first Reeve of Maple Ridge, provincial MLA and dyking commissioner.  Harris Road is named after him and his wife Mary Jane.

 

The Memory Band is an exterior exhibit and will be mounted to the fence at the General Store site of the Pitt Meadows Museum in order to allow viewing at any time or day of the week.  The e-document will be available on the Museum’s website with a link to it through our Face book page.

 

How can you help?  Think about a significant word, date or short phrase and submit it to the Museum along with a short description and the reason you think it is of historical significance to the community.  Or, volunteer some time to help rout the words into the boards.  All summer we will have routers and jigs set up at the Hoffmann and Son site of the Museum and you don’t have to have your own word to work on the routing.  By late fall we will be looking for help with the mounting of the band and also with the final development of the e-document.  If you have the skills to help and would like to contribute something to the Pitt Meadows 100th birthday celebrations, we would truly appreciate your time and interest.  The Museum has applied to the Province’s “Creative Communities” program for funding assistance with the project and the City of Pitt Meadows is also supporting the activity. 

 

The Pitt Meadows Museum will also be basing the next 12 months of our Looking Back contributions on historical events by decade leading up to the 100th birthday as well as on upcoming events that relate to the celebrations in general.  Visit the Museum on Face book to keep up with our events and activities. 

 

Finally, the 100th Anniversary core committee is now formed with representatives from the City of Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Parks and Leisure Services, the Pitt Meadows Museum, the Pitt Meadows Community Foundation, the Pitt Meadows Canada Day Society and the Pitt Meadows Day Society and we will be looking for many volunteers throughout the year.  Please give some thought to joining us.

 

Leslie Norman, Curator at the Pitt Meadows Museum