ATHABASCA — Local homestead schools are getting bright, new, shiny signs thanks to generous donors.
An ad hoc group comprised of Alice Wlos, Darlene Kozinski, Larry Armfelt, and Larry Speers are hoping more people will help pay the $300 to $350 needed per sign because they have 24 signs but need 60 more.
“Myself and Mr. Larry Armfelt, we have money left over from our history books and that's what we're using in the Boyle area and West Athabasca, but the others have to somehow obtain the monies through their groups,” Wlos said at a June 17 Aspen View Public Schools (AVPS) meeting.
The original school districts, or catchment areas, were measured in miles – four miles by four miles – and nicknamed four-by-fours. It was in each of the four-by-fours someone would donate a corner of land to have a schoolhouse built.
As populations grew, the smaller schools were merged into more central, larger schools like Perryvale, Colinton, Rochester, et cetera and most of the one-room schools were abandoned to be torn down over time.
“The creation of the signs is being done by Fast Signs (in Athabasca) and they're going to be around $300 each (then) installation and everything will be up to us to do it,” Armfelt said in a May 20 interview. “If you look at 80 schools times $300, we’re looking at a total cost of approximately $24,000.”
Armfelt started in a one-room schoolhouse and became a teacher and principal.
“I started school here at Winding Trail from Grades 1 to 3, but when I went to Grade 4, then we were bussed into Athabasca,” he said. “And that was just a typical situation all across the province because just slowly, slowly all of those smaller schools got centralized.”
And since those meetings with Athabasca County and AVPS the group has received donations for and placed 24 signs.
“We finished 10 and they're up already in Boyle area,” Wlos said in a Nov. 24 interview. “And then East Athabasca there's six of them that are up, and North Athabasca is eight up.”
That means all the signs are paid for and placed for Boyle, North Athabasca, and East Athabasca.
“Sept. 15 was when all our Boyle ones went up,” she said. “And (Fast Signs) did it all in the morning.”
And, Wlos points out, there can be some creative thinking when it comes to sponsoring a sign.
“One lady in the Boyle area, she went and phoned all the students that used to go there that she recognized that they were alive,” Wlos said. “She got six names on the sign, so each family paid $50.”
Still needing signs for Colinton area schools are Atlanta, Colinton, Dover, Hallcroft, Keyes, Meanook, Golden Sunset, and Vincent.
In the Grassland area: Blue Jay, Charron, Dakin (Quebec), Deer Run, Flat Creek, Frains (Black Loan), Frains West, Forest Grove, Grassland, Green Pine West, Hamond, Sarrail, Spruce Valley, Twin Spruce, and Willow Flat.
West Athabasca needs signs for Baptiste Lake, Deep Coulee, Forfar East, Forfar West, George Lake, Grosmont, Lahaieville, Larvent East, Larvent West, Lawrence Lake, Narrow Lake, South Athabasca, West Athabasca, and Winding Trail.
Perryvale is looking for signs to identify Lee Heights, Lewiston, New Pine Creek, Perryvale, Sun Ray and Willow Ridge while in Smith there is Forestview, Moose River, Ranch, Spurfield, Smith, Smoky Creek, and Hondo and finally Rochester has the schools of Blueberry Ridge, Caribou Range, Dokeville, Rochester East, Rochester, Slough Valley, White Clover, and Tawatinaw.
Wlos is also hoping someone will help the group create a homestead school trail for tourists but needs some technical help to GPS each site and create a route or several routes considering how many schools there were from Smith to Tawatinaw.
“At a Colinton meeting when they asked me to come and explain about it, they said, ‘Can we get a map of where all these are, we'd be interested to go where they are, even though there aren't any schools,’” she said.
Anyone interested in funding a sign in memory of a parent or grandparent, or just out of kindness, can contact Wlos at 780-684-7812, Armfelt at 780-689-5168, Kozinski at 780-675-3377, or Larry Speers at 780-698-2242.
