Although Westlock, Fawcett, Vimy, Pickardville and Dapp all celebrated Canada’s 150th July 1, the events in Pickardville and Dapp held a special significance as they were also those hamlets’ 100th anniversary celebrations.
“(It was a) really great turnout. Lots of volunteers and help from the community,” said Pickardville organizer Kyli Ford.
Pickardville’s day started off with a pancake breakfast, which was attended by approximately 400 people.
After the breakfast came the parade. All along main street, children held hats and empty shopping bags and buckets. They were quickly filled up with candy tossed out from the back of floats.
Harvey Provost of the Pickardville fire department was driving the hamlet’s classic fire engine in the parade.
“I’ve been with the fire department for 34 years and it’s great to see all the people out,” he said.
In the middle of the parade, there were kids driving small electric vehicles. Mark Siever looked slick driving his mini Corvette.
“The Siever family stayed in Pickardville last year during the Fort McMurray fire evacuations and came back for the parade and birthday celebrations,” said organizer Amy Hill-Eggli.
At the United Church, dozens of pies lined the main table. Everything from homemade rhubarb to lemon meringue was available for hungry guests as volunteers worked quickly to scoop ice cream and sling pie to eager fingers.
At only $4 for a slice, a scoop of ice cream and a coffee the volunteers were very busy.
The Pickardville Community Hall had the walls covered in maps, family tree posters of residents and newspaper clippings. Wilfrid and Jeannette Garon spent time reminiscing over years gone by “I’ve been here since 1934, my whole life,” said Wilfrid.
“I joined him in 1941,” added Jeannette.
Members of the St. Louis family were also enjoying a trip down memory lane while viewing newspaper clippings.
“My dad bought our house back before the town moved for the railroad, I’ve lived in it and my kids have lived in it,” said Bernard St. Louis.
Just outside the hall, Edmond Riopel led historical tours of the town through most of the day. “He had to turn away people for the first tour because it was too full,” said Ford.
The day ended with a steak dinner and fireworks, which drew out a huge crowd.
“The whole town pitched in to celebrate together,” said Hill-Eggli. “We always have a big July 1 turn out, but this was the best one yet.”
In Dapp, the Canada Day/100th anniversary celebration kicked off with a pancake breakfast and tours of Pembina North Community School.
Teresa Kaye, who came out to the event from St. Albert with her husband Barry, originally grew up on a farm south of Dapp and was a former student of the Dapp School from about 1958 to 1967.
She said she took part in a school tour and was impressed.
“It’s just such a lovely school for a small community,” she said. “The playground they have there now … All we had was some seesaws, a metal slide and some swings.”
Teresa said it was “so nice” to see some of her old classmates from Dapp School.
The morning was dominated by the parade, which featured a couple dozen floats. Due to Dapp’s size, the parade winded through the hamlet twice.
After the parade, there was a lunch and entertainment at the hall. Volunteers also hosted some carnival-style games.
The Dapp Centennial was also paired with a Dapp School reunion for Grade 9 students from 1969, which was organized by Ed Wolff.
Wolff said he hoped to have about 13 to 14 people come out for the reunion, but ultimately they had about 11 guests. “That’s a little over half of the class,” he said.
For the reunion, Wolff said they mostly just took part in the day’s events, although after the lunch, they returned to his house for more visiting.
“The last of us left about midnight. We told stories, talked politics and everything else old people talk about,” he joked.
“It was really good there. I enjoyed visiting with people.”
