2009 is the 100th Anniversary of the Warden Service

A message from the ‘Park Warden Service Alumni Society of Alberta’.

 

100 Year Centennial Celebraton – Banff, September 11-13, 2009

 

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

 

What we have set up is an official rendezvous site, Wild Bills Legendary Saloon on Banff Ave, not far from the Banff Park Lodge and the Whyte Museum. They will hand out $5 coupons and wave the entry fee. One coupon per day if you are a participant. They have a band, food and drinks, made up especially for the occasion. Try the Lewis Swift, the Kootenai Brown, the Wild Bill Peyto or the Grey Owl. I think we are going to get a lot of participants hanging out there for the weekend. We hope this will help, and I think it will because the dinner and dance is only one event and after 10 PM we hope to open the dance to everyone.

 

Hope this helps people!

 

P.S. Make time to go by the Whyte Museum while in Banff as they will have an exhibit "A Way of Life, A Legacy to Protect:100 Years of the Warden Service" from Sept 12th to Nov 15th

 

 

 

To: All the retired Wardens and those that were employed by the Warden service, their spouses and family, as well as all the current Wardens, stakeholders and organizations who are supporting the Warden Service’s 100 year celebration. I would like to take the time to update you on what is currently happening with our preparations so far with the 100 Year Centennial Celebrations coming up in Banff. It will be a 3 day event starting Friday, September 11th through to Sunday, September 13th, 2009. At our most recent meeting – November 1, we wanted to finalize as much as we could at this time, the events, so that we could get word out to everyone as soon as possible. There could be minor changes down the road but here is how we see it unfolding.

Friday, September 11. The celebration will start off with a Meet & Greet in the late afternoon or early evening at the Whyte Museum and/or Seniors Centre, located next to each other in Banff. It would be a wine and cheese type affair with finger food provided and a chance to get acquainted with old faces and friends as well as new ones. This would not be open to the general public.

Saturday, September 12. In central park we will have a large tent set up as well as the use of a gazebo permanently located there, providing entertainment to the general public as well as our guests. There will be story telling, poetry reading, live music as well as skits introducing people and characters in period costume who had a historical impact on the Warden Service. It should be a lot of fun and hopefully get the park visitor involved. This would run throughout the day. As well, we would also have the opportunity to showcase some of the things Wardens do in the field such as a horse packing demonstration with narration that would be addressed to the general public; a helicopter sling rescue displaying our public safety capabilities; as well as our working dogs and handlers showcasing their talents and capabilities to the audience.

The crowning part of the celebration would be the traditional dinner and dance with the competition heating up between the talkers, the dancers and the musicians. This will be held at the Banff Park Lodge which will become our focal point for more planned activities. We are most fortunate in lining up John Cronin and his band to provide the entertainment for the night. More will be fleshed out in the coming weeks and months on showcasing a Park Warden’s duties. We will be following this letter up with one addressing the final cost for the dinner and dance as well as the specific times and any changes and additions.

Sunday, September 13. In the morning there will be a Pancake Breakfast put on by the Banff Light Horse Association at their horse paddocks near the Warden Service horse facilities and barn or at Central Park near the Whyte Museum. Activities will continue at the large tent and gazebo site in the centre of Banff townsite with music, poetry reading, story telling and more Warden demonstrations.

Throughout the three day event, there will be fireside chats being performed by individuals in front of the Whyte Museum’s Windy Warden Cabin. A map and directions to all of these events will follow as well as a list of accommodations in both Banff and Canmore along with their price range.

 

The Whyte Museum is taking on a major role in showcasing the events and in providing support, both financially and materially for the celebration, as well as the lead up through the spring and summer of 2009.

The Town of Banff is also a major partner in this celebration providing financial as well as facilitating a number of requirements needed in having this event run smoothly for us. The Friends of Banff National Park are planning on funding being available to present Warden stories and oral History to the park visitor as well as the residents themselves through park radio. We will continue to look for support amongst the communities and call on support from some of the major businesses in Banff.

We need current and retired Wardens and their families to come up with interesting stories about themselves that have occurred over the years while living and working in our mountain national parks. We need all of you to come forward so that we can put together a selection that can be used in our fireside chats, entertainment packages and Park Radio as well as our own oral history. Please send these stories to either Marie Nylund or myself. We need your input.

Rick Langshaw has offered to put together a CD of old warden pictures that could be sold to everyone for a nominal fee. We are looking for new as well as old vintage photos of wardens and their families as well as cabins and the horses we rode. Please dig around in your photo albums and send us some good pics. We will give you credit for them and its possible they could make it into our 2010 warden alumni calendar.

The Warden alumni is now officially registered under the Alberta Society’s Act as The ‘Park Warden Service Alumni Society of Alberta’. This is a mouth full so we will continue to be referred to in a more familiar term - the Warden Alumni.

We are now looking at recruiting more members as we enter into this very busy phase of our existence. We have decided to expand our membership to include sons and daughters of retired Wardens under the category of ‘honorary member’ to go along with that of a ‘full member’. Membership will continue to be $25 a year. During our dormant period from 2004 until the spring of 2008 your fee entitled you to ongoing membership. Starting in 2009 you will need to renew every year as we plan on being much more active. Although we are registered as a Society in Alberta, our membership is drawn from those who were employed in either British Columbia or Alberta at some point in their career. Any and all new enquiries can be sent to either myself, Dale Portman – 7 Glenport Road, Cochrane, AB. T4C 1G8 or daleportman(@)shaw.ca (403) 855-1204 or Marie Nylund – Site 116, Box 11, RR3, Sundre, AB. T0M 1X0 or mnylund(@)telus.net (403) 638-1284. Make note, I will be out of the country between Nov. 25 and Jan. 25 so any enquires and membership fees should be directed towards Marie for the next couple of months.

For the past one hundred years, the National Park’s Warden Service in both British Columbia and Alberta has contributed significantly to mountain culture in Canada. Park Wardens have had a proud history of protection, preservation and promotion of Canada’s national park heritage and value. These are very trying times for the current men and women working as park Wardens across this country. They have been stripped of their identity eroding their dignity and attempting to break their spirit. It is being done in a rather mean spirited fashion, cloaked in all the familiar terms of reorganization and change. Some of our members have had contact with Alan Latourelle in Ottawa. As a group, we will continue to be active in this regard and continue to network with other organizations.

Melanie Hindle of the National Park Warden Association has been in contact with me and they are very interested in what we are doing with regard to the upcoming centennial celebrations. I have included what we have communicated to each other in opening our dialogue and providing mutual support as an attachment for those who are interested.

Lastly, I would like to say that the most effective tool at our disposal in these troubling times is to answer our critics with a first class celebration of our Warden Service’s history and heritage. This will take a lot of hard work, dedication and organization as well as a lot of volunteers. So please step forward and lend us a hand and in unison we will show the world who we are and what we’ve accomplished in our tenure as park wardens. Thank you for your support and I’m looking forward to seeing you in Banff in September 2009

 

Dale Portman