By Chris Jaster
Former students of Jasper Street School and anyone interested in Maple Creek’s past is invited to celebrate the Jasper Centre’s centennial.
The building, which was originally a school before being turned into a museum, is turning 100 years old and there will be a big party there from July 30 to Aug. 1.
“It’s a big reunion and people can come back and enjoy meeting the people they went to school with,” said Floyd Beyer, chairman of the Jasper Centre board.
Centennial celebration plans include walks down memory lane — which will feature pictures from the building’s past, including old school and class photos — as well as street entertainment, a bannock-making demonstration and a story-telling workshop that is being put on by the Globe Theatre.
“There are some people coming in that will help with story telling and how to do story telling,” said Beyer.
Time is also being set aside on the Saturday to open the Orr Building, which is part of the Oldtimers’ Museum and is where the visitor information office is.
Sunday’s portion of the centennial celebration will include an interdenominational church service and some free time so people can get together with their graduating classes.
“They can take pictures or do whatever they want to do,” said Beyer. “We’re not organizing anything like that, but they can do that on their own.”
There will also be a three-inning, oldtimers baseball game featuring Jasper Street School alumni who are in their 60s, in additional to three meals during the day.
If everything goes as planned, the Jasper Centre will be able to sell raffle tickets during the event. The Jasper Centre board is selling 400 raffle tickets at $100 each to raise money to repair the facility’s roof. The winner will receive a brand new Ford Focus.
“The roof leaks,” said Beyer, who is waiting for the lottery license so the tickets can be printed. “Every time it rains it leaks in one spot. If it’s a heavy rain another spot will occasionally leak. We haven’t had it in any of the rooms where our stuff is, but we’re worried if it starts to leak in some of them that will ruin some of the artifacts we have, so we have to fix the roof.
“If you want to go out and put on an event like we are doing this month, there are grants to help you do that, but if we want to repair our building they won’t give us grant money. You can have the fun in the building, but you can’t keep it up.”
Anybody interested in attending the centennial may contact the Jasper Centre. The base registration fee is $5, but it goes up to $65 for adults who want to eat the 10 meals that will be served during the weekend. Family packages range between $150 and $200.
Regardless of people’s situation, Beyer believes anyone who has a connection to the Jasper Centre — which was a school until 1986 — should come out and celebrate the building’s centennial.
“One of the main reasons we should be celebrating the Jasper is the people who had the foresight 20 some years ago to preserve it because it was destined to be torn down,” he said. “Now we have a building that’s 100 years old that is being preserved because certain people went out and formed a committee to turn it into a museum in the first place. That, I think, is really worth celebrating.”