Wawota Celebrates 100 Years
August 1, 2 and 3, 2008.
Former resident finds plenty to miss about Wawota
By Lizz Bottrell
Carlyle Observer
When Kris Kennett took part in an exchange student program to New Zealand 20 years ago, she never dreamed she’d actually call the country home one day. That all changed about seven years ago when she took a leave from her job with the provincial government in British Columbia to travel back to beautiful country to catch up with old friends and ran into an old flame.
“We ended up doing the long distance relationship for a couple of years and then five years ago I moved to New Zealand,” said Kennett. “We were just married on July 15 in B.C.”
Right now she’s on her usual visit back home in Canada, splitting her time in between B.C., the place she lived as an adult, and Wawota, the place she grew up and the place where her parents, Doris and Ed, still live. “I’m home every year,” said Kennett. “I try to come for two and a half months otherwise it’s too expensive to make it worth it.”
This year’s trip home luckily coincides with Wawota’s Centennial, something that Kennett is really excited about. “I’m really looking forward to seeing people outside my grade this year,” said Kennett. “Our grade was always really good at reunions. The school was small so you were usually friends with people three grades above and three grades below. So it will be real neat to see those people.” She heard one family in particular who no longer call Wawota home my come back for the weekend, so she’s especially hopeful for that as many people have not kept in close contact with them.
Her new husband, Grant Law, decided to sit this one out, heading back home to New Zealand, allowing Kennett to catch up with family and friends during the weekend. “He’s a Kiwi so he doesn’t drive more than two hours a day and in Canada you don’t get far in two hours,” said Kennett of one reason why Law doesn’t spend as long as she does in Canada each year.
Kennett finds New Zealand, which is home to about four million people, very English compared to Canada, which she calls ‘Americanized.’ She pointed out some of the major differences in the two countries, including a much higher cost of living in New Zealand as well as a poorer quality of service. “Part of the reason is New Zealand is so small so businesses think either you shop there or you don’t shop at all,” said Kennett. “Another reason is there’s no tipping in restaurants, but Kiwi’s don’t complain about service either.”
While Kennett finds her new home a beautiful place to live, there’s many aspects of Wawota she misses. “The friendships and the trembling aspen,” said Kennett. “It’s a pretty special landscape. People think Prairies but Wawota is beautiful; it has rolling hills. Of course the most special thing is family about Wawota – family and friends.”
Wawota centennial deemed ‘fantabulous’
By Chris Istace
Moosomin World-Spectator
Wawota centennial organizer Deb Eastland could think of plenty of words to describe the success of the community’s 100th anniversary celebration.
“Wonderful. Marvelous,”she said, then took her description one step further. “Fantabulous. I’m even coining a new word.”
The population of Wawota— which is usually about 520—exploded for the celebration, which was held Aug. 1 to 3. Just more than 1,300 visitors registered for the event, “but there would have been a lot more than that there,” said Eastland. “Who knows (exactly how many). Lots anyway.”
According to registrations, 250 people came from areas surrounding the town. However, roughly 800 came from outside the Wawota region, some from as far away as Scotland, the Philippines, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand, Australia, the United States and virtually every Canadian province.
“And you should have seen them jump in and help,” said Eastland, amazed that some visitors pitched in and helped with a variety of tasks through the weekend.
“It went perfectly,” she said. “The only thing that didn’t come was the Sask-Tel balloon, I think. At least I don’t remember seeing it there. It was such a stormy morning (on Saturday).”
However Eastland noted that the weather did co-operate for the most part, providing refreshing rains at night, while temperatures during the day did not get too hot.
Before the event, Eastland said if there were any obstacles to overcome, they would be in accommodations for parking and camping. Both were organized without a hitch, she said.
“A lot of people must have made arrangements to park their campers in the yards of their friends and family, because there were not many campers parked out of place throughout town,” she said.
Eastland was also particularly impressed with the state of the town once the celebration had concluded. There was no property damage reported and participants seemed to do their part in keeping the town as clean as they found it.
Three lasting items will permanently memorialize Wawota’s centennial. The community’s cenotaph memorial was dedicated Sunday morning with Souris Moose Mountain MP Ed Komarnicki, Cannington MLA Dan D’Autremont and Moosomin MLA Don Toth in attendance.
On Sunday afternoon, the Centennial Memorial Park was officially opened. Finally, Eastland said signs containing the histories of local business properties and other lots will be included in a book marking the centennial. The book will be put on display at the local museum, she said.
While the centennial celebration has come and gone, organizers have a few more tasks to complete before they close the book on it. Eastland said volunteers are tallying their bills and will have a final meeting in September.
“We’ll also talk about the end result and see what we did do, what we didn’t do and what could have been done better,” she said.
These discussions will be jotted down and compiled with other documents relating to the celebration.
“We’ll leave it in a binder for the residents living here in 2108,” Eastland said.
