We're Writing a Book!

The Port Moody Heritage Society is very pleased to announce it received a Federal grant through Service Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors program. The grant will enable the Port Moody Station Museum to produce a history book of Port Moody.

Staff at the Museum are excited to work on the book. Manager/Curator, Jim Millar said, “This project brings together the Museum’s mission of collecting and recording local history with the grant’s requirements of getting seniors actively participating in the community.”

While keen to get started, the Museum can’t do it alone. Millar commented, “We hope to have many people in the community involved in creating this lasting legacy for Port Moody. We plan to have a lot of fun getting to know each other and sharing memories.”

The project will involve a group of seniors researching and writing parts of the book and will require a committed amount of volunteer time. Other seniors can participate by sharing their Port Moody memories in reminiscing meetings to be held on specific themes of the book such as industries, neighbourhoods, social life, events and schools.

Program and Events Coordinator, Rebecca Clarke commented, “We are looking forward to learning new stories from Port Moody’s history. Just in time for Port Moody’s Centennial in 2013, it is a great excuse to come together to reflect on how far Port Moody has come since its birth.”

Millar added, “We are looking forward to researching and sharing some of the Museum’s collection of over 5,000 photographs and 200 oral histories. We would also like to fill in gaps in the collection in eras such as the 1950’s 60’s and 70’s.”

The project is on a tight timeline with the book slated for completion in October 2011. The Museum welcomes anyone interested in helping with the book. The amount of time required can be adjusted to fit everyone’s needs and all are welcome. Please call Jim or Rebecca at the Museum at 604-939-1648.

Ioco Ghost Town Day

Ioco Ghost Town Day is a family oriented heritage event that will be held at the Ioco lawn bowling green on Sunday October 4th from noon-4pm. The focus of the event will be a variety show with a number of different musical, dance and other performing arts acts. There will also be booths from a variety of different community organizations. The Port Moody Heritage Society is in charge of the hot dog concession and providing crafts and games for kids. We are looking of a variety of volunteers to help out. As part of a fundraiser for the Port Moody Station Museum, the Museum will receive $50 for each volunteer that participates in this event. We need 5 volunteers for the concession stand, 8 volunteers for children games and crafts, 2 volunteers to help set up and take down tents, and 1 volunteer who can sit with the Ioco Heritage photo display. We also need 12 volunteers with a dramatic spirit to participate in our heritage fashion show. Participants will be provided costumes appropriate to Ioco heritage. Please let me know if you are interested in helping out.

Thank you,
Rebecca

Rebecca Clarke
Programs & Events Coordinator
t 604-939-1648
f 604-939-1647

Model Train Enthusiast

Hello,

The Port Moody Station Museum is looking for some model train enthusiasts to give advice and speak to visitors about model trains for our events on July 1st, 4th and 5th. If you are or know of a model train enthusiast, please contact me at the number below. Having a model train is not required.

Thank you,
Rebecca

Rebecca Clarke
Programs & Events Coordinator
604-939-1648

Summer Event Volunteers - 2009

Hello everyone,

It’s great weather and time to have some fun events at the Museum. Below I’ve listed the events, dates and volunteers we would like to have for each event. Most of our events are free to the public. The hot dog stand helps us pay for the cost of the event. I know it’s not glamorous but it helps keep us going. Please contact me if you would like to volunteer or if you have any questions. Thanks for all your support!

Canada Day - Wednesday, July 1st 10:30am-4:30pm

Volunteers needed:

• Model train enthusiast to who can run and talk about a model train.
  

Anniversary of the 1st Passenger Train - Saturday and Sunday, July 4th & 5th 11am-4pm

Volunteers needed on Saturday:

• 4-6 people to help with crafts and games for kids
  
• 1 person to grill hot dogs from 11:30-1:30
  
• 1 person to grill hot dogs from 1:30 -3:30
  
• 1 person to sell hot dogs from 11:30-1:30
  
• 1 person to sell hot dogs from 1:30 -3:30
  

Volunteers needed on Sunday:

• 4-6 people to help with crafts and games for kids
  
• 1 person to grill hot dogs from 11:30-1:30
  
• 1 person to grill hot dogs from 1:30 -3:30
  
• 1 person to sell hot dogs from 11:30-1:30
  
• 1 person to sell hot dogs from 1:30 -3:30
  

Kidsworld – Thursday, July 16th 10am-4pm

Volunteers needed:

• 2-4 people to help with crafts and games for kids
  

_____________________________

Rebecca Clarke
Programs Coordinator

t 604-939-1648
f 604-939-1647

2009 Memberships

Support the Museum!

Become a part of the society that runs the Port Moody Station Museum with a 2009 Port Moody Heritage Society Membership. The Port Moody Heritage Society welcomes new members to become a part of it.

Your membership helps support the operation of the museum and other projects of the society. You also have a say at the Annual General Meeting in the Spring of each year and with the election of the Board of Directors and Executive. Membership numbers influence grant money coming into the museum as well and provide a large part of our budget for maintaining and displaying the collection. Memberships start at $5 Canadian for family or individuals.

Heritage Society Memberships make a nice gift. Consider gift memberships for 2009!

Memberships are now more affordable than ever! Support the Museum and buy one for yourself! Buy one for each member of the family!

Memberships:

• Membership: $5
• Life $500

Donations to the museum are always gratefully accepted. Tax receipts are provided for donations over $25 or by request.

Volunteers for Holiday Tea!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED  - We need volunteers for the Holiday Tea on the Train!  Meet new people and enjoy some holiday spirit!  Please contact Maud Sanford if you can give us a couple hours of your time!

For more information on this and other events, please call:

Maud Sanford
Museum Administrative Assistant
Port Moody Station Museum

Tel (604) 939-1648

Harvesting Heritage

Colourful Carrots and Titanic Tomatoes!

by Tom Galinis - museum volunteer gardener

The growing season is drawing to a close at the Port Moody Heritage Society Garden.  Here is a short overview of some of the crops that we grew this year.

For 2008, we tried several different varieties of carrots  - not so much for their size or shape but for their colour!  Yes, indeed, we tried to grow a white carrot; a purple carrot, a yellow carrot, and finally a red carrot. 

The result you can see in the picture below.  The white carrot grew quite well, and in fact we discovered that it did not like sun - just like the potato.  Those parts of the carrot that were exposed to sunlight turned green.  Otherwise the carrots were quite uniform in size and interestingly very bland in flavour.  Perhaps pigment in fruit and vegetables helps flavour them as well.  The purple carrots didn't come up purple - they came up ORANGE!  Who knows what happened there, but flavour wise they were quite tasty, just like a carrot.  The yellow carrot grew well, and tasted exactly like regular orange coloured carrots.  The red carrot did not turn out as brilliant red as predicted.  Flavour wise, it was rather sharp, sort of tart flavour, not exactly like a carrot taste. 

We also grew some tomatoes - these are very popular every year.  This year we concentrated on some different heritage varieties as well as the popular eating cherry tomatoes. 

In the first picture below, you can see some of the larger tomatoes that we tried to grow.  Tomatoes come in both red, purple, and yellow colours.  All of them taste really great.  In the picture below (Tomato 1), the back row left to right is "Striped German", "Lemon Boy" (it is a yellow/orange tomato), and finally a "Great White" tomato - the skin is yellow, but the meat is rather white in appearance.  In the front row, left to right, we have "Black Prince", and then the "Mortgage Buster" tomato.

Speaking of size, how big did your "Mortgage Buster" tomatoes grow?  We had several large tomatos from our vines, here are a couple of pictures showing our final weight results.  As you can see, one of the tomatoes almost made it to 1 lb - it was about 13 ounces.  The other tomato was HUGE though, it weighed almost 2 lbs - 1 lb 10 ounces.  And no, I did not have my finger on the scale to get that result.  We gave the "Mortgage Buster" tomatoes away at the Mother Day's event in May 2008; I sure hope that they gave you some nice tomatoes. 

  

Finally we had some tomato plants that produced smaller tomatoes - two of them came from Michael Muttersbach who regularly contributes to our heritage plant supply.  In the picture below, the two red tomatoes came from him and unfortunately we do not know their names.  The one on the left is most interesting - it matured quite late in the season - at end of September and beginning of October, however the fruit when unripe was mottled with 2 different shades of green (one lime green, the other dark green), and when ripe, had two different shades of red as well - one almost orange, the other darker red.  The other red tomato was bigger and less sweet than a cherry tomato but still much smaller than the regular sized tomatoes.  Finally the yellow tomato is called "Yellow Pear" and it was as prolific as a cherry tomato plant, but the fruit was...yellow and pear shaped. 

President's Corner - from the Station Telegram

President's Corner

Wayne Beggs

I would like to take opportunity to thank Dianna Brown for her leadership through last year. She has worked tirelessly on behalf of the Museum and her efforts are greatly appreciated. She continues in the Past-President position and is the Chair of our Display Committee.

Each year, the Museum plays an important role in building knowledge and appreciation of the history of the area. We do this work in the community, but we also introduce our student employees to museum work. Many of our student alumni go on to pursue careers related to their summer work at the Museum. As our dedicated student employees return to school, I would like to thank, Mark Perry, Sarah Billy, Nicole Gibson, Candice Holt, Darcy Crum, and Nick Czapiewski for their enthusiastic efforts this summer.

(image to left of 2008 Summer Students and Museum Curator)

Clearly, as an organization, the Port Moody Heritage Society lies at a crossroads. The plans for the Murray Clarke Connector will impact access to the Museum. Our Board and staff will be working closely with City staff and with Translink staff to ensure that our concerns are noted and addressed. At the same time, the City of Port Moody will be convening a discussion about the establishment of an Arts Precinct within the City. As an organization, we hope to actively participate in shaping this exciting possibility.

Our efforts to develop a base of members and volunteers are continuing. As the City grows, the Port Moody Heritage Society will be looking ot reach out to our new citizens, to offer quality volunteer opportunities. To ensure that we are attracting and retaining volunteers, Museum staff will be working to create a full Volunteer Program. If we have Society members with expertise in volunteer management and programming, I urge you to come forward to lend us a hand.

(image to right of Mr. Frank Tree - last Station Master in Port Moody)

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of our volunteers on the Education and Display Committees. These tow committees have worked hard to advance their committee mandates over the summer. The Education Committee, working closely with our Manager/Curator, Jim Miller has accessed funding to hire an Educational Coordinator and will be working to put educational programming into place over the next few months. I would also like to acknowledge the work of our Display Committee, which has investigated our significant collection and has established a draft plan for Museum exhibits that will take us to the middle of 2010. Both of these committees have advanced us towards the goal of becoming one of the best small museums in the Lower Mainland.

Thanks to you, our membership, for your ongoing support of the Port Moody Heritage Society. Please feel free to provide me with feedback about how we are doing. Call the Museum and we can set-up a time to talk.

Thanks.

Excerpt from the "Station Telegram" Fall 2008 Edition.

The "Station Telegram" is the newsletter of the Port Moody Station Museum and is available at the museum or mailed to Port Moody Heritage Society Members.

Support the Museum With a Membership!

Join the Port Moody Heritage Society!

Or give a membership as a gift.

Memberships start at $5!

Become a part of the society that runs the Port Moody Station Museum. The Port Moody Heritage Society welcomes new members to become a part of it. Your membership helps support the operation of the museum and other projects of the society. You also can have a say at the Annual General Meeting in the Spring of each year and the election of the Board of Directors and Executive. Membership numbers influence grant money coming into the museum as well which provide a large part of our budget for maintaining and displaying the collection. Memberships start at $5 Canadian for family or individuals.

Memberships:

• Family/Individual - $5
• Corporate - $25
• Life - $500

Donations to the museum are always gratefully accepted. Tax receipts are provided for donations over $25 or by request.

Consider giving a Gift Membership.

We are also always seeking volunteers in many different areas. Please contact the museum for details!

Museum Aims High - Seeks Leaders

MUSEUM AIMS HIGH - SEEKS LEADERS

Port Moody, BC, May 14, 2008 - "We are not a sleepy little museum in a corner of a bedroom suburb." So says Dianna Brown, President of the Port Moody Heritage Society, the group that oversees the Port Moody Station Museum. Brown has big plans for the Museum and is looking to build the base of community leaders that can help make it happen. On Thursday, May 22nd from 7:30pm to 8:30pm, the Museum will host an information session for those interested in becoming a board member. The evening will include a quick review of the Museum's plans, a short tour of the Museum's significant collection and an outline of some of the Museum's opportunities.

"There are literally thousands of new families moving to Port Moody. We want to give these people an understanding of the community in which they live" says Brown .

The Museum's ambitious plans include a series of displays over several years that will show various parts of Port Moody's history. The Museum will draw on its collection of over 10,000 artifacts to make these exhibitions happen. The Museum also plans to shift its events calendar to focus on the Museum collection. "We want to host events to open our exhibitions and displays" noted Brown. "We are very proud of our collection and we want to be out in the forefront of small Museums in Metro Vancouver, showing our collection. We aim to be the best small museum in Metro Vancouver." Big plans for a small facility. Not too big, says Brown. “The key to meeting our new goals will be harnessing the energies of additional board members. This is why we’re hosting a leadership opportunities night."

Who might be interested in attending such an event? Jim Millar, the Museum's Manager Curator notes that it could be anyone. "From students looking to add skills to their resume, to seasoned retirees who want to give back to their community. We are really looking forward to expanding our volunteer team." Volunteer applications will be available at the session.

The Port Moody Station Museum (http://vcn.bc.ca/pmmuseum) is located at 2734 Murray Street in Port Moody, next to Rocky Point Park.

To learn more about this volunteer opportunity,

Contact:

Wayne Beggs
Chair Board Development Committee
604-949-1030
wbeggs at telus.net

President's Corner

From the Winter 2007 Edition

President's Corner
Dot Harinen

As the end of another year draws near we reflect on the passing of 2007 and upon our accomplishments for the year. The beginning of 2007 saw the demolition of the Freight Shed display area. Careful thought went into the planning of the new display cabinets and the laying of a new floor. This work was undertaken by local artisans using recycled woods giving us a new Large Exhibit Hall where artifacts not previously seen, due to lack of space, can be displayed.

Our summer students spent their time constructively working and developing our Education Program, accessioning artifacts and scanning pictures and newspapers in our collection. They also pitched in with the July 1^st Military Day Event, general clean up in and around the Museum, lead tour groups and many other day to day chores. Thank you, you have made a large dent in what still needs to be done.

To celebrate the Festive Season various events are planned including our ever popular Christmas Teas taking place in the Venosta. Drop into the Museum, take a break from your hectic schedule and enjoy what we have to offer. ...see details outlined in this newsletter.

As we jump forward to the New Year I would like to stress our need for volunteers. The success of our events is dependent upon our volunteers. When you are making your “New Years Resolutions” please consider promising to become a Museum volunteer. We need and appreciate all the help we can get. Without volunteers our events will not happen.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees and staff of the Pt Moody Heritage Society I send out wishes to you and yours for a Festive Season and best of health and good wishes in 2008 and I look forward to seeing you in 2008.

Excerpt from the “Station Telegram” Winter 2007 – Holiday Edition

Holiday Teas at the Museum

HOLIDAY TEA ON THE VENOSTA

Sundays, December 9, 16, 23

1pm-4pm $5.00 per person

Once Again, The Port Moody Station Museum will host its Annual Holiday Tea on the Train. On Sundays, community guests are invited to enjoy tea and treats on our 1921 Railcar the Venosta. With Christmas Carols and Holiday Music in the background, its a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

Volunteers are needed to help with the Holiday Tea on the Train. Any time you have available would be very much appreciated. Duties include meet and greeting guests, serving tea and treats, making tea and just having fun. For more information or to volunteer, please call Maud Sanford at 604.939.1648.

Canada Day Thank You's

Port Moody Station Museum Canada Day 2007 Thank You’s Volunteer Event Coordinator Guy Black Participants Royal Engineer Living History Society 12 Medical Company “Museum of Military Medicine” Canadian Museum of Flight Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative Association Burma Star Veterans Association Air Force Association of Canada Korea Veterans Association of Canada British Columbia Regiment Pipes and Drums 15th Field Regiment Royal Canadian Artillery Military Band Veterans Affairs Canada Western Command Military Vehicle Historical Society Netherlands Consulate, Vancouver. Glenayre Elementary School, Julia, Caelin, Livvie and Olivia Dawn Black M.P., Afghanistan Display Vancouver “DI” Morse Telegraph Club Nursing Sisters Association of Canada Mr. Tom Williams, Canadian Military Memorabilia. WWII Veteran, Mary Hokoson; Royal Canadian Women’s Army Corps Special Thanks To Mariana Ramos for singing “O Canada” Deb Hope for being Master of Ceremonies (and firing the cannon) Sergeant Phil Reid for guarding our flag Richi Mead and Senior Silver Chord Choir singing Wartime Favourites Ron and Tommie Curties for the PA system and mic. Our VIPs Dot Harinen – President – Port Moody Heritage Society Dawn Black, Member of Parliament – New Westminister – Coquitlam Consular General of Korea, Mr. Choong-Joo Choi Consular General of France, Mr. Luc Sérot Alméras. Consular General the Netherlands – Mr. Hans Driesser Joe Trasolini – Mayor of Port Moody Lieutenant Colonel Vince Larocque CD, British Columbia Mr. and Mrs. E.J. Cooper – WW II Veteran Financial Support Veterans Affairs Canada Consulate General of the Netherlands Celebrate Canada Services and Inkind German Motorcar Kics Lemonade Lee’s Marine SuperValu Tempo Copies Thrifty’s Foods TriCity News Our VIV’s (Very Important Volunteers) Dianna Brown, Mary Anne Cooper, Dave Maxwell, Lee McGillveray, Irene Reid, Kevin Reid, Earl Porter, Glenna Ayerst, Irene Turnbull, Brenda Millar, Jason and Julie Cutting

GARDENING VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

Join us on Saturday, May 5 at 3:00pm here at the Museum to start our season of gardening. We'll be discussing just what needs to be done, how to do it and would appreciate any ideas or suggestions you may have. Bring your gloves and gardening tools (we have some) and spend an hour or so of WEEDING, SEEDING and getting ready for the planting season. If you can't make it on Saturday and still want to help in the garden just call or email us.

For further information please contact: Maud Sanford at 604.939.1648 email: pmmuseum@telus.net

Volunteers for Mothers Day Tea

Mother's Day is Coming - Volunteers Needed for Tea Car

Hi Everyone.

Mothers Day is fast approaching and we need volunteers to help host this event. Our Mothers Day Tea on the Train is one of our most popular events and we have guests attending year after year.

We need help in set up on the Saturday (May 12) and then tea and treats on May 13 - Mothers Day anytime from Noon - 4:30pm.

Mothers Day Tea & Treats - 1pm - 4pm

Cost: $5.00 per person

Please let me know if you are able to assist us. I can be contacted through the numbers below.

Maud Sanford
Museum Administrative Assistant
Port Moody Station Museum

Tel (604) 939-1648
Website: http://vcn.bc.ca/pmmuseum
Museum Blog: http://portmoodystationmuseum.blogspot.com

Tooling Up

A volunteer documenting old tools.

You may not know it, but beneath the museum is a basement of treasures that include many old tools that are being catalogued and identified. They have accession numbers so that they can be tracked and found when needed for research and conservation.

A volunteer is kindly helping to identify and document some of the old tools we have.
Volunteers are an important part of the museum's operations and are always welcome.