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Heartfelt thanks for the summer playground

Would first like to wish Dan and Marie Barnec a very happy anniversary for this coming Friday 25th.
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The picture on the left is that of the Woodland Cemetery and to the right is a picture of the Estonian Cemetery and chapel.

Would first like to wish Dan and Marie Barnec a very happy anniversary for this coming Friday 25th. Hope you two have a great one and congratulations to both of you.

Don’t want to miss this last week of Botha Summer Playground Program. Today, July 23 is scheduled to be an exciting day at the Stettler Museum from 10 a.m. till 3 p.m. It’s a fantastic way to spend a fun filled day and will include a picnic lunch, so you certainly won’t want to miss out. The museum is a very fun and educational place to visit, with lots of exciting things to see.

Then this coming Friday will be the wind-up day, which means it will be the last event for the year. They will be having an “In-house Day” with activities, clean-up and walk ‘n stretch events with a movie on the big screen to finish up this summer’s events, so hopefully everyone can attend.

Botha would like to send a big thank you out to Jaimie Wahl and all her helpers for running such a fantastic and fun-filled program for this summer, and also a very big thank you goes out to all the children that attended this year, hopefully everyone had fun and hope to see you all back again next summer. It’s a fantastic program, and everyone that attends has a lot of fun.

Bingo takes place again at the Botha Seniors’ Centre the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 5, starting at 7:15 p.m. sharp. The doors open at 6:30 p.m., so please feel free to attend. Who knows, you could be a big winner that evening.

Don’t forget to come out every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. to the seniors’ centre for a hot, refreshing cup of coffee with your friends. They would love to see everyone out and it’s a great way just to have a break and a friendly visit with everyone.

In my looking back in history this week, I found out some information that really sounds interesting. Apparently when Botha was a booming little place, they had two cemeteries with a church in one of them.

In 1905, the federal government granted ten acres of land on the corner of the S.W.1/4-28-37-19- W4 for a cemetery and churchyard to the Estonian Lutheran Congregation. There were 60 families who attended. The first and only minister they had was Rev. John Sillack, who lived in Medicine Hat, but occasionally visited his little congregation. When he was absent, Gus Niklom, who was a vicar of the church in Estonia, did the services, Christening, burials, plus other duties that needed to be done. On the deeds and title to this land were Joseph Tipman, Kristian Hennel and William Klaus. In 1930 Martin Hennel and Jos. J Tipman were elected trustees.

The Estonian Cemetery is now the last remaining place of 72 Estonians pioneers registered out of all Estonian cemeteries in Alberta and possibly in Canada.

The Chapel was built in 1906 and has a row of four hand-curved benches on each side, seating about 30 people. There has not been any services held in there after Rev. John Sillack passed on, when he was in his 90s.The chapel however remained standing as a memorial to the Estonians that lay resting there.

The second cemetery that remains in Botha area is the Woodland Cemetery, which is still used today. The first person buried there was Archibald Gibbons in 1912.This cemetery was first fenced in 1914 and then again in 1928. A well was dug and the ground was marked out for a flower bed.

The first parcel of land used the middle two acres and then in 1927, the village purchased five additional acres (one acre on the west and four acres on the east of its original spot,) so the cemetery grew. The money was sent to the C.P.R. At that time they did not have enough funding, however, to buy the land totally, which would have given access from the cemetery to the east road, which came at a later date.

Later on in time Mr. Prudden suggested building a fence using stones along the east side of the cemetery, which took place later and still remains there today.

Hopefully everyone had a great summer so far, and if you would like anything added to our little column please free to phone me at 403-742-5317 and I will gladly add it in, thank you. Hopefully everyone continues to have a fantastic summer.

BOTHA BOOSTER