Rumsey Record
Well, the weather has certainly been mild and easy to live with this past week. Of course, the snowmobilers are complaining that winter isn’t giving them the fun they always hoped for. Don’t worry that will come in April and May, I’m sure.
The men’s bonspiel is fast approaching, so don’t forget to get your teams entered. Call Brooks and Jackie Watts to enter. There are also lots of good meals to take advantage of during the week of each bonspiel held in town; fresh homemade soup and desserts with hamburgers, steak, oyster night on Thursday, banquet night on Saturday; lots of reasons to get off that couch and go up to the curling rink and visit with the neighbours.
I got some more information from the Historical Society to pass on to you. The family stories are coming in and we would like to thank those who made the Jan. 1 deadline. Our committee has made a firm deadline of June 30, 2015, so we trust families will send in their stories and pictures as soon as possible so we can start compiling them into book form in order to get the product to Friesen’s Publishing Co. We are looking for pictures for couples married 50 years or more since 1982. If you have a picture of 50 years or other special anniversaries, please send it to Dariel McNaughton, Box 87, Rumsey, AB T0J 2Y0.
Larry Anderson is compiling 100-year farm families and an updated list will be submitted at a later date so we do not miss anyone. There are two criteria that could be used to include 100 year families: first a family who owns, lives on and farms the original homestead, and second, a family who has lived in the community but does not meet all the criteria. Contact Larry for further information. Stories can be mailed to Box 62, Rumsey, AB T0J 2Y0 or emailed to rumseyhistorybook@hotmail.com.
Some 1982 history books are still available for $40 at the Rumsey Library, but they are selling fast. There will not be any more available after these are gone. New history books can be presold for $50. There will be a cover design contest and these are to be handed in before August so they can be judged by the public at the Garden Show at the end of August.
The Rumsey Community Library is still selling the last of this year’s community photo contest calendars. Help us out with our fundraiser and come pick up a beautiful calendar with all local pictures for $15. This money is used to enhance the library and all it has to offer to our community.
The library has lots of e-resources to offer beyond e-books and audiobooks. There is Ancestry.com, encyclopedias, study guides for students in Grade 3 to 12, small engine repair, zineo for the magazine lovers out there; the list goes on. Come in and ask about what there is to offer.
I received this email from my aunt and it is a wonderful story that needs to be passed on: During WWII there was a lady, Irena Sendler, from Warsaw, Poland who received special permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto. She was a nurse and social worker who, under the pretext of checking the sanitary conditions of the ghetto, smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of her toolbox she carried back and forth to work. She also carried a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger children.
Irene kept a dog in the back of her truck that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the noises of the infants and children.
During her time of doing this, she, along with the underground resistance organization, managed to smuggle out and save over 2500 children.
Ultimately, she was caught and the Nazis broke both her legs and arms, beat her severely then sentenced her to death, which she managed to elude.
Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she had smuggled out in a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her backyard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and tried to reunite the family members. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster families or adopted.
In 2007, Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected. Al Gore won, for his slide show on global warming. It has been over 70 years since WWII and this message has been shared as a memorial to Irena and all she accomplished. She passed away on May 12 2008 at the age of 98 years old.