This year’s Donalda and District Museum Society annual fundraiser, hosted on Friday, May 5 at Donalda Community Hall, included a performance from special guest entertainer Stan Foster.
The fundraiser was held to provide continuing support to the Donalda and District Museum Society, which operates the Donalda and District Museum, as well as several other historical buildings in the area.
Calgary-based musician Stan Foster performed his special “Canada show” in celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday this year.
The show included songs from Canadian songwriters such as Paul Anka, Anne Murray, Neil Young and Rita MacNeil.
The evening also included a dinner featuring homestyle sausage from Heisler, as well as perogies, fried cabbage, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes.
According to Marlene Conibear, secretary-treasurer of the Donalda and District Museum Society, the society caters their own fundraisers in order to save on overhead costs.
Throughout the evening, volunteers were busy in the Community Hall kitchen preparing food, serving, and cleaning up after the meal.
This year, the Donalda and District Museum Society is concentrating especially on providing funding for the 1955 Donalda Co-operative Creamery, which is designated as an official Alberta historic site, according to Marlene Conibear, secretary treasurer of the Donalda and District Museum Society.
“It was the last operating creamery in Alberta when it was closed,” Conibear commented. The creamery originally opened in 1924, and was replaced by the existing building in 1955.
Known for its award-winning “Donalda Maid Butter,” the creamery continued to operate until 1987, at which point the building and all of its equipment were donated to the Town of Donalda and the Donalda and District Museum Society.
Donalda is a town rich in history, and in order to help maintain this history, the Donalda and District Museum Society is also responsible for the preservation of two other historical buildings: the 1928 Imperial Bank of Canada Building and the 1909 CN Railroad Station.