With that one simple statement, Wayne LeBelle, publisher of the Valley East Centennial Book, describes how the Valley East Heritage Committee is looking at accomplishing the mammoth task of putting 100 years of history of this great community into a 250 page document.

Three thousand copies of the book will be ready to go on sale in the spring of 2002 to coincide with the centennial celebrations of the Blezard Valley Centennial. The books will be sold for $29.95 and it is expected that many of not all of the copies will be presold prior to the printing date.

Residents are still encouraged to submit old photos and stories. The deadline for submissions is June 15, 2001. You can drop off your contributions to The Vision Paper at the top of the hill in Hanmer.

A number of people gathered at the Percy Street Community Centre in the former Our Lady of Fatima building on May 1 as the Heritage Committee said thank you to the many volunteers who have been taking “small bites out of the elephant” during the past couple of years.

Shown in the accompanying photo are, from the left: Ron Mrochek, Claire Blake, Leo Burns, Aline Belzile, Roger Simard, Lois Simard, and Claudette Lahti-Ouwens.

Mrochek is the Overall Research Coordinator of the project. He has been assisted by three sub-committee chairpersons, namely: Lois Simard (Blezard Valley), Fern Gascon (Capreol) and Agathe Dube (Hanmer). To date, approximately 1500 photos have been gathered. As many as possible will be used in the book along with small captions or articles to describe their historical significance.

The money raised from the sale of the books is going to be used to establish an historical archive or museum for Valley East. At the present time, the location is not yet finalized, however, information will be forthcoming. Some are hoping for the formation of a Heritage Foundation which will be responsible for raising money to purchase and maintain a museum building in Valley East. It has been suggested that a location in a house donated in memory of some key historical personality would be the ideal setting since it could contain display space as well as office space for the foundation. Any member of the community who may be interested in such an idea is asked to drop by The Vision Paper and this information will be forwarded to the proper people on the Valley East Heritage Committee for consideration.