by PAUL RAYNER

The Homegrown Reunion brought back many of the citizens who helped make the community what it was.

Held on the weekend of July 28-30, the event celebrated 100 years of Boissevain as a town and 125 years of the settlement of the RM of Morton. It was an opportunity for former residents to come back home, see old friends and the old community. Many took this opportunity.

One of these was Reverend Harvey Hurren. The former minister of St. Paul’s United Church in Boissevain is well remembered by members of his old congregation and the community at large. He and his wife Ethel spent 15 years in Boissevain starting in 1988, and he was impressed with the response to the event.

“It is amazing,” Hurren stated. “There are a lot of people I didn’t know, but they all looked happy to be back. I can see people looking around saying ‘who should I remember?’”

He remembers Boissevain as a community with a lot of spirit, where the people were close and cared about one another. After leaving town, the Hurrens’ moved on to British Columbia, then to a church in his native province of Saskatchewan. From there they have settled at Knox United Church in Brandon. He was happy to be back for the celebrations, which he saw as a useful homecoming for former residents.

“The spirit of the community comes alive in these things. We enjoyed our life here in Boissevain. We came back to see the people again. It does not take long before you feel down home again.”

Former Mayor Jack Houston’s presence at the Homegrown Reunion was a given. The long-time pharmacist headed Town Council during most of the 1980’s. In fact, the 1981 centennial celebrations came about during his first year in that position.

“I remember getting pretty involved,” said Houston, who was involved this time around through the history book auctions – driving up the price of the first Dawn of the New Millennium and eventually getting the collection of all three tomes. “We had an excellent parade that year. Maybe that year it was more about the old-timers than this time around.”

He and his wife Myrna have lived in Kelowna, BC for the last 12 years. However, they have kept a cottage at Lake Max, and visit the home community each summer. His mother is still living as well, which gives him another incentive to come regularly. Although these factors made it a natural for him to be back, it may have not been the overall deciding factor.

“I think we would have come to see the people we haven’t seen anyway.”

He praised the community for building up its beautification over the years and also the organizers of the Homegrown Reunion for their hard and successful work.

“It think it’s great to have something like this,” Houston stated. “It will be 25 years before you do something like it again, and some of us might not be around by then.”

Another summer Lake Max resident who made the trip for the celebrations was Dr. Ethel McPhail. Along with her husband, the late Dr. Don McPhail, they served the community as physicians from 1947-1976. Over the years, they saw one hospital open, and left just before the other did. They also built a medical clinic, which is presently the Family Worship Centre. As Houston remembers 1981, McPhail goes further back remembering the Jubilee in 1956.

“The whole theme was pioneers,” McPhail recalled. “Don drove the penny farthing in the parade. That community spirit was around back then too.”

“This time the spirit is still around, but the focus is different. It seems to be more about looking to the future.”

Several McPhail family members joined Ethel, who lives in Winnipeg, in the old hometown. As she has a cottage nearby, she said she does visit a lot, but bringing her kids who grew up in Boissevain back was very important. Her children were not the only McPhails’ who matured here.

“I wanted to see everyone and have the family come out and see Boissevain,” she explained. “It was a wonderful place for the kids to grow up. Don and I also grew up here. We had lived in a city. It is a different way of life here and this community taught us a lot.”

A non-native but frequent visitor was also impressed with the community. Arthur-Virden MLA Larry Maguire could feel the importance of the event for all who participated.

“This is fantastic,” Maguire stated. “This is what our communities are built on, and the people who come are the ones who have built them. Maybe they struggled, but our ancestors had to come and survive and it is a great thing to celebrate that. These events bring back people who have not been back in decades.”

Besides history, he said Boissevain was pointing to the future. The first place visitors coming from the south see makes the community an important first impression. He said the impression made is a positive one.

“You people in Boissevain are making the area a tourist destination. There is a great history here and you are building a great future. In Boissevain, you are making your own destiny.”