The Great Waldo Hunt, 2015

Where’s Waldo?  Well, from July 3^rd to July 10^th, 2015, he was right here in St. Albert!  The St. Albert Public Library ran their Great Waldo Hunt for the second year in a row, and Arts and Heritage St. Albert were excited to be involved once again!

At the Kick-Off Party for the event, held in the lobby of St. Albert Place, Amanda and Kay, from the Art Gallery, ran their popular Waldo-themed photo booth, while the Musee Heritage Museum provided lemonade and cookies, which the kids could decorate with frosting and sprinkles.  The library staff ran a Waldo dress-up contest with City Councilor Tim Osborne judging the costumes.

Throughout the week long event museum and heritage site staff had a small Waldo cutout hidden at their locations which included the museum, the Little White School, the St. Albert Grain Elevator Park, and the Father Lacombe Chapel.  

Hundreds of people came to those sites, as well as the Art Gallery, the Library, and the various participating businesses in town, so they could find Waldo.  

At each site, participants would hunt for Waldo, and when they found him, the staff would stamp for their passports.  If a participant was able to get a stamp from each place then he, or she, could enter a draw for some great prizes!

On Friday the 10^th, there was a Wrap-Up Party, again in the lobby of St. Albert Place.  Lemonade was provided by the museum and library, and the library also provided cake.  

The museum and art gallery staff ran two different crafts: Waldo glasses and toques.  After making their own glasses and toques, visitors could show off their new looks in the art gallery’s photo booth. 

The library also had a Waldo-themed scavenger hunt setup throughout St. Albert Place.   In all, a great event, and it was a real treat to see so many people at the museum and heritage sites as they "scoured" our community working to locate all the hidden Waldos! 

Special thanks to the St. Albert Public Library for including us in the Great Waldo Hunt 2015.

Canada Day 2015

Canada Day 2015 at the St. Albert Heritage Sites 

                          We had another wonderful Canada Day at the heritage sites in St. Albert!  At the Father Lacombe Chapel we had 311 visitors, the Little White School had 437 people, and the St. Albert Grain Elevator Park had 995!  What a great turnout to celebrate Canada’s 148th birthday!  The various sites had all kinds of activities, crafts, and of course, goodies to eat. 

JP and historic objects

At the train station visitors were invited to take a close look at "old" objects and guess how they might have been used.  There were a lot of creative ideas, guesses and laughter at this location!  Thank you JP for setting this up.

 

Walking by the train station you could also hear , some of our visitors were playing tunes on the community piano inside while others listened to the live music outdoors.

          

And at the Little White School...                                                           

One of the activities, which was actually written about in the St. Albert Gazette, was the Great Canadian Flag Debate Contest, held at the Little White School. This annual contest received about 70 entries this year, with lots of people showing off their creativity. 

We ask contest entrants to pretend it is 1964, and then have them create a flag design to submit to the government for consideration to become the National Flag of Canada.  

We asked entrants to think about what Canada means to them and then think of a unique design using symbols that represent Canada.  

There were four age categories: 5 and under, 6 to 9 years of age, 10 to 12 years of age, and 13 and over.  With so many entrants, it was difficult to choose winners, but we managed to narrow it down to one winner per category.  The winners were: Evie, 5 years old, for her “Beaver” flag; Sabrina, 8 years old; Hannah, 12 years old; and finally, Annika & Caitlin, 18 & 20 years old.  

Annika & Caitlin even provided a write-up to explain their flag: “Left corner is the North Star, representing leadership and wisdom; colour range is red, white, black, blue, and brown… in honour of our British, French and Canadian roots.  Black and blue honour the RCMP ribbon and brown for the Mountie.  Tipi on bottom right honours Canadian First Nations.  3 maple leaves respect past flags and our interpretation of the French, English and Canadian sides.”

Gazette article http://www.stalbertgazette.com/article/20150704/SAG0801/307049985/0/SAG 

  

Trying some homemade ice cream

Father Lacombe Chapel Provincial Historic Site

Tours inside the chapel

Canada Day 2015 was a great day to celebrate in St. Albert, Alberta!

Megan presents her poster on the Musée at the Special Libraries Association conference in Boston

From June 14-16, 2015, I had the opportunity to attend the SLA Annual Conference in Boston, MA! SLA is a network of information professionals in areas of special libraries, museums, archives, and non-traditional library settings.  I was very involved with the SLA student chapter at my school when I was working towards my MLIS degree, so I decided a while back that I wanted to attend this conference for the second time (last year’s was in Vancouver!).

The theme of the conference this year was, Be Revolutionary! to inspire information professionals to share the current and upcoming trends in the field. This was also the first time that the planning committee decided to host a joint poster session in the exhibition hall.

I approached Shari (the museum director) with a poster proposal about the Musée Héritage Museum and its use of community engagement as a marketing strategy. Once she gave me the go ahead, I started designing my poster. In the few weeks prior to the conference, I sent my poster draft to all of the Musée Héritage Museum staff, and everyone in the Arts and Heritage Foundation of St. Albert (AHFSA) administration office for feedback. I felt that the process of this poster project really embodied the museum’s philosophy of community involvement and collaboration. So, just like everything else that we do at the museum, everyone had a hand in the creation of my poster!

It was my first time participating in a conference this large, but while I was nervous, I was even more excited to talk about this amazing place that I love to work at! The poster provided great exposure for the museum, which is exactly what I was hoping for. AHFSA and Musée Héritage Museum kept me stocked with exhibition catalogues, brochures, and business cards to give out. Both surprising and unsurprising, visitors to my poster were incredibly interested in the museum, and how we do things! I spoke with people of many different educational and employment backgrounds, and from all over North America. Those who represented other smaller museums, many based out of the US commended Musée Héritage Museum on its innovation and perseverance. I ended up giving out every last one of the business cards! To add a bit more to my poster setup, I also held a draw – in exchange for a business card, visitors had the chance to win a set of 3 Musée Héritage Museum’s candy tins, with each tin featuring a historic site maintained by the museum!

I have gladly offered my poster to the museum for keepsake, so be sure to take a look on your next visit!

A BIG thank you to Musée Héritage Museum for this amazing experience, and for all of the help!