It was a successful week for R.J. Haney Heritage Village and Museum, any way you slice it.
February 15 to 21 was Heritage Week in Salmon Arm, a celebration of local history. While there was more of an online focus to this year’s event due to COVID-19, participation in activities organized by Haney was strong and donations were generous.
Haney manager Susan Mackie said the online auction/fundraiser raised $8,600, for which she is grateful. Another Heritage Week fundraiser, the annual pie auction, was also fruitful – taking in $51,500.
“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do the pie auction as we normally do, but I contacted past winners of the best of the Shuswap Pie Baking Contest and our celebrity pie bakers and I was able to round up 16 pies that we offered for donation,” explained Mackie who, because of the pandemic, had to cancel this year’s contest.
The biggest pie donation was $5,000 from Browne and Johnson Land Surveyors for a chocolate banana cream pie made by Shuswap Pie Company owner Tovah Shantz.
“We have some of the best pie bakers here, and people love to eat them and they’ll pay huge amounts of money for them,” said Mackie. “We’re very fortunate and it’s so cool because it’s been a tough year for us with COVID-19, and Heritage Week is always our biggest event – it kind of chugs us right to our season to get us going. So we’re chugging still, we’re just smiling from ear to ear up here.”
Mackie said given how well they went, two of the contests introduced this year for Heritage Week, a scavenger hunt and the On This Spot Photo Contest, will likely return next year.
Read more: Public to play interactive role in Salmon Arm Heritage Week celebration
Read more: Top-notch pies raise $43,000 for Haney
Haney staff have been busy working on projects at the village and are keen for its reopening this spring.
“We’re looking forward to welcoming the community this year as long as everything is safe with COVID-19…,” said Mackie. “We’re excited to open the gates and show everybody what the donations go to.”
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