Next year, 2020 is the 125th anniversary of the incorporation of the District of Kent in 1895. A few years ago, the mayor and council created a sub-committee of the Parks and Recreation Committee to plan activities and events over the 12 months of 2020 to celebrate our special year.
Many activities are being planned, such as a Settlers Tea at the “Old Agassiz Place” (Schwitchenberg’s farm), a possible Big Band era concert, reviving the “Taste of Agassiz” food event, hosting a combined churches’ open air service in Pioneer Park, having mayor and council do a heritage council meeting in full period-costume, having street art in the form of banners, doing heritage walking tours and so much more. We also hope to do a legacy project incorporating First Nations theme and design.
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The premier event will be the community Homecoming on the long weekend of July 31, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2 of 2020. The activities will include a social and entertainment evening on the Friday, a dinner dance on Saturday evening and a possible pancake breakfast on Sunday morning — all taking place in the Ag Hall. (We will also have some camping spaces available for visitors.)
So many people coming back home for the special homecoming event went to school here, so we asked the high school to host an open house on Saturday afternoon. There will be pictorial displays at the dinner dance, and non-stop visiting. To purchase tickets for the dinner dance, or RV reservations, contact agassizhomecoming@gmail.com.
It takes a community to celebrate our 125th anniversary, and it takes a community to put it all together! We are launching our Facebook page, and doing all that we can to let the current and former residents of Agassiz, Harrison Mills, Seabird Island, Sts’ailes and others know what is happening.
We are putting our a call for volunteers to assist us. Do you have some time? If you can help at one event over the course of the year that would be great — if you can help at more of our activities, that would be appreciated also. We are a team of “Agassiz boosters” who value our heritage and also want to celebrate what this little town has become in 2020. Come and help us!
For volunteering or general information, call Bev Kennedy at 604-796-2459.
For general Homecoming information, contact vedmondson@shaw.ca.
Looking forward to 2020!
-Bev Kennedy, Agassiz
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