Jessica George
With the unveiling of the monument commemorating the 1938 Dance fire exactly one month away, the organizing committee has been very busy fundraising the last bit of money and hammering out the last-minute details.
A benefit concert, featuring the group “Country Blend,” was held Friday night at the Emo Legion and they were very happy with the turnout.
Although it’s still too early to tell how much money was raised that night, organizing already are working on an encore show next spring due to their immense satisfaction with the event.
Another fundraiser currently in the works is a book that hopefully will be available for sale in time for the monument’s unveiling on Oct. 10.
Karen Kellar (nee LaBelle) explained her mother, Lillian, had been working on compiling interviews with survivors of the fire while she was still alive. She had done extensive work interviewing people for the 50th anniversary of the blaze, which claimed 17 lives, as well as took a lot of time to write numerous articles that were published in the Fort Frances Times.
Unfortunately, she passed away before she had a chance to put together the book like she had dreamed to do.
Thankfully, Neil McQuarrie had taken up the task to write the book as a fundraising tool for the monument.
No other formal fundraising events are planned, but the committee still is open to any donations, either in the form of monetary gifts or in people volunteering their time to help build the monument site.
The committee expects it will cost anywhere from $10,000-$15,000 in order to excavate the property at the original homestead of Frank LaBelle on Highway 613 North and get the stone monument made and installed, as well as to build a pavilion.
To date, they have raised about half of the required funds.
In fact, organizers expect that due to their financial position, the pavilion may have to wait until next year. But the monument itself will be up for sure this year on the 70th anniversary.
“[The monument] is as important to the Dance Township as it is for the descendants of the survivors,” noted Kellar. “We were told that this is the most civilian lives that were ever lost in a fire in the history of Canada.
“It’s just that these poor people died in vain—for nothing.
“I didn’t need a monument to know that my father lost his wife and his first family—five children in a fire. I remember quite vividly,” she stressed. “But a lot of other people don’t know.
“It’s kind of an eye-opener for a lot of people to realize that this really had happened in our little area here.”
The unveiling of the monument is best to be done sooner than later as many of the survivors are getting on in age and really would like to see something erected before they are gone, too.
Kellar noted her half-sister, a survivor of the fire who had been in Fort Frances that fateful day with her father and sister, unknowing that a fire was raging on, returned to find everyone in their family was gone.
Kellar conceded the unveiling ceremony will be very hard for her half-sister because of the memories it will invoke, but it also will be good for her to see that those who were lost never will be forgotten.
Ida and Olie Larson survived the fire as well, but they lost two daughters, a grandson, and a son-in-law to the flames.
Shirley Allen, the Larsons’ granddaughter, revealed her mother, Mary (Larson) Hagen, had survived but since has passed, making the monument mean that much more.
“I believe she was only four years old [at the time of the fire] but she always had that memory there,” Allen noted. “She told us about what had happened and it was quite vivid in her mind.
“She’s gone today [but] I know how much it would mean to her to have this monument there because the young people haven’t even heard of the Dance fire or know what happened to these people,” Allen added. “And it was just horrifying when you heard the stories of what happened that Thanksgiving.
“With this monument, the people who went through that will be remembered.”
The unveiling is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 10 at 11 a.m., with prayers and speeches made in honour of those lost and for the survivors. Afterwards, those on hand will be invited to the Dance Hall for a luncheon and social gathering.
“We’re very thankful and we want to thank everyone that has supported us in any way, shape, or form so far,” said Kellar. “We do appreciate anything and everything that we do get.”
