Duane Hicks
Just in time for Christmas, a second book about the history of the Township of La Vallee, as well as Dance, is here.
“Further Connections,” a follow-up to “Connections,” published in February, 2004 to coincide with La Vallee’s centennial, was shipped last week and will be available at the La Vallee municipal office starting tomorrow (Dec. 18).
Liz Donaldson, who put the second book together along with Joyce Witherspoon, Freeda Carmody, and Maxine Hayes, said the book is eagerly anticipated.
“People have been waiting for this,” she enthused. “People have been really interested in it, especially the ones who have stories in there—they can hardly wait to see their story and pictures.
“We’re just so happy that it is out before Christmas because many people did want to give them as Christmas gifts,” Donaldson added. “We have lots and lots to mail out. They’re being mailed all over Canada, and they’ll be mailed out [this week].”
Many of the books have been pre-ordered and pre-paid. Those who have done so can pick up their copies at the La Vallee municipal office, which is open weekdays from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Extra copies of “Further Connections” also will be for sale there for people who did not pre-order them, as well as copies of the first book, “Connections.”
Each of the books cost $50.
“Further Connections” is a little under 300 pages—slightly smaller than the first book—but is jam-packed with information and photographs, the latter of which “printed beautifully,” noted Donaldson.
She said the new book, or the set of two, make a thoughtful gift, and also complement Neil McQuarrie’s recently-released book, “Dance Is On Fire.” “Further Connections” not only continues to outline the history of La Vallee, which began in the first book, but also goes over the history of the Township of Dance, including the tragic Dance
fire that claimed 17 lives on Thanksgiving Day back in 1938.
“Further Connections” is the culmination of a project that began eight or nine years ago when the La Vallee centennial committee began working on a book to record their community’s history.
“When we were working at [the first book], it was amazing—we found so many family connections,” Donaldson explained. “I knew a lot of them, but I found out some I didn’t know.
“So we went with ‘Connections,’ and now ‘Further Connections.’
“I learned so much doing this. It was a wonderful experience doing the two books,” Donaldson added. “When we finished the first book, we had absolute deadlines [in order to coincide with La Vallee’s centennial]. But we still had material left over, and people were coming in and saying, ‘Well, I didn’t get in,’ and we’d say, ‘Well, you didn’t give us anything.’
“So we just kept going and just couldn’t stop,” she continued. “And you know, actually we still have stuff. But this is it as far as I am concerned.”
While the first book was the collaborative effort of a centennial committee, the second one was tackled by a core group consisting of Donaldson, Carmody, and Hayes, who got to work almost immediately after the first one came out and have been working on it until it went to the printers earlier this year.
“It never stopped,” chuckled Donaldson. “But we had lots of help with the first one, and lot of help along the way with this one, too. We each had a job and we seemed to work really well together.
“It was very interesting, when we went to Altona to have our book put together, because the lady there we worked with was amazed,” Donaldson noted. “She said she had never had the same committee come to put out a second book. I said, ‘I can understand why.’
“She was quite amazed we had stuck together and out a second book. I thought that was quite a feather in our cap,” Donaldson remarked.
