The Rainy River District Women’s Institute is set to go public with an innovative idea on how to help raise money for its new museum site in Emo—and will push it at a booth during the annual Emo fall fair later this month.
The Emo museum, which has been under the auspices of the district W.I. since 1966, recently was moved to new digs on Tyrell Street in Emo. It is the renovation of that three-building location that all the buzz is about.
The site was formerly three OPP houses, which were given to the district W.I. by the Township of Emo. All artifacts from the old museum site on Highway 11/71 have been moved and that building is up for sale.
“We just want to start making a little bit of noise [because] the Women’s Institute has been very quiet in the past and we want to use every opportunity to get ourselves [and the Emo Museum] into the public’s eye and mind,” district W.I. president Ruth Brett said in a recent interview.
The museum fundraiser will focus on three critical components of any building project—on the table as donation markers in an ongoing effort to raise about $20,000 (a portion of which already is in place) for the first stage of the museum renovation that includes final architectural drawings.
Total cost for the project, including government grant money still in the works, is roughly $900,000.
“We are selling a nail for $10, a shingle for $25, and a board for $50,” noted W.I. vice-president Winnie Rousseau of Fort Frances.
“We need a lot of money and these buildings need a lot of work to renovate,” she added.
One of the buildings has been given a facelift by volunteers, including making the bathroom handicap accessible, new drywall, and paint.
Open daily to the public since the end of June, it temporarily houses artifact theme rooms and an office until renovations of the two other buildings are completed.
The home also is the new site of the Tourist Information Centre in Emo, which the district W.I. also has managed since 1978.
The W.I. museum fundraisers to come also include a community dinner and entertainment night to be held at the Bergland Hall later this month, a dinner theatre during the winter, and four regular annual events (the spring/fall teas, a community Christmas party, and a Heritage Day luncheon in February).
The W.I. began in Rainy River District in the early 1900s, having started nationwide in 1897. By 1907, there were 400 branches of W.I. members across Canada, whose mandate it was (and still is) “to deliver innovative and dynamic self-supporting educational programs and services, the development of proactive lobbying and advocacy practices, and the continual provision of personal growth opportunities.”
The district W.I. is comprised of six branches: Chapple, Burriss, Forest, McIrvine, Morson, and Lake of the Woods (Bergland). Burriss, the only original district chapter from the early 1900s, is celebrating its 100th birthday this year.
Since their beginnings in 1897, W.I. branches across Ontario have been instrumental in accomplishing many household, municipal, health, and welfare regulations not widely attributed to their efforts, including:
•the white lines painted in the centre of provincial highways;
•music on the school curriculum;
•stop signs at railway crossings;
•mandatory purchase of liability (insurance) for car owners prior to licensing;
•hot lunches in schools;
•breathalyzer and blood tests for motorists;
•sex education in schools;
•legislation to dim vehicle lights when meeting;
•abolishing staples on packaged food products;
•the pasteurization of milk;
•the International Peace Gardens on the Manitoba/U.S. border;
•immunizations in school;
•establishing garbage dumps in their communities; and
•documenting histories of their communities
The Emo museum buildings are slated for renovation completion by the end of 2008.
The public is urged to visit the W.I. booth at the Emo Fair and to make a monetary donation by way of a “nail, shingle, or board” to help the group realize its goals.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
