Co-op donates $40K for park restoration

Co-op is helping to build a place for everyone in Maple Creek, Sask., with funding for the Southwestern Saskatchewan Old-timers’’ Museum.

The Co-op Community Spaces Program is providing $40,000 to help restore the public park around the 1935 log museum. The designated heritage property collects and conserves artifacts and archival material from the Maple Creek and Cypress Hills area, particularly the 1870 to 1920 period.

Stuart Dyrland, General Manager of Pioneer Co-op, said “Co-op Community Spaces is an excellent program that provides Co-op another opportunity to give back and invest in local projects across Western Canada and right here in our own communities. By supporting projects like this, we’re helping to build and support a vibrant and healthy community where people can come together.”

“The Southwestern Saskatchewan Old-timers’’ Museum is thrilled to be participating in the Co-op Community Spaces program. Over the next two years, the funding will aid the museum in restoring the grounds around the 1935 Log Museum back to a shaded public greenspace within our community’s downtown core.

Constructed to be emblematical of the log buildings erected here in the Cypress Hills during the 19th century by the Métis, NWMP and early ranchers; the 1935 Log Museum is now believed to be the oldest purpose-built museum building in Saskatchewan. The greenspace around the museum is just as iconic to the Maple Creek Heritage District as the log structure itself. The museum grounds are now the last surviving example of greenspace and gardens that once existed in the community’s downtown core.

“Thanks to the Co-op Community Spaces program, this important aspect of the property’s heritage value will be restored back to its former glory for the benefit of this and future generations of Maple Creek residents,” said S.W. OldTimers’ Museum & Archive Historian Royce E. W. Pettyjohn.

Co-op Community Spaces is investing in community projects across Western Canada, from Vancouver Island through to Manitoba. The program helps create, protect and improve projects dedicated to environmental conservation, recreation and urban agriculture.

This year, 24 organizations will receive a total $2 million for their community projects. Since 2015, Coop Community Spaces has donated $6.5 million to 88 projects.

The giving program is administered by Federated Cooperatives Limited on behalf of more than 180 independent retail cooperatives across Western Canada that forms the Co-operative Retailing System.

The complete list of 2018 Co-op Community Spaces funding recipients will be announced later in June. For more information about the program, please visit www.communityspaces.ca.

Pioneer Co-op is a retail cooperative that has proudly served Southwest Saskatchewan for more than 82 years.

Today, Pioneer Co-op serves more than 29,000 members — and many more customers — in 18 communities where it operates 30 Retail locations. In the last 5 years Pioneer Co-op has returned more than $59,000,000 to its members in cash back and equity, while contributing over $800,000 to community organizations and initiatives.