Shaunavon hosts fantastic centennial celebration
Aonce-in-a-century celebration was hosted in Shaunavon over the weekend when thousands of residents, family and friends helped the community celebrate their centennial.
Spread out over four days, the July 18 to 21 centennial celebration fittingly reflected the theme of “100 years, Our Home, Our Future.”
Large crowds turned out for all of the major centennial events, starting with the well attended opening ceremonies on July 19 and over 800 enjoying Friday night’s Teen Dance.
Saturday continued the centennial momentum with well over 1,500 enjoying a pancake breakfast, followed by a 45-minute long parade, capacity crowds for both days of the 2013 Boomtown Days Stampede, and the day winding up with approximately 1,000 people attending the evening cabaret.
Sunday’s final celebration events did not lose any enthusiasm, as there was great entertainment during their Sunday in the Park, complete with a Flash Mob performance with participants ranging in age from 9 to 87.
“It was an amazing weekend,” admitted Wendy Thienes, one of the dozen individuals sitting on the Shaunavon Centennial Committee. “It seemed pretty seamless. Everything fell into place, with no major hitches or glitches.”
“There was so much going on that there was really no way anybody could have taken part in all of it, but at the same time then there was something for everyone.”
The organizers were impressed with the large turnout at events, with 1,334 individuals registering for the weekend, but many others just opting to pick and choose events to enjoy.
“It was a lot of effort was put into the planning and organizing so the Committee is really thrilled about how things went off and we couldn’t have asked for anything better,” she said.
Thienes was quick to salute the entire volunteer team from the weekend, with major efforts needed to host breakfast, the work of the rodeo committee, and the time put in by their cabaret workers.
“It was worth every minute of everybody’s volunteer time. The committee was the main planning committee, but literally hundreds of people volunteered with different aspects of it throughout the weekend, and different groups took on some bigger parts of it.”
The Boomtown Days Stampede drew large crowds for evening performances on Friday and Saturday where 150 entries were featured, along with over 70 competitors vying for prize money during Saturday morning’s slack performance.
The Old Tyme Country Fair and Quilt Show at the Crescent Point Wickenheiser Centre also drew large crowds over the weekend.
“The Fair was a huge hit,” she said. “It was a lot of effort to get all those quilts together and get them put up, but it certainly transformed what’s usually just a rink into something totally different.”
Downtown was also a hub of activity, with the Chamber of Commerce hosting a flea market where businesses and individuals could have outdoor sales on the closed main street, while it was also the site of a children’s carnival, while also allowing people to walk freely through downtown while visiting. Rock Solid Refuge lent their support to host Shaunavon's Centennial pancake breakfast on Saturday morning, with 1,334 people pre-registering for breakfast but many more also lining up to eat.