[BCMA] Report from Ft. McMurray

Tue May 10 22:05:19 PDT 2016

greetings all members of museums in BC.

I wrote to Rosanne Davidson, executive director of Fort McMurray Heritage Society asking on their welfare and offering our assistance how ever each of our museums and museum associations might be able to help their heritage facilities recover.  Below is a copy of the email I sent to her on behalf of our Museum in Comox and on behalf of the Comox Valley Museum Association as well as on behalf of other museums in BC and Vancouver Island.  Following that is her response.

Please take her letter to your boards and heritage communities and see what you can do to help return Ft. McMurray's heritage centres back to their former glory and get reopened as soon as possible.

My letter to her:

  "Greetings from Vancouver Island.

I am the founder and director of the HMCS ALBERNI Museum and Memorial and the Alberni Project society president.  Our museum is located in Comox on Vancouver Island.

I am also one of the founders of the Comox Valley Museum Association, a group of small to large museums in the Comox Valley (about 10 of us depending on the season).

We are not sure how your museum (and any others in your area), the buildings and facilities of your museum have been affected by the horrible fire, but we would like to offer some help to you if you can use it?

Please let us know how you and other museums in your area have been affected and as members of the BC Museum Association, plus our own Association I am sure we can all band together to help you and any other historic or archive museums get through this troubling times. 

Please let us know what the rest of BC's museums (as well as our own group) can do to help and I'll make sure we get the message out to all the other BC Museums what we can collectively do to help your home museums bounce back as soon as possible.  Fund raising to help recover, assistance in restorations if need be, storage of artefacts if need be. Help promote the fact you are back in business if need be.  What ever, we want to help your community and its heritage.

As chance would have it, our own museum is having our board meeting Tuesday evening to discuss our upcoming exhibit in June and I will be able to bring this up to the board at that time.  Also CVMA will be meeting later in the week and I'll bring it up with them too."

at your service,

Lewis Bartholomew
Founder & Executive Director
The Alberni Project
mrbarth at alberniproject.org
250-334-6555 - cell (voicemail only)

Her response is as follows:

"Hello Lewis,

Thank you for your kind words. We sincerely appreciate your support during these difficult times.  Many of our Heritage Society community friends, volunteers, directors and staff have experienced loss. The majority of us have homes to return to, however others, sadly do not. 

We are thankful that we are safe. Some are with family and/or friends  throughout Alberta and Canada. Others have found refuge at hotels and centres. Some have several families members and friends staying together and are making the best of situation.

I`m in Edmonton and fortunately I have been able to set up office at the home I’m staying at. Should you want to contact me I can be  reached on my cell at 780 715 8825, text or by email.

We are extremely grateful to all of the people of Alberta and Canada for their continuous love and prayers. Their generosity of donations and financials support is overwhelming.

We are hopeful that before too long the authorities will permit us to return to Fort McMurray. However, we have not been given a timeline as to when that might be.

We love our community, in time we will rebuild and be stronger than ever. Hard work and determination will make our rebuild possible.
Our lives we will never be the same, we will start over and do the best we can with what we have.

We have word that our Heritage Village and Heritage Shipyard are still standing. At this time, we do not know what condition the sites are in but are hoping we have not received extensive damage.

At Heritage Village, we planned to re - open this summer after 3 years of closure due to the 2013 flood. Our hope is that we still be able to move forward with this plan and open in August.  Heritage Shipyard was to open May long weekend. Of course, the opening of both sites will be dependent on what we have to deal with when we can get back into Fort McMurray. The condition of the museum sites, will determine when we can open for business again.

I heard through the Alberta Museums Association, that the Oilsands Discovery Centre was not damaged. The only other museum is further north from us approx 200 km at Fort Chipewyan. My understanding is that museum is fine.

For now we are struggling to provide our staff with some financial assistance to help out with mounting expenses. Staff have registered with Red Cross, and EI, hopefully financial support will come shortly.

Please convey our appreciation to your colleagues and all the other BC museums for their concerns.  Lewis, I will contact you once we have assessed our situation and the have determined what assistance we may require.

Thank you,

Roseann Davidson
Executive Director
Phone: 780-791-7575 Ext # 228
www.fmheritage.com"

So there you have it.  Please bring this letter to the attention of your board members, staff, and patrons and encourage donations to the Canadian Red Cross for Ft. McMurray's heritage growth. Their heritage is our Nation's heritage.

at your service,

Lewis Bartholomew
Founder & Executive Director
The Alberni Project
mrbarth at alberniproject.org
250-334-6555 - cell
Hours Tue - Sat  10-4

MUSEUM ADDRESS:
HMCS ALBERNI MUSEUM and MEMORIAL
MUSÉE DU NCSM ALBERNI
34-190 Port Augusta Street
Comox BC V9M 3N1
250-339-4322
Hours Tue - Sat  10-4

ADMINISTRATION OFFICE:
The Alberni Project Society
TAP Mobile Exhibit Bookings
65 Salsbury Road
Courtenay, BC Canada V9N9L7
250-338-2720

HMCS Alberni Memorial
www.alberniproject.org
www.facebook.com/thealberniproject

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." -Albert Einstein

Email is a non-secure form of communication and clients should not include any sensitive account information in any email to The Alberni Project. Le courriel n'est pas un mode de transmission securise et les clients doivent s'abstenir d'y inclure tout renseignement sensible sur leur compte dans toute communication electronique destinee a projet de Alberni.

Letter one:

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