We are creating a new Little Free Library and would appreciate your Help.

The box has its own storied past. Over 100 years ago the library began as a cupboard in an RCMP dormitory near Wabamun Lake. Last month, Bonnie Dooner John Taylor re-purposed the cupboard for its next chapter as a library box, adding a roof, back and door using salvaged scrap wood.

We are looking for volunteers to complete these tasks:

• Someone to create a name plate to be fixed to the front
  
• Someone to dig a post hole, plant a 4x4 post that we provide, and cement it in place at its new setting in East Bonnie Doon
  
• Someone to fix the library box to the post after letting the post harden in place a few days.
  

Contact Mark at abundant@bonniedoon.ca if you want to help create this library.

After it's in place, we'll invite all Bonnie Dooners to celebrate our new Little Free Library Box.

Here is our box, awaiting it's new life:

Join us on August 6 for A Bonnie Doon Community Bike Tour for adults and children, organized by Bonnie Doon Men's Shed Group.  If there is rain then we’ll reschedule to Aug 13, one week later.

Highlighting historical landmarks and interesting stories about those who lived here before us and ending with a light refreshment.
 
The Tour will begin at 7 pm at the Community League Building and last about 60-90 minutes.
 
Some of the stops will be:

• Growing up in BD in the ’50’s
• Nob Hill and the Molstad Manson
• William Connors  and his ‘road'
• Duggan’s Boundary Corner History and the 'Honey Wagons'
• Campus St. Jean and Les Soeurs de Ste-Croix
• Dawson Huts / story about George Donald and Elizabeth Brass in the 1880’s

Hello / Aaniin / Tansi!

Do come down if you’re in Edmonton for EFCL's COVID-safe outdoor powwow with ample space for social distancing and masks + hand sanitizer available.

Smokin Buffalo Singers (Cree) will be drumming and will MC this event, so Chi Miigwetch to them!

Also, some sort of light snack and coffee/tea will be provided to dancers and elders and community members while supplies last (individually packaged according to Alberta Health Services requirements).

ALL dancers with regalia will be allowed in, of course, and there is a separate large green area inside the rink just for the dancers.

When: Thursday, July 30, 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Where: Bonnie Doon Park, 9240 93 Street
Cost: Free!

What to bring

• your own lawn chair
• blanket to sit on
• bug spray
• sunscreen
• mask if you have one

It's a work in progress but here's what we've heard so far:

• Bonnie Doon Leisure Centre's pool reopens (with COVID-appropriate adjustments) July 20, 2020
• Here is the schedule of aquatic programs for children & adults (register here)
  
• Here is the drop-in schedule (including Community Swims)...
• ... except there's no more "dropping in"; you must book a time before you arrive (online July 13)
  
• General info and closure notifications for the centre

The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) received a grant from Canadian Heritage in August 2019 to fund Tipi Teachings for Edmonton Community Leagues! This grant will also allow capacity building within the leadership of the EFCL to become familiar with Indigenous protocol, practice, and culture.

The first two Tipi Teachings days were held July 6 & 16. ALL EVENTS HELD OUTDOORS (and in the tipi).

Note: the July 23 session is postponed to July 27, owing to the weather.

July 27, 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM, Children's cultural games
Come join us for some children's games based on indigenous teachings. some special prizes to be won include a medicine bag, smudge kit, and more! Come have fun and make friends. There will be different game stations set up with 8-10 players per game to encourage social distancing. **prizes for kiddos available**

• Simon says in Ojibwe
• pin the teaching on the medicine wheel
• four traditional medicines scavenger hunt

July 30 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM, Powwow and Powwow Food
Elder Phillip and Rayna are looking to arrange a powwow for the final event at your League. It will include powwow dancing, drummers, singers, and some powwow favorites by an indigenous caterer.

AANIIN HELLO / WELCOME
Tipi Teachings is designed to reconnect First Nations people in urban communities back to the valuable teachings, culture and knowledge systems that were lost in residential schools in a good way. Tipi Teachings supports living a good life and being aware of one's identity as a First Nations person by making cultural programs available in Edmonton communities. Come participate in story-telling, make your own medicine wheel, learn teachings of the tipi and engage in sharing circles and learn more about the history of colonialism and how community programs can help reconcile some of Canada's difficult history. Also, these events help support non-indigenous community members building better relations with Indigenous community members and learning more about their role as neighbors and how to be good neighbors.

PLEASE NOTE:
**Catered individually packed "powwow" specialty foods will be served by an indigenous caterer at some events.
**A family-friendly event for all ages. Bring your mom. Bring your kohkom too. We are doing everything COVID friendly!

COVID PRECAUTIONS & PROCEDURES:
1. Hand Sanitizer Stations - these are available at this event. Please use them frequently.
2. Masks - please request a mask upon arrival. We have a certain amount we can distribute. **Preference will be given to elderly and young families so please bring your own mask to ensure you are protected.
3. Seating - this is an outdoor event. Bring your own lawn chair or picnic blanket for you and your family.
4. Supplies - if you have your own markers and materials to supplement these activities bring them along. Some supplies will be provided but due to sanitization, it will be sanitized between uses and this takes time so to ensure ease of access bring materials such as markers and pens and a hard surface to write on for medicine wheels activity, etc.
5. Food - all food will be individually packed and prepared professionally by catering services to ensure safety for all, please sanitize hands frequently at these events to ensure your safety as much as possible
6. Social distancing - all persons will sit 2 meters apart from people outside their family or cohort (another family or families that only interacts with your family)

MIIGWETCH & REMEMBER TO CREATE A KIND & RESPECTFUL ATMOSPHERE WHILE AT THIS EVENT.

On Friday around 10am, the staff from Rutherford School will be holding an end of year drive-by parade through the greater Bonnie Doon area, to enable the students to see their teachers for the first time in over three months. Everyone is welcome to come out and wave! If you're driving in the neighbourhood at that time, try to let the line of cars stay together.

The image below shows the parade route. Below that see the 2020 Rutherford Staff perform "Count On Me" by Bruno Mars, as a parting gift to the students, put together by Rutherford’s music teacher (and Bonnie Doon resident) Carmen So. Carmen says "Most of my co-workers are self-proclaimed "non-singers" (I beg to differ!!). However, they stepped up with open hearts and demonstrated incredible vulnerability and commitment."

The Bonnie Doon Men's Shed meets  Saturday mornings from 10:00 to 11:00, weather permitting. We've been blessed with sun our first four meetings; because of COVID-19 we meet outdoors between the rink shack and the hall, 93240 93 Street.

The Shed is a place where men can come together to serve each other and our community. The conversation is wide ranging, reflecting the diverse backgrounds and experiences of our members. We may just ‘hang out’, talk each others ears off or get on with jobs we see that help our community.

In the past week, with realtor Sarah Leib’s help and three community gardeners we built a community garden at 92 Avenye and 96 Street. Come have a look.

The agenda is generally open, but we've invited an Edmonton leader Men’s Shed movement to join us for coffee and conversation at the June 6 meeting. We'll likely talk about building community. Bonnie Doon men are welcome.

Ritchie and Cloverdale (and maybe Hazeldean?!) have challenged Bonnie Doon to a bike mileage contest. Which neighbourhood will bike more in June? Two ways to track your "mileage"

• If you are a Strava user, use digital magic and join the club
  
• Otherwise, keep track of your distance each day; at the end of the week add it up and email to Alison, bike@bonniedoon.ca
  

Here is a photo of Wilfred McAllister following the provincial soccer champions in 1913-1914 (Memories of Bonnie Doon book, page 58).  Only four years later, Wilfred contracted the Spanish Flu and survived.  Below you will see is a photo of Wilfred after he recovered.

The following article is from this Edmonton Journal article.  ​

The first recorded case of Spanish flu in North America was an American soldier at a Kansas military base in March 1918. The virus arrived in Canada the following September. The Edmonton Journal’s first headline about the epidemic came Sept. 24, 1918: “Spanish Influenza Taking Many Lives in the East. Epidemic Still Spreading.”

On Oct. 4, Alberta Health Minister A.G. MacKay warned that 30-40 per cent of the population would likely catch the virus (MacKay himself later died of complications from the illness.)

Spanish flu tended to kill the young and fit. The real killer was often pneumonia, which typically set in a few days after the virus.

“There are all kinds of stories about people who were strong, healthy people and then they were dead,” said Lowe.
The first confirmed Alberta cases were in Drumheller. By mid-October, Edmonton was on edge. 

City theatres purchased a full-page ad in the Journal, declaring they were “leaving no stone unturned to make our Theatres thoroughly safe and sanitary places for public attendance.”

They were forced to close anyway on Oct. 18, when the Edmonton Board of Health banned public gatherings and ordered schools and churches to shut their doors. Gauze masks became mandatory — the Journal even printed instructions for how to make one out of cheesecloth.

Reports began to roll in of local flu cases. On Oct. 19, the Journal reported 41 cases under quarantine, including a group of soldiers who had travelled on a troop train. Four days later, there were 1,035 cases in Alberta, 70 of them in Edmonton. 

News of Edmonton’s first deaths came Oct. 24. Schools and hospitals were crowded with the sick — some 2,000 by that point. The University of Alberta converted Pembina Hall into a hospital.

Businesses struggled to stay open. The government forced stores and offices to remain closed until 1 p.m., historian Tom Monto wrote in Old Strathcona Before the Great Depression, to give employees time to help in “stamping out the flu epidemic” in their communities.

Suzanna Wagner, a history masters student at the U of A, studied Edmonton’s response to the flu for a project on its 100th anniversary. What struck her most was the grassroots response to the pandemic.
“There was a tremendous volunteer network set up,” she said.

One innovation was the relief districts. During the crisis, Edmonton’s mayor and local clergy divided the city into more than a dozen districts centred on an (empty) neighbourhood school.

“They used the schools as a headquarters,” Wagner said.  An army of volunteers — many of them young, unmarried women — provided services for the sick, including nursing, child care, laundry, cooking and food delivery. Many of the relief workers themselves fell ill.  “This was dangerous work,” said Wager.  Most wore only a cheesecloth mask — changed every few hours — and a standard nursing smock. There were, like today, debates about the efficacy of mask wearing. Rubber gloves did exist, but it’s unclear if local health providers used them.  Wagner notably found no evidence of hoarding during the 1918 outbreak.

By November 5, 1918, there were 9,206 Spanish flu cases in Alberta. Six days later, Armistice in the First World War was declared, and officials could not contain the jubilation. Photographs of local victory parades show revellers wearing flu masks, but they weren’t enough contain the spread. Three days later, there were 58 new cases in Edmonton.

​Wagner said the flu eventually petered out. On November 30, the government lifted bans on public gatherings. The flu flared up once social isolation measures came to an end, but by May 1919, there were no cases in Edmonton, Wagner says.  The illness returned the following two winters, but she said those were much smaller outbreaks with minimal societal disruption.  In the end, 7,914 Edmontonians were treated for the flu. A total of 615 died.

We don't have an official response from the city about our application for a Pop Up Garden, but yesterday we noticed these planters by the rink:

Let's assume those are for Bonnie Doon. The city will move them onto the parking lot (north side) and fill them with soil. The city will remove the planters in the fall. We have 15 planters but 25 people on our list. We'll offer the planters to those people in the order they contacted us, asking to join our effort to create a community garden.

We will apply to the city for a permanent garden. This takes about two years (although rumour has it that Strathearn CL was approved in one year!). If you are interested in helping us build a permanent garden, write to Mark at abundant@bonniedoon.ca.