The future of the Winkler Heritage Society is in doubt unless more people step up to take a leadership role with the organization.
The society is struggling to recover in the wake of the death of board chair Randy Rietze last fall.
“He was our champion,” says Joe Bergen, curator of the Winkler Heritage Museum. “He was perfect for the position. He knew the community. He loved the history. And he took on whatever needed to be done. He very much believed that all this was important.”
“All this” being the preservation of Winkler’s history, be it through artifact displays and genealogical services at the museum located in the Southland Mall, document preservation at the Winkler Archives in the Winkler Centennial Library, or educational campaigns such as the stories showcased in the society’s Heritage Highlights newsletter or its Stones and Stories project, which compiles the life stories of people buried in the Winkler cemeteries.
Since Rietze’s passing, John Epp has stepped up to serve as acting board chair on a temporary basis. Other board and committee members include Bergen, Tonille Peters, Ed Falk, Dora Hildebrand, Marie Doell, and Marjorie Hildebrand.
“Some of those aren’t technically board members,” Bergen points out, but these are the people doing all the heavy lifting when it comes to the behind-the-scenes work of the society.
While the loss of Rietze’s drive and enthusiasm has been keenly felt this winter, the fact is the heritage society has been struggling for years to get more fresh blood involved.
Many of the participating volunteers have been involved for decades, and nearly all are in or are nearing their 80s and 90s. One longtime volunteer, Helen Falk, only stepped back a few years ago after she turned 100.
“We have the most amazing volunteers, we really do,” Bergen says. “But we really don’t want them to feel like they have to stay until they’re 100. We would like to give them a break before that.”
The group, on the whole, is ready to pass the torch on to the next generation—but no one is stepping up to grab it.
“We need a new chair, a new vice-chair, more board members,” says Bergen. “We want to have a fundraising committee, a grants committee—people who can really take charge of these things.”
Preserving history
Ed Falk, who mans the Winkler Archives, has been involved with the society since its inception in 1999.
It was formed by a group of community members who were passionate about preserving local history.
In its first few years of operation, Falk shares, the society spearheaded the erection of multiple cairns around town (they can today all be found in Bethel Heritage Park) honouring Winkler’s Jewish and German settlers and the 1876 Hoffnungfeld pioneers.
They had a hand in a number of Winkler Centennial projects, including a quilt, a pictorial calendar, and an in-depth history book.
They also got the archives set up in the new library building in 2007 and welcomed the addition of the museum in the mall in 2011.
In those early years, the society had a robust group of dedicated people leading the charge, Falk recalls, but they were most all of them older volunteers back then already.
“There were people that came along with all sorts of ideas, but then they pass away. They’re gone, and it’s hard to replace them.
“I don’t know what to do about it,” Falk says, acknowledging they’re certainly not the only non-profit agency struggling to find volunteers.
He feels the society still has an important role to play. Local history—newspapers, photographs, important documents—still need to be preserved.
“I just got a couple of documents the other day that were 99 years old. If we don’t have a place for them, then we lose that stuff forever.”
When people stop by the archives on the hunt for a part of their own family’s history, they’re often surprised at just how much is packed into the small room. Most people, Falk laments, aren’t even aware it’s been there for the past 17 years.
“That needs to change,” he says.
The real question is, how?
They say bad news comes in threes, and the society’s current situation is certainly bearing that out.
In addition to losing Rietze, they’ve also been given notice that their space in the Winkler library will not be available to them after October. The Winkler Archives need to find a new home.
So does the museum. With the major renovations the mall has planned over the next couple of years as it welcomes Winners and other new retailers to town, it’s unlikely they’ll be able to afford to remain in the facility.
“It’s a gamble right now if there even will be an archives or a museum next year,” Bergen says candidly. “December 2024 is when our lease will be up and then the museum has to find a new home, plain and simple.”
Their immediate goal is to find a temporary space to house the museum’s approximately 5,000 artifacts along with all the documents from the archives.
“But what we really need, long term, is our own building,” Bergen says.
It’s a project that’s been on the society’s plate for a few years now, but little headway has been made in finding a suitable location and raising funds to build.
Which circles things back around to the need for volunteers eager to tackle this project and lead the society into the future.
“We need to get the community involved, set a goal, get a campaign going,” Bergen says. “There’s so many plans that we have … but we need more help.”
Like Falk, Bergen firmly feels the society serves an important purpose in providing year-round access to local historical documents and artifacts and a place where stories that might otherwise be lost can be shared with future generations.
“The area we cover, we extend almost West Reserve-wide as far as the history of the local villages, the cemeteries, and the churches go,” Bergen says. “It’s the entire history of the people who made this area what it is.”
Bergen would love to see the society’s artifacts extend beyond Winkler’s predominantly Mennonite roots as well, to begin to tell more stories of the immigrant families who have come to call the community home over the past 20 or 30 years.
“They are a part of the heritage of this area now,” she says.
If you’d like to get involved with the Winkler Heritage Society as a volunteer—be that as a leader on the board or even someone willing to give a few hours a week to staff the museum or the archives—stop by the museum Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Thursday from 7-9 p.m., or Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., or call Bergen at 204-319-0080. You can catch Falk at the Winkler Archives Wednesdays from 3-5 p.m. or call 204-325-8929.
Or go to winklerheritagesociety.ca to learn more about the society’s work.
