Get ready to put your nostalgia where your mouth is as a local culture-boosting organization is putting on a fundraising dinner in a few weeks.
The first annual St. Albert Heritage Dinner is meant to help carry on a legacy that is seeing a recent resurgence in activity.
According to representatives from St. Albert’s Arts and Heritage Foundation, the city’s heritage is undergoing a massive revitalization, what with major projects that are already under way on both grain elevators and the Little White School.
There is also the $1.3-million Founders’ Walk project that will see phase one complete in time for the city’s 150th anniversary next year. When you take into account that the historic Chevigny House that was built in the 1880s will be restored and moved to the replica French-Canadian farm that will be developed at Grain Elevator Park, you know that St. Albert takes its heritage seriously.
Danielle Antoniuk, the group’s marketing and communications co-ordinator, said that Profiles has its annual art auction, a major event that garners a lot of attention for the visual arts, but until now there hasn’t been a parallel event for the heritage sites or for the MusĂ©e HĂ©ritage Museum.
“This is what we hope to make of it,” she said, speaking highly of the venue that the organizers at Arts and Heritage have chosen as the Heritage Dinner’s location.
Naturally, it will take place at Vintage, the newly renovated restaurant/lounge/banquet hall at Gold Dust Casino. While the details are still being finalized, guests can expect an evening of regional heritage and culture while they learn how community involvement will help sustain and grow the link to our common past and keep our vibrant and compelling history alive. All while enjoying what will likely be a delicious four-course meal.
Antoniuk said that while there isn’t a specific fundraising goal for the event, Arts and Heritage does hope to gain more interest in its efforts and the city’s history in general, especially in advance of the major celebrations to come in 2011 with the city’s sesquicentennial.
“Any awareness we raise is a bonus, as well as any funds we raise. Any amount will be wonderful.”
