Foxwarren’s spirit will be on display at reunion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/07/2017 (3143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Everyone will know someone, in one way or another, at Foxwarren’s big get-together this month.

Linda Butler, who sits on the volunteer committee organizing the all-ages reunion, recognizes many of the more than 200 people who have so far registered for the event; they hail from Manitoba and western Canada, mainly.

Someone she didn’t know about was a 90-year-old man from British Columbia, who was planning his homecoming.

“We’re doing this reunion and he said, ‘I’ve got to come. Is there anybody else who’s 90 years old that I’d want to know?’” Butler recalled.

Turns out, there is — a local man he was once in 4H with is the same age and planning to attend.

Connections will be forged this July 21-23 at the Foxwarren All-Ages School Reunion, held in conjunction with Canada’s 150th anniversary.

This event marks the 100th anniversary of the consolidation of the former Crewe, Moresby, Dunstan and Bayfield schools, with the school in Foxwarren, to form the Foxwarren Consolidated School District #525.

There was pushback at the time to shuttering the smaller, rural schools, but the consolidation went ahead.

By 1922, there were 203 students attending the Foxwarren school, and a couple years later an article on consolidated schools in the Canadian School Board Journal proclaimed that “perhaps the best of these schools is Foxwarren.”

Eventually, the decline in rural populations forced the transfer of high school students to Birtle in 1965 and eventually the closure of the school itself in 2002.

Birdtail Sioux First Nation is currently renovating the interior of the school for a proposed bingo hall, VLT centre, restaurant and gas bar.

Many who attend the reunion will reminisce both on their youth and the so-called glory days of Foxwarren, when the community was bursting with activity.

“As kids growing up, we had the run of town on Saturday nights,” Butler said, of the late 1950s and early 1960s. “The parents usually did the shopping and went to the coffee shop, and the kids were at the movie theatre. And when you got out, you still had 10 cents left over, so you could go and get ice cream.”

As her husband Alan notes, Foxwarren, now with approximately 150 residents, he estimates, isn’t much smaller than the 275 people calling the community home around the 1960s.

But what’s most absent are the retail businesses, like the two hardware stores, three grocery stores, movie theatre and Ford dealership that Alan remembers seeing. They vacated along with the rural population surrounding Foxwarren.

Back in those days, there were five families within the same square mile, northeast of town, where Alan grew up. Now, nobody lives there.

“That decrease in the population, the rural population, the farming population, that has made the difference to the towns, that’s why the businesses all dried up,” he said. “There wasn’t enough people in the town itself to support them.”

At one point, he and his wife, born and raised in Foxwarren, moved closer to Winnipeg, but they returned in 2004 to retire.

All along, Foxwarren never stopped being their home.

“The community of Foxwarren has definitely shrunk but it hasn’t shrunk in spirit.”

The type of place where the hockey rink is unlocked season-long, and where people come happily to reminisce.

“It’s amazing really, that people do come back,” he said. “Five years ago we had a centennial of the town and we ended up with close to 300 people … they love to talk and you reminiscent, and you meet people that you haven’t seen since you left school.

“It’s too bad we all got to get older. Every year there’s somebody else that passes on, and that’s sort of what makes these get-togethers that much more meaningful.”

Liz Finch, chairperson of the Foxwarren Historical Society, said the feedback was so positive after the reunion for the 100th anniversary of the incorporation of the village of Foxwarren, they decided to do it again.

Since she’s organizing the event, and has friends of her own to catch up, Finch will be front and centre at the reunion, though she’d “really like to be in the background.”

“I’m excited to watch other people remember stuff and be excited about who’s there.”

The festivities open Friday with a bonfire, street music, wiener roast and, after the sun sets, a fireworks display.

Activities will run all day Saturday, beginning with a pancake breakfast, then a parade and the dinner and dance.

Sunday will conclude with the chapel service and the brunch.

To register or to find more information, contact Linda Butler at 204-847-2185, Liz Finch at 204-847-2263 or visit the Foxwarren Museum page on Facebook.

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