I recently met with Clasina Van Adrichem and her Monday afternoon Catholic Women’s League knitting group from the Sacred Heart Cathedral Parish. I heard news that they were doing a very special knitting project for our very own Mr. PG. I discovered that Erica Fortch, Edna Cutway, Clasina, Georgia Roque, Barbara Wallace, Helen Dery, Sally McLean, Sue Wardlaw, Nichole Lavoie and Joy Cotter were preparing a nice surprise for Mr. PG’s 60th birthday party.
These creative ladies quickly pointed out and suggested that Mr. PG will soon be a Prince George senior and that he deserved a page in my Seniors’ Scene column to officially welcome him into the ranks as a senior in our community.
This idea for my column and the work that these ten creative seniors were doing intrigued me immediately. Here is the story.
The ladies are volunteers and they have been meeting as a group at the Fort George Manor for two hours a week for the past two years. They knit or crochet prayer shawls, hats, mittens, slippers, blankets, lap blankets and socks for the needy, the shut-ins and those who are ill or in distressed circumstances.
Clasina said, “We all donate the yarn and we distribute the items as needed. All of our completed items are a work of prayer and love.
“We laugh and our conversations are lively and fun while we work. We start out all of our meetings with a dedicated prayer, followed by a special prayer for the people who will receive our gifts.”
The ladies are currently knitting scarves for the Mr. PG stuffies that are available for sale at Exploration Place located at 333 Becott Pl. in the Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park. Once the scarves are knit, they will be attached to the Mr. PG stuffies and packaged complete with a special limited-edition collector pin that is being created for the 2020 World Women’s Curling Championship being held from March 14 to 22 at the CN Centre in Prince George.
To celebrate the 60th birthday of Mr. PG, Exploration Place has recently completed a new exhibit all about our iconic Mr. PG mascot. The exhibit celebrates his first public appearance on May 8,1960, at a Rotary International conference that was being held at the late Simon Fraser Inn.
Mr. PG was first created in 1960 depicting a big wooden lumberjack to promote our forest industry and to represent the city of Prince George.
Over the years Mr. PG was featured on a postage stamp, mentioned in songs and appeared in parades winning second prize in the Pacific National Exhibition. He also appeared in the 1963 Grey Cup parade in Vancouver.
Mr. PG has evolved to greater heights over the years. The now 8.13 metre (27 feet) mascot - still symbolizing the importance of the forestry industry to our city - stands at the intersection of Highways 16 and 97 greeting visitors to northern B.C.’s largest city.
For more information on the Mr. PG exhibit, head to Exploration Place and contact the head curator Alyssa Leier or the assistant curator Chad Hellenius. Alyssa and her staff assembled the Mr. PG exhibit and she can tell you all about the many artifacts being held at the museum that did not make it into the exhibit.
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March birthdays that I know about: Caroline Nadalin, Frank Manfredi, Elaine Hughes, Karen Nielsen, Lois Keim, Rita Sexsmith, Janice Arndt, Linda Meise, Doreen Denicola, Kathleen Soltis, Julia Cook, Peggy Vogan, James Dow, Carol Anderson, Colin Arthurs, Eric Davidson, Rose Dorish, Gloria Sintich, Carl Wikjord, Ted Horvath, Ethel Drake, Sandy Houston, Andrea McKenzie (Jr.), Rita Thibault, John Meyer, Esther Swanson, Jo-Ann Pickering, Betty Burbee, Lynn Kedl, Carolyn McGhee, Howard Lloyd, Mavis Bartell, Leonard Paquette, Anna Herbert, Liz Haley, Lil MacGillivray, Alzora Hick, Alice Olesen, Margaret Pearson, Reg Pointer, Robert Krekoski, Janet Dahlberg, Joan Fogarty, Ray Bouffard, Susan Hunter, Bettie Doherty, Alan Dixon, Molly Eberle, Lydia Karl, Gil Rand, Hollis Wood, Clay Danstrom, Debbie Nadeau, Jean Lebrun, Betty Neufeld, Maria Orr, Cherryl Caron and Sue Collison.
Anniversaries: 63 years for Robert and Evelyn DuBois, 54 years for Bob and Myrna Krekoski and 41 years for Bill and Shirley Bond.
