Rotary Makes A Difference
Posted by Kevin Hilgers
If you ever wonder what we do with funds we raise as Rotarians - here is another answer. We have a "Small Donations Committee" that hands over donations to groups that ask for funding. Here Lorne Radbourne presents a Rotary Donation of $1000 dollars to Chelsey Huber (Friends of Saskatoon Island) to support busing of seniors to Trumpeter Swan viewing and Tea. (March 2 2012).
Did you know:
A yearly swan festival in organized in the park each April by the Friends of Saskatoon Island Cooperating Association. It celebrates the spring migration of the trumpeter swan.
The park takes its name form a large island that used to be in the middle of the lake, where Cree natives used to pick saskatoon berries to use in pemmican. The island merged to the adjacent plains when the water level dropped in 1919, and the lake was divided in two sections.[1]
A settlement was established on the north side of the lake. The community of Lake Saskatoon was incorporated as a village in 1912. It was eventually abandoned after 1924, when the Grande Prairie-Grande Cache Railway missed the settlement by 9 kilometers (5.6 mi) when it was constructed on a more southern route through Wembley instead.
A provincial park was created on the spit of land dividing the two parts of the lake. It was established on November 21, 1932. The area was declared a Federal Migratory Bird Sanctuary in 1948.