Community focuses on restoring cemetery

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Residents of the communities of Owl River and Big Bay in northern Alberta have joined forces in a restoration project for their local cemetery.

They've formed a committee and now the Owl River recreation association has undertaken the project and will plan, organize and fund-raise for the enhancement of the cemetery.

Jackie Przysiezny, the co-ordinator of the Owl River project, said by early summer the Our Lady of The Snow Cemetery will be getting some much needed work done. She said that the cemetery, which has been around since the early 1900s, is in really poor shape.

"It is a beautiful site, which is currently being used, and it's been in the community for a long time and we'd like to preserve and restore it. Something we as a community project would like to keep up," she said.

The project began after Przysiezny saw first-hand how bad the cemetery was when she lost her father in October 2002.

"Until then we did not realize just how bad the cemetery was. The hearse gets stuck when the ground is thawing and that sort of thing. So we thought there are grants available and we could fund-raise, so why not fix it up. I think that it just needed somebody to take the bull by the horns and that is where we are at right now," she said.

According to Przysiezny, there are a variety of ethnic backgrounds represented in the people whose family members are buried in the cemetery.

"The first person buried in the cemetery was a Metis trapper. I know that there are Ukrainians and Native people, but I'm not sure what the other nationalities are," she said.

As part of fund-raising, the committee is inviting the public to attend an entertainment event on Feb. 22 that will feature comedian Don Burnstick, a music jamboree and an auction at the community hall in Owl River.

"The tickets are going fast. After the comedy show in the evening, we are also going to be doing a music jamboree and a friend of my sister owns an art gallery in New York. He is going to be donating some wildlife prints to be auctioned off. So it is going to be a really neat evening," she said.

Owl River and Big Bay are located 35 kilometres from Lac La Biche.