30 November 2006
Holiday Initiative Designed to Aid Railway Station Restoration
Portage la Prairie Manitoba - These lights are energy
efficient, touching, and support a good cause.
Portage la Prairie Heritage Inc. is bringing the Scandinavian tradition of ice candles to Portage cemeteries on Christmas Eve as a way
to honour loved ones who have died, and raise money for the restoration of the city's historic CP Rail train station on Third Street
N.E. "Manitoba is dark in the winter time, and it will be lovely to see these lights," said Brenda Taylor, a member of
Portage Heritage Inc.'s board of directors, yesterday. "It's a beautiful thing to do in the winter," she said, adding it is
a way to honour and include relatives who have died in the celebration of the Christmas season.
The candles and ice blocks that hold them can be purchased for $10 at Save the Canadian Pacific Railway Station store in Portage Mall.
The cost includes transporting the candles to cemeteries and lighting them, although people may light their own candles if they
prefer. A short ceremony will be conducted at each cemetery in conjunction with the candle-lighting.
Taylor said she got the idea from Kenora, Ont., which has been using ice candles for several years.
This is the first time the candle fundraiser has taken place in Portage, but some people are beginning to take notice. "The word
is just getting out," said Taylor, who has been producing the frozen candle holders at her home for the last few weeks, although
an unexpected warm spell forced her to temporarily store them in her freezer.
Portage Heritage Inc. board chairman Vic Edwards said, "People I've talked to think it's a great idea... Instead of a dark
cemetery on Christmas Eve, there is a little bit of memory flickering there." He explained all the money generated by the project
will go towards restoring the former CP Rail station, which is expected to cost $1.3 million. About $250,000 has been raised to date.
The station, which was built in 1893, was transformed into an office building after VIA Rail stopped using it in 1993. After a
deliberately-set fire gutted one-third of the building in 2002, it was boarded up. Now Portage Heritage Inc.
is working on turning it into a interpretive centre.
The heritage organization has also applied to Prairie Icon Project - part of the province's Historic Resources Branch - for additional
funding, but so far, there hasn't been a definite response. "We have a lot of work left to do," Edwards said yesterday.
"What we're going to do next, we hope, is repair the damaged dormers," he said, explaining the new windows will be energy
efficient, while still looking like they are part of the original station.
For more information on the ice candle project, contact Taylor at 857-1992.
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