Sarto re-opens museum after pandemic

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This article was published 13/07/2023 (645 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The COVID-19 pandemic closed a lot of pubic spaces and it was only after the pandemic that those spaces became alive once again. This is what happened to Willow Plain Municipal School Museum in Sarto. It was only on June 29 that the museum opened its doors to the public for the first time.

“It’s great to be open now since the pandemic started. This is the first time we’re open, actually. We couldn’t find people to work. But it’s great and fantastic. We’ve had a good response since the week we opened. It’s fantastic,” said Paul Minsky, president of the District Schools Heritage association Inc. (DSHA) which operates the museum.

Willow Plain School first opened in 1911. It’s a one room school house that held one teacher and between 30 to 50 students. About 460 students passed through its doors until its closure in 1968, when all one room school houses closed and children went to amalgamated schools in Grunthal and Steinbach.

In 2001, the school became a museum. In 2003, the school house was reconstructed for $72,000 and has an annual budget of $7,000

“We decided to amalgamate all the schools (from the area) into Willow Plain because it was the only school left standing,” said Minsky. “It was the only one we could (use). This was starting to fall apart. We put in a new foundation, original specs. It is exactly the way it was originally. It is modified to some extent where it needed to be to current standards.”

The museum contains photos and school rosters from schools in Sarto, Slawna, Barkfield, Carruthers, and Tiny Creek.

In 2008, the museum was declared a heritage site.

“It brings back a lot of memories. Looking at the pictures and the names. I recall a lot of the names,” said former student Lorraine Dychtiar.

Dychtiar’s father was the deacon in Sarto and upon his death she was sent away from Willow Plain School to Sarto School having spent about a year or two in Willow Plain. She said her fondest memory of the school was her teacher who told her not to worry about not speaking English and only Ukrainian. He told her in time she will learn to speak English.

Dychtiar wants people to remember the history of Willow Plain and one room school houses and that they share those memories with their children.

And memories is what this museum is all about, especially when it comes to the museum’s newest addition of 60 panels detailing the genealogical history of the families in Sarto and surrounding areas.

“Because I’ve lived here all my life. I am so fortunate to have been born in 1942 which gave me the good luck to have known a lot of the pioneers,” said Helen Feniuk, a board member of the DSHA, who created the panels. “Which is quite fascinating. Not too many people can say that. I have been for so long and I am still in fairly good health and it just became a passion to document my community. So, it started with that and then it snowballed to if I do Sarto I have to do Pansy… and Barkfield. A lot of the Ukrainians in those areas also live in those communities. And because I got involved with the restoration of this school everything went hand in hand.”

Feniuk recorded the history of each family from settlement to 1970. The obituaries are from settlement to the present. She used ancestry.com, myheritage.com, and newspaper archives from The Carillon.

“I think it’s kind of like a trip back in time. Anyone who is nostalgic for what they have experienced or what they know. This will trigger a lot of memories for people. It’ll trigger a lot of memories for people who might not have gone to these schools, but they heard their parents tell them stories or they heard their grandparents tell them stories,” she said.

“So, when they come here and read some of the material in the historical panels and they look at the book I’ve put together…it’s going to be interesting for them to read this stuff to find out (things they didn’t know). It’s a learning experience not just a pleasurable experience, it’s a learning experience.”

The museum will hold a barbecue on Aug. 20 at 11:30 a.m. to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the first settlers in the area.