Centennial Project

The Lethbridge Twinning Society members are proud to be Canadian! We celebrate milestones of our great Country! We had such a milestone to celebrate in 2005......
The centennial of the Province of Alberta!

The Lethbridge Twinning Society is participating in the Centenary of Alberta! Our project was to build a stone monument. We have received stones from each of our “twin cities” (Culver City, California, Towada City City, Japan and Timashevsk, Russia.) We have designed a 50 year time capsule that will be buried inside the monument. In 50 years the time capsule will be opened. (July 22, 2055!) The following is the celebration, presentation speech at the Centennial Monument dedication ceremony held on July 22, 2005, at the monument site. The speech was presented by Harold Bryan Pereverseff, President of the Lethbridge Twinning Society.

The Lethbridge Twinning Society - Centennial Committee: Back Row: Left to Right - Harold, Johan, Glen, Trevor Front Row: Left to Right - Jennifer (daughter Mia), Joseph, Karl Regrets: Henry

Good afternoon honored guests, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Harold Pereverseff, President of the Lethbridge Twinning Society. Thank you for coming to help us celebrate the Centenary of our Province of Alberta. Today in a special ceremony we will also recognize our diverse community fabric that exits in the fantastic place in which we live!

The Lethbridge Twinning Society commenced this Province of Alberta Centennial Project last summer. At that time a committee of nine Twinning Society members formed to plan and oversee the project.

Their vision was to have stones from each of our current twin cities, Timashevsk, Russia, Culver City, California, and Towada City City, Japan brought to Lethbridge to construct a monument. We also asked members of our community to participate along with us. Stones began arriving from Great Falls, Montana, Taber, Alberta, Picture Butte, Cardston, and as far away as Tibet. The donated stones have significant importance to the donors, some are family heirlooms, and we even have some petrified wood!

When it all came together it was like, "One small stone from man, one large monument to mankind!"

Our committee agreed on the design of the monument and as you will shortly see the image of an inukshuk was chosen to symbolize the direction in the pursuit of peaceful and friendly relations which our Society has been building since 1989.

A time capsule has been built to be opened in 50 years by our Jubiel or Centennial baby designate. Jubiel and his mother are with us here this afternoon. he time capsule will be placed within the monument and sealed in September. Anyone may contribute to the time capsule and make a submission that will be opened on July 22, 2055. It is not too late to make you submission, and you may contact the Twinning Society to participate.

The Lethbridge Twinning Society wishes to recognize with sincere gratitude, Brian Butte of BCB Engineering for their professional engineering assistance, Harry Knelson of Inland Anchor & Drill for the foundation, Trevor Anderson our commissioned stone mason for the construction. To Frame Work Animation for their design concept. To the City of Lethbridge Administration, especially Dave Mitchell, Carol Thiebert, and Rick Williams for their support. To His worship Mayor Bob Tarleck and our city counsel for their support and for allowing us this terrific location for this centennial monument. The dedication of our centennial committee and the donations from the community have made this all possible.

Yes, we did have our challenges with this project, however the fun and the gratitude of completion has made it all worth while. Do you know that it took over four months for the stones from Timashevsk, Russia to arrive? And then only with the assistance of the Canadian Embassy in Moscow and the help of the Hon. Rick Casson!

Helping us celebrate this wonderful occasion we are pleased to welcome 22 delegates from our twin city in Culver City, California, Dr. Seichii Kawamura form our twin city of Towada City Ctiy, Japan, and Vadim Ponamerev from our twin city in Timashevsk, Russia. We also welcome Angel and Konstantin Pyryaev from Khabarovsk, Russia who on July 1, this year immigrated to Canada and are currently living in Vancovuer, however have been so impressed with the City of Lethbridge, that they are considering moving here!

Now, it is time, time to unveil your monument.

I would like to ask Dr. Howard Tennant, our Ambassador of the Alberta Centennial Committee, to be joined by Bridgett Pastoor and Clint Dunford representing our Province of Alberta, and our mayor, His Worship Bob Tarleck to all together engage in cutting the ribbon. Once the ribbon is cut each of the Centennial Committee members of the Lethbridge Twinning Society will remove the veil from the monument.

You are welcome to join us after the dedication in the Culver City Room where we will enjoy a beautiful cake donated to us by our Save on Foods store, who have been very supportive our Society over the years.

This was the concept that the Centennial Committee came up with on our very first meeting. We did not sway very far from our original idea. In the beginning, when Karl introduced us to an Inukshuk most of us had never heard of it before...let along were we able to say or spell the word!	This was the Artist computer concept of what the final constructed monument would look like.... pretty close isn't it?	The plaque that is attached to the centennial monument!
Ready for the stones	A piece of petrified wood as donated by Joseph Palate	Coming along nicely
Mother with baby Jubiel, who has been chosen to open the time capsule at the centennial monument 50 years from now	Preparation for fundraising and contibution solicitation	Preparation for Centennial Committee Members, Betty from Betty's Fashion worked hard with us to ensure perfect fitting jackets and proper name affixing
Master Stone Mason, Trevor surveys the construction site. He will expend many hours of his skill and talents to perfect his work on the monument.		The project is complete, now Jubiel waits for 50 years to open the time capsule!