Cornerstone of the Community
Posted by Vaughn Bend on Thursday, March 29, 2012
Under: General
Poplar Point Manitoba was similar to any number of the hundreds of small rural communities scattered across Western Canada, it had a school, a church or two, a country store and gas station and was along the railroad. The grain elevators served as a landmark on the prairie to guide people home.
The people of Poplar Point and surrounding area were hard working folk that settled in the area to build a better life, raise families, support each other and build a community they could be proud of. A central part of the community and life was sports, baseball in the summer and hockey in the winter. Everyone took their sports seriously and like everything else in the area they threw all their pioneering spirit and energy into the sports they loved. As a result Poplar Point and area became renowned for continually producing power house championship teams and top flight amateur and professional athletes.
Everyone in the community was involved, at one time or another almost every person was at the rink either playing, coaching, managing, cheering on the local teams or doing one of the millions of things that volunteers did to make it such an amazing and integral part of the community.
No one did it for glory or fame, and there was definitely no money to be made but that did not stop anyone from putting their heart and soul into the game they loved and in the end it touched and shaped thousands of lives of the people in the community.
In 2013, Poplar Point is celebrating its 100th anniversary of Hockey in the community, a number of things have changed over those 100 years, the town is smaller, the elevators are gone, and the community almost lost their beloved rink. But like 63 years ago when community volunteers first built the rink, volunteers in the community got together and restored the rink and had it declared a Canadian and Manitoban historic site. It was originally built as a memorial for those who served and gave so much during world war two and now since its restoration maybe it can also be a memorial for the people who gave so much of themselves over the years so the community would have a place to gather and kids would have a place to play.
Not many things last 10 years anymore much less 100 years, the intent of this site and blog is to capture the stories and pictures of 100 years of building a community through sport. There are many athletes and teams who came out this community and achieved greatness and the community is proud of their accomplishments but their are also a million stories of triumph and tragedy, big and small that have not been told and deserved to be captured and shared, as the 100th anniversary rapidly approaches maybe this site can be place where those stories and pictures get shared for everyone to enjoy.
Contact us through contact page or directly through the attached email if you have a story or pictures that you would like to share on this site. PPPR100@gmail.com
The people of Poplar Point and surrounding area were hard working folk that settled in the area to build a better life, raise families, support each other and build a community they could be proud of. A central part of the community and life was sports, baseball in the summer and hockey in the winter. Everyone took their sports seriously and like everything else in the area they threw all their pioneering spirit and energy into the sports they loved. As a result Poplar Point and area became renowned for continually producing power house championship teams and top flight amateur and professional athletes.
Everyone in the community was involved, at one time or another almost every person was at the rink either playing, coaching, managing, cheering on the local teams or doing one of the millions of things that volunteers did to make it such an amazing and integral part of the community.
No one did it for glory or fame, and there was definitely no money to be made but that did not stop anyone from putting their heart and soul into the game they loved and in the end it touched and shaped thousands of lives of the people in the community.
In 2013, Poplar Point is celebrating its 100th anniversary of Hockey in the community, a number of things have changed over those 100 years, the town is smaller, the elevators are gone, and the community almost lost their beloved rink. But like 63 years ago when community volunteers first built the rink, volunteers in the community got together and restored the rink and had it declared a Canadian and Manitoban historic site. It was originally built as a memorial for those who served and gave so much during world war two and now since its restoration maybe it can also be a memorial for the people who gave so much of themselves over the years so the community would have a place to gather and kids would have a place to play.
Not many things last 10 years anymore much less 100 years, the intent of this site and blog is to capture the stories and pictures of 100 years of building a community through sport. There are many athletes and teams who came out this community and achieved greatness and the community is proud of their accomplishments but their are also a million stories of triumph and tragedy, big and small that have not been told and deserved to be captured and shared, as the 100th anniversary rapidly approaches maybe this site can be place where those stories and pictures get shared for everyone to enjoy.
Contact us through contact page or directly through the attached email if you have a story or pictures that you would like to share on this site. PPPR100@gmail.com
In : General
Tags: "poplar point" "100 years of hockey"
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