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Miss Supertest Documentary by Peter Lockyer, History Lives Here Inc

DOCUMENTARY ON LEGENDARY BOAT MISS SUPERTEST PREMIERES IN PICTON

(PICTON, ONTARIO) MAKING WAVES: The Story of the Miss Supertest Team, will premiere at The Regent Theatre in Picton at 4 pm. on Monday, August 8th 2011 as part of a three-day event to celebrate the Canadian racing hydroplane Miss Supertest III.

In August 1960 and 1961, the waters off Picton churned as unlimited class hydroplanes thundered across Long Reach leaving sprays of wake – or ”rooster tails” – as they sped by thousands of spectators watching from the shore. These were the Harmsworth International Races. In 1959, 1960, and 1961 a Canadian boat named Miss Supertest III swept to victory against her American competitors in races in Detroit and Picton to establish a record of successive championships that has never been matched by another Canadian boat.

To celebrate this Canadian sports history, a weekend of exhibits and events will be held at the Loch Sloy Business Park in Picton – once a military base known as Camp Picton. On Monday, August 8th, Canada Post will launch a commemorative stamp in honour of the boat. Later that afternoon, the documentary on the Supertest story will premiere at The Regent Theatre in Picton. See http://www.misssupertest.ca for a full list of events.

“The launch of the Canada Post commemorative stamp and this weekend celebration is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” says Peter Lockyer of History Lives Here Inc., the Picton-based communications firm, which produced the documentary. “ I attended the Harmsworth races 50 years ago and they have endured as an exciting moment in the maritime heritage of the area. It’s a privilege to re-live this rich history and to contribute our documentary on the Supertest team as part of this community celebration.”

MAKING WAVES: The Story of the Miss Supertest Team traces the early days of the Thompson family of London, Ontario, owners of the Supertest chain of gas stations across Canada, as they entered the world of international hydroplane racing in the 1950s. Although they faced a number of engineering challenges and heartbreaking setbacks before achieving success with their boats Miss Supertest II and Miss Supertest III, the Thompsons and their team won a series of three consecutive world titles.

“They made sports history,” says Lockyer. “The design of their Supertest boats, the Rolls Royce engines which powered them, drivers like Bob Hayward, and the other members of the team achieved greatness. They deserve to be celebrated for what they did especially at a time when Canadians were so uncertain of their place in the world.”

DVD copies of the documentary MAKING WAVES: The Story of the Supertest Team can be purchased at The Regent Theatre or online at Books & Company in Picton http://www.PictonBookstore.com

Formed in 2004 by former CBC broadcaster Peter Lockyer, History Lives Here Inc. provides a wide range of communication services for businesses, industry associations and communities celebrating significant anniversaries. 

For more information, contact:

Peter Lockyer History Lives Here Inc.

74 West Mary St., Picton, ON KOK 2TO

Tel: 613 – 476 – 3356

Email: historyliveshere@bell.net

Website: http://www.historyliveshere.ca

MAKING WAVES: The Story of the SupertestTeam

Canada Post Commemorative Stamp Celebrating Miss Supertest III

by capturing the International Harmsworth Trophy three years in a row.

Canada Post Commemorative Stamp Issue Date, Aug 8, 2011

Miss Supertest III

Fifty years ago, on August 7, 1961, tens of thousands of excited spectators stood on the banks of Lake Ontario at Long Reach, near Picton, Ontario, and held their collective breath as Canadian hydroplane Miss Supertest III made history by capturing the International Harmsworth Trophy for a third time in a row. Her story is almost mythic in that it combines both triumph and tragedy, and is still told again and again by those who were there to witness her historic win. The first non-U.S. winner in 39 years, the innovative Miss Supertest III, designed by James (Jim) Thompson and piloted by southwestern Ontario chicken farmer Bob Hayward, combined grace and beauty with indomitable speed and horsepower.  

At the age of seven, Thompson told his father that he wanted to win the Harmsworth for Canada someday. He inspired pride throughout the nation and caught the attention of the world when he made good on his childhood ambitions, capturing the prestigious international Harmsworth Trophy in 1959, 1960 and 1961. Miss Supertest III became a powerful example of Canadian ingenuity that still lives on in the hearts of hydroplane enthusiasts.  

Supertest Petroleum, founded by his father, J. Gordon Thompson, lent its name to three of the Thompson hydroplanes. Despite his Vice-presidential responsibilities at the then family-owned business, the younger Thompson dedicated much of his energies to speedboat racing. He achieved lesser triumphs with Miss Supertest I (formerly Miss Canada IV) and Miss Supertest II, which broke the world’s straightaway record with a speed of 297 km/h (184.495 mph).  

Miss Supertest III was specifically designed for the Harmsworth Trophy competition. Like her predecessor, she featured a 2000 hp Rolls-Royce Griffon motor, originally used to power the Royal Air Force’s Supermarine Spitfire single engine fighter. With other incremental innovations, Miss Supertest III quickly proved herself well suited to the Harmsworth Challenge.  

Her first and only non-Harmsworth race, with Hayward driving, was the 1959 Detroit Memorial Cup. Later that year, in August, Hayward piloted Miss Supertest III to a successful Harmsworth Trophy challenge on the Detroit River, with an average speed exceeding 185 km/h (115 mph). She and her racing team successfully defended the Harmsworth Trophy the following two years at Picton. In the 1960 competition, Hayward set a world lap speed record of 203 km/h (126.226 mph) on the 8 km (5 mile) course.  

Hayward drove Miss Supertest III in only four races, but was undefeated in all. In a tragic accident on September 10, 1961, during the U.S. Silver Cup race on the Detroit River, and only weeks after winning his third Harmsworth race, Hayward was moving at an estimated 249 km/h (155 mph) in the older Miss Supertest II when she flipped, killing him. The Thompson team retired from racing, and Miss Supertest III was permanently dry-docked. In tribute, a bay in Lake Ontario near Picton was named Hayward Long Reach. Both Hayward and Thompson have been inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame.  

For designer and speed enthusiast Ivan Novotny, Vice-president at Taylor|Sprules Corporation, designing the two Miss Supertest III stamps was a dream job. He had the great fortune of being able to spend time with Thompson, now in his mid 80s. In addition to allowing Novotny and the partners of the firm the opportunity to comb through his personal archives for imagery, he generously shared his own insider information about the design of the speedboat and his experiences as a part of the race team. For Novotny, it was an experience that crystallized the creative direction for the stamp.  

“I was thrilled that he was willing to show us Miss Supertest III. The boat feels very raw, powerful. It’s very impressive. But for me, the most inspiring aspect of seeing the speedboat is watching Jim (Thompson). There’s something in the way he touches the boat, the way he smiles. He was t alking to us, but I was watching his hand stroke the aged cracked varnish—it was as if the memories were flooding up through his fingertips. ”Novotny adds that viewing this relationship between man and machine helped to clarify his creative approach.  

“There’s something incredibly graceful about Jim—the genuine affection for the era in which Miss Supertest III won and the people who made that possible. I marvelled how he was able to jump back in time and remember so many precise details. It was definitely an exciting chapter in his life—but just one chapter of many. His respect for this machine is almost tangible. I wanted to capture that, to represent the era with a particular palette; to create a design that would pay homage to the speed and power and incredible grace that was Miss Supertest III and her team.”

Miss Supertest 50th Anniversary Celebration – August 6, 7, 8th 2011

50 years this August, Miss Supertest III, Canada’s entry in the Harmsworth International hydroplane race, captured a third straight championship over her American competitors. To celebrate this great moment in Canadian sports history, a weekend of events is scheduled August 6 – 8th, 2011 in Picton at Loch Sloy (Picton Airport). Miss Supertest III together with other race boats of her class will be on display. Canada Post will launch a commemorative stamp honouring the Supertest legacy on Monday, August 8th.

For more details on this event, visit http://www.misssupertest.ca

Look for our article on Miss Supertest published in the summer edition of Watershed magazine. http://www.watershedmagazine.com/

Launch of the 2011 History Moments Series III

Thank you for sharing this day with us. My name is Peter Lockyer and I have a company called History Lives Here Inc.

We’re here to celebrate the third series of History Moments.   

The History Moments are short, video vignettes on the local history of Prince Edward County that play before movies at The Regent, are broadcast on Cogeco cablevision, distributed into area schools, archives, libraries and museums, are used as part of the interpretative program to the over 550,000 annual visitors to The Sandbanks Provincial Park, are retailed in over 30 local stores, and broadcast online on the company website www.historyliveshere.ca.   

Starting this week, the series will be featured at another new event – the first Picton Picturefest, a cinema festival here at the Regent and other venues in the County. I like this idea – and I especially like that it is being organized by people a whole lot younger than I am – something I’d like to discuss with you today.  

The History Moments series is produced in association with The Glenwood Cemetery, The Museums of Prince Edward County, and The Regent Theatre. It’s one of several initiatives we have undertaken together to develop a history product line. We have our Gallows and Graveyards Walking Tours of Picton now in their 4th year, which takes place Friday and Saturday nights at 6:30 throughout the summer. Friday night’s tour takes you through the home and church of Rev. William Macaulay who was a titan of his time here in The County…and we also take you into the old gallows where we hanged two men in June 1884.   

Saturday night’s tour takes place at Glenwood Cemetery.  There’s a special walking tour tonight if you would like to take a tour of the restored Chapel at the Glenwood Cemetery and tour the grounds. Glenwood is actually a wonderful heritage restoration success story. So we invite you to come visit this evening and throughout the summer on Saturday nights to hear about what we’ve been doing over the last decade to restore this spectacular 62-acre heritage Victorian cemetery.  

And we have our fall/winter lectures series that we have developed. We’re working on our line up of speakers, but I can tell you that author Peter C. Newman has agreed to be one of our speakers this year. And we’re also partnering this year with Libby Crombie of Royal Lepage Proalliance Realty and Stephanie Lynn who have developed their Heritage Christmas House tour, which will take place on Sunday, December 4th.  

So we have started to develop a range of heritage products. We are doing all this to increase community awareness of the rich history that is all around us. Our thinking is that if you know about this heritage, then you will care about it, and become engaged in efforts to preserve it.  

Today’s launch of the third History Moments series is free.  

It is for two reasons. The first is that the partners in the project all feel quite strongly that nobody is every going to pay money to hear me speak.  

But the second reason is because we want to tell you that heritage isn’t free. It’s come as a result of an enormous effort by those who have gone before us…. It’s been built at great cost by the small deeds and great endeavours over the decades by people who believed – against great odds – that they could start over in a new land, build their community and build a nation.  

I think we owe them something. We owe them an equal effort to remember them…to tell their stories…and to safeguard rather than squander – the inheritance they left us.  

Last year was not a good year for heritage in Prince Edward County. In March 2009 we lost a block of our Main Street in Picton to a new development yet to be built a year later. It’s located next to the block of gracious old houses we tore down in the 1970s to build a mini mall. And it was just across the street from the old Methodist Church built in 1875 that was demolished last summer. We all watched with a certain horror and morbid fascination as the building was first mortally wounded with its side gouged out…and then ultimately ripped down.  

I remember telling you then at our launch last year that on the worst of days I was always cheered by the fact that the pyramids are safe…. as long as they stay in Egypt because in Prince Edward County we would have ripped down those piles of rocks a long time ago.  

It’s a year later. We have had a municipal election, and heritage was actually an election issue. I believe that’s the first time that has ever happened here. And so the election is over, but the problem is not.  

In fact, we have just a short distance from here, two buildings along our Main Street that can be considered as part of the “endangered species list.”  

The Royal Hotel was built in the early 1880s in anticipation of a new upscale traveler that would come to visit as a result of the completion of the railway. That didn’t happen because the railroad went under…and the Royal soon followed. And yet under new management, the Royal did become a successful hotel and an enduring icon of our Main Street. Now it’s future is again very uncertain. The roof is in bad shape…and the building is under bankruptcy protection.

A second building is the Downes House behind the Bank of Montreal across from the cenotaph. We produced a History Moments last year about this house built by Capt. John Pepper Downes in the 1850s. Downes was the town clerk back then, but he was also a talented artist who left us 12 remarkable pencil sketches of early life here. The building is in poor shape…and unless it can have a future that justifies the expense of restoring it, it too faces a grim future.  

I would add a third building that we are not yet talking about. It’s the massive United Church in Picton that has – like most churches – a declining congregation, and considerable overhead. I used to ask my Uncle Jack Ward “What’s going to happen to the church?” He said last year around this time that there wasn’t a problem because there were 4-5 people like him who could afford to drop $100 – $200,000 into the building. My Uncle Jack died last winter…now there are only 3-4 people with the kind of deep pockets to keep the building going.   Last winter, as well, one of our municipal buildings – a town hall in Demorestville – unexpectedly had its roof collapse.   

If you tear down…or lose by neglect…all the special places in your community, you have to ask, “What’s so special about my community?” And the sad answer to that is “Nothing.” Heritage has an incalculable cost when you lose it because it is never, ever coming back.  

We too are aging along with our buildings. I’m not as old as the Royal… although from time to time, my son thinks my roof could use a little repair.  

I could name you a dozen organizations in Prince Edward County on the verge of folding. It’s just demographics really…. the 9.8 million boomers and their parents are getting older.  

Municipal governments should be concerned about this because the thousands of volunteers hours that are given – for free – each year to maintain heritage properties like The Regent, Glenwood Cemetery, our five museums, and other properties, are not going be there much longer…. The millions of dollars raised by volunteers in communities all across Canada for a wide range of worthy causes – for free – may not be there in a few years either… The big question is “What’s going to happen when you and I can’t do the work we do anymore?  

I believe it’s a great folly to think that things will always be the way they’ve always been, just because they have always been. We may very soon witness a sort of collapse of communities as all these groups…and the heritage properties they maintain…can’t go on any longer.   So what’s to be done?  

I believe we have to begin having that a candid discussion about the future. There is simply no way that this county…or any other – can afford the cost of heritage preservation in the future…. unless…. we all begin to embrace profound, systemic change.   

Most heritage organizations are small, fragile, volunteer groups. They may not have  staff…and they have no money. And they have no plan for the future. They are “heritage beggars” dependent upon dwindling government grants, hard-pressed local governments which view them as “municipal loss leaders,” and the charity of their communities to support them.   I have spent much of my life working with non-profit organizations as an Executive Director, board member and chair, volunteer and consultant. Over the last decade, I have worked with a volunteer board to restore a heritage property, The Glenwood Cemetery in Picton.  So I have lived the concept I am presenting to you today. And the concept is this:   Every community has its stories to tell.  These are often hidden away in the collections of museums, libraries, cemeteries and archives. But this “hidden history” can be transformed into “popular history” – goods and services that meet the worldwide consumer demand for history and heritage. In this way, history and heritage can be considered a commodity that can be mined and refined, processed and packaged, marketed, distributed and retailed just like any other product.   Heritage organizations are storehouses of history – “history factories” – that can become “profit centres” if only we developed the untapped potential lying dormant in our communities to develop a “heritage economy.”   

The Marketplace for History   History is one of the top three reasons why people travel after family and friends.   

The History Channel links advertisers with a consumer demographic – 9.8 million boomers and their parents who are now engaged in the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world. This is news to my Mother, but I am telling you this is happening.   

Every month, 68 million people around the world Google the word “history.” They’re looking for history…and we have it. And we have the means to reach them through new technologies.  

Gettysburg, PA makes $91 million/year and has created nearly 2,500 jobs from the 1.2 million people who visit annually. Every year, they tell the same story  of three days of history forged in the 1860s during the Civil War….and make $91 million dollars. 

So why don’t we tell our stories to the world and develop a “heritage economy”?  

History can be expressed in a great many ways. We need to develop our own line of heritage products such as:  

– Specialty wines and foodstuffs

– Videos, books, plays, music, lectures, and bus, walking, and historic house tours, and crafts Could we make quilts that tell the story of the War of 1812? Or the story of John A. Macdonald’s time in Picton in the 1830s to celebrate his 200th birthday in 2015?  

Could we make reproductions of artifacts, which celebrate Samuel Champlain’s visit here almost 400 years ago? I asked my friend artist Bruce Milan this week whether he could make an astolabe as a product we would sell to celebrate Champlain’s visit. I told him it didn’t have to work. I don’t think this early navigational equipment worked all that well for Sam. Let’s face in those days, you either turned left or right and you discovered some place. If you went straight ahead, you just fell off the edge of the world…in which case, you discovered space.  

– Could we have period events (re-enactments for the War of 1812 bicentennial, the 400th anniversary of Champlain’s visit in 2015, and the 200th birthday of Sir John A. Macdonald in 2015)  

– Could we work with the small army of volunteers who each year bring you the Picton Fair? The fair was 175 years old last year. We did a History Moment about that. But it won’t have a 200th birthday. The fair is brought to you by an older group of volunteers…could we work with them to transform the fair into an 1880s period fair so we are all in costume, we empty the museums of displays from the period, we ask our chefs to prepare period meals, our wineries and breweries to make heritage wines and beers to celebrate the event…. We have Taste The County help with the marketing…. Could we in this way ensure the fair has a secure future as yet another of our heritage products.  

– Could we help support The Macdonald Project?  

John A. Macdonald spent his early years in the Picton area and as a teenager, he practiced law there in the 1830s. The Macdonald Project is an initiative to erect a bronze sculpture of him in Picton during the 200th anniversary of his birth in 2015. This project and Macdonald’s birthday have the potential to be a major local, regional and national event.    

– Can we support The Miss Supertest Celebration

– August, 6,7th, 8th 2011?   50 years ago this August, the Canadian race boat Miss Supertest captured her third

– and last

– victory in the Harmsworth international races held in Picton.   

On August 6,7,8th we will celebrate this sports history with the launch of a Canada Post commemorative stamp honouring the boat, and a weekend of boat displays and activities. I’m going to show you an excerpt of a documentary we are making that will play at The Regent as part of that anniversary weekend.    

I believe heritage is ultimately about money. If it’s money that is causing us to lose our heritage, can we make money out of heritage? The answer is yes.   

We have infinite supplies of the raw resource – history;   

We have access to a skilled labour force, our creative community, who can express history and heritage in a wide range of unique, popular history products;   

We have a retail system already in place – our museums, archives, libraries, schools, and cemeteries throughout Eastern Ontario; 

We have an existing marketing arm in tourism organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, Taste The County, and other groups already marketing this special place;   

And we have a worldwide marketplace for history… in addition to the marketplace here – the 700,000 people who visit us every year.  Why don’t we sell them $100 worth of history during their stay, and develop a heritage economy worth over $70 million dollars annually?  

The profits we make from our heritage economy can be re-invested in our heritage infrastructure through a revolving venture capital loan fund that provides long-term, low-interest loans to developers like the owners of the Royal Hotel and the Downes House so that they can create jobs, a tax base, and restore a heritage building.  

Until we can find ways to finance ourselves, we will always be heritage beggars. We will watch our landmark buildings and special places disappear and be unable to intervene; our organizations will simply age and tire and fade from view in the coming decade; and we will not be a factor in shaping an alternative vision for our communities that embraces and respects the past. We will –at best – watch from the sidelines.   

We need to think bigger. No amount of bake sales, silent auctions, or bottle drives is ever going to save a heritage building.   

We need to act collectively to share limited resources. We need to complement each other rather than compete. We need to become the sum of our parts rather than remain as isolated and largely irrelevant organizations.   

We can’t continue to be the Sleepy Hollow of history, the Rip Van Winkle of heritage any longer. We need to awaken to the enormous potential of developing our own business and a heritage economy. That’s why history and heritage matters.   So as you watch this year’s History Moments series, know that there was a high cost to the heritage we have…and that we need to find a way to safeguard – rather than squander – this great legacy.    

The History Moments are all sponsored by local businesses and organizations. I would like to thank our 2011 sponsors:  

1.The Adolphustown-Fredericksburg Heritage Society

2. The Black Prince Winery

3. The Glenwood Cemetery

4. The Hastings Prince Edward District School Board

5. Loch Sloy Business Park

6. Lafarge North America  – Bath Plant

7. The Loyalist Parkway Association

8.  The Mohawk Learning and Cultural Centre 

9. The Museums of PEC

10. The Picton Business Improvement Association

11. The Picton Gazette

12. The Sandbanks Provincial Park and The Friends of The Sandbanks    

I would also like to thank the people I work with to bring you this series each year – Lynn Pickering is co-producer and writer, Sandy Foreman does all our photography, Jacques Dumas of Ottawa is our audio specialist and French producer, Adam McLaren and Ben Quaiff help with the camera work, Daniela Testolini of Dolphin Media in Ottawa is our editor, Precision Transfer Technologies in Ottawa provide duplication services, and They Integrated of Belleville look after our website.   

I have to be creative in managing them because I ask them to do the impossible all the time. Last year, I can tell you that morale picked up appreciably when I announced that the Black Prince Winery was one of our new sponsors. They were a bit disappointed this year when my plans to have a History Moments on the cheese industry of Prince Edward County didn’t happen. It’s another wonderful story…but their thinking was that now that we have all this wine, we really should have some cheese to go with it. Well…maybe next year!  

These are very talented people…. and when you watch this, you will see their work, not just mine. Here now is the 2011 History Moments series.

PLAY HISTORY MOMENTS

RUNS: APPROX.24 MINUTES  

We’ve been working on something else lately as well – a documentary that will play at The Regent on Monday, August 8th as part of the Miss Supertest celebration that takes place that weekend. I hope you’ll participate in this celebration because this is a once-in-a-lifetime event, the launch of a commemorative stamp honouring Canadian sports history that was made here 50 year ago this summer. I’d like to thank another member of our creative community, Barry Silverthorn of The Electric Wallpaper Company, for his video work in taping the Toronto Boat Show last January…and driving through a wild snowstorm with us to get there.  

PLAY MISS SUPERTEST PROMO

RUNS: 5:36    

The Miss Supertest event is a celebration of our water heritage. We hope to make this into an annual event. It’s all part of the “big picture” thinking so that we don’t value heritage so much as a  “warm and fuzzy” – a vague, cultural asset…. an afterthought…a last priority…the luxury we can never afford.  Instead, we need to consider it as an untapped commodity –“ a hidden wealth” that can drive our local economies because heritage is ultimately about money…. and big money at that.  

So some of us have started the work that needs to be done… We’re the little company with the big idea…and we’re partnering with heritage organizations in our community …and others…. to make this happen. But the work of the few needs to become the work of many if we are to succeed. We all need to become pioneers for another period.  

I think this begins with public education…. with community engagement….with product development so we develop a heritage economy. We need to make money. We need to make History.  

I’d like to invite you to join us now for a reception featuring History Lives Here wine made for us by the Black Prince Winery…. and don’t forget our walking tour tonight at 6:30 at The Glenwood Cemetery. And thank you very much for being with us today.

Ontario Heritage Conference Presentation, Saturday, June 4, 2011, Victoria Hall, Cobourg, Ontario

Note: This presentation was accompanied by a Power Point presentation also available on our website. 

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. My presentation is drawn from many places in my life. For many years, I worked as a CBC broadcaster so I know a little bit about telling stories effectively using multimedia.

For over a decade, I travelled the world documenting Canada’s relief and development projects. I used to take these epic journeys to distant places far beyond any tourist spots, get out of a plane, and step back into the 18th century where people still drive donkey carts and live in mud houses. I met some of the poorest people in the world, and if they were to wait for their governments to assist them, they’d be waiting a long time. They didn’t have any money. What they had was lots of community resolve. So they were doing all kinds of things buildings schools, health clinics, houses, wells and starting small businesses to improve their lives. I have never forgotten these remarkable people and I have borrowed from that experience witnessing the power of community resolve.

I have a great interest in local history – my “history addiction” as I call it. My interest began many years ago with my Masters of Journalism thesis on the canning industry of Prince Edward County, once the centre of the industry in Canada. I was an author in search of a subject back then, but I knew within a very few interviews with old-timers talking about the early days of the industry in their kitchens and on their verandahs, that I was sitting on a great untold story of Canada.

Finally, I have spent much of my life working with non-profit organizations as an Executive Director, board member and chair, volunteer and consultant. Over the last decade, I have worked with a volunteer board to restore a heritage property, The Glenwood Cemetery in Picton.  So I have lived the concept I am presenting to you today. And the concept is this:

Every community has its stories to tell.  These are often hidden away in the collections of museums, libraries, cemeteries and archives. But this “hidden history” can be transformed into “popular history” – goods and services that meet the worldwide consumer demand for history and heritage. In this way, history and heritage can be considered a commodity that can be mined and refined, processed and packaged, marketed, distributed and retailed just like any other product.

Heritage organizations are often considered “municipal loss leaders” for the taxpayer funding they require each year. But I believe they are storehouses of history – “history factories” – that can become “profit centres” if only we developed the untapped potential lying dormant in our communities to develop a “heritage economy.”

This presentation is focused on two aspects of heritage:

  1. PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS and COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT on the importance of history and heritage
  2. THE MARKETPLACE for history and heritage

Most of us working with small community charities – and this is especially so with heritage organizations, museums, cemeteries, and heritage societies – are “heritage beggars” highly dependent upon dwindling grants, annual funding from municipal governments with limited funds and great demands, and the charity of our communities already supporting a great many other worthy causes.

I believe heritage is ultimately about money. And until we can find ways to finance ourselves, we will always be heritage beggars. We will watch our landmark buildings and special places disappear and be unable to intervene; our organizations will simply age and tire and fade from view in the coming decades; and we will not be a factor in shaping an alternative vision for our communities that embraces and respects the past. We will –at best – watch from the sidelines.

For all these reasons, heritage remains a last priority in most communities – an afterthought. But what if we changed our thinking? What if we did something memorable? Could we change our world? Yes, I believe so…. because that is happening in my own community of

Most of us working with small community charities – and this is especially so with heritage organizations, museums, cemeteries, and heritage societies – are “heritage beggars” highly dependent upon dwindling grants, annual funding from municipal governments with limited funds and great demands, and the charity of our communities already supporting a great many other worthy causes.

I believe heritage is ultimately about money. And until we can find ways to finance ourselves, we will always be heritage beggars. We will watch our landmark buildings and special places disappear and be unable to intervene; our organizations will simply age and tire and fade from view in the coming decades; and we will not be a factor in shaping an alternative vision for our communities that embraces and respects the past. We will –at best – watch from the sidelines.

For all these reasons, heritage remains a last priority in most communities – an afterthought. But what if we changed our thinking? What if we did something memorable? Could we change our world? Yes, I believe so…. because that is happening in my own community of Prince Edward County.

The Challenge of Heritage Properties

Glenwood Cemetery: A Case History

Some years ago I became active in the restoration of an historic cemetery, The Glenwood Cemetery, in my hometown of Picton. Glenwood is a spectacular, 62-acre Victorian cemetery located in the heart of Picton. It’s a timepiece looking just like it did when it opened in 1873. But by 2000, Glenwood was in rough shape because of:

  • 50 years of community neglect
  • Three heritage buildings needing urgent repair
  • Four kilometres of impassable roads
  • Lost records
  • Three heritage buildings needing urgent repair
  • Four kilometres of impassable roads
  • Lost records
  • Fallen monuments
  • No professional staff/equipment
  • No revenues 

Back then, Glenwood gave new meaning to the word “non-profit.”

It’s not easy to market a cemetery. But we began to look at the cemetery as a conventional business with a product line. At the worst of times, we came up with some pretty whacky ideas – “scratch and lose lottery tickets,” “two for one sales,” and “Lucky Wednesdays” just to relieve all the stress we were under. But that was the beginning of our discussions of Glenwood as a product that needed to be marketed. And in the end, we decided to market the story of Glenwood.

Communicating a Vision

We developed a small brochure to tell the story of Glenwood, its history, our vision for it, and how people could help by donating, volunteering, purchasing a plot and leaving a gift to the cemetery as part of their estate planning. The brochure cost $1,200 to print 5,000 copies. Some board members argued we couldn’t afford it. I asked for donations from the board to pay the costs, and those against the expenditure said,” I’m not going to give you any money. I’m giving my time.”

I said,” We’re not raising time tonight. We’re raising money for this brochure so we can go into the community and raise awareness and funds for the cemetery.” Some board members never did contribute and they left the organization. But we got the money. We printed our brochure. And we engaged the community by presenting it to every community group who would listen. And they did.

 Measureable Results

In 2000, Glenwood took in about $5,000 in donations from kind people who gave us money even when we didn’t ask. In 2001/2002 after our community campaign, we took in nearly

$90,000 in donations – money that we were able to match with two $75,000 grants for use for one of our projects, the restoration of the Chapel, an elegant stone building built in 1901, and a project that would take eight years and nearly $300,000 to complete.

We had increased media and public interest and an increase in ongoing donations.

We discovered we were successful because we were marketing “memories” not a cemetery. People sent letters with their donations that talked about their grandparents, their parents, and sometimes their children who were buried at Glenwood. That’s a powerful force to be harnessed. And it all started because through our public outreach campaign, Glenwood was no longer “hidden history.”

Next Steps:

We decided we needed to have people experience the cemetery to see the restorations that were taking place so we developed walking tours. Our Gallows & Graveyards Walking Tours are now in their fourth year. They are held on summer weekends with students in costumes taking visitors on tours of historic churchyards and cemeteries and into the old gaol where we tell the story of two men hanged in 1884.                 

We developed a series of fall and winter lectures series on history and heritagetopics. And we started to make new partnerships within our community.

Community Engagement:

We started with a new partnership with our municipal government who had for years paid a small $20,000 annual grant to assist in the operation of the cemetery. Despite many pleas from the cemetery over many years, the funding remained the same. We decided that we had to negotiate a new agreement that saw our local government increase their grant significantly to $45,000 annually to allow us to hire professional staff.

Since by law local governments have to take over cemeteries if they fail, our council had the choice to partner with us for part of the costs…or they could assume it all. This was not without controversy. But in the end, council reluctantly increased our grant, we hired staff, and the board was able to go back to the work boards should be doing rather than mowing grass and arranging burials.

New partnerships with other heritage organizations

Our success came at a cost to the museums as council simply “robbed Peter to pay Paul” taking money from their budget to give to us. When we found that out, we met with museum staff to explore how we might work together. Those discussions lead to the co- development of the walking tours, lecture series, and the participation of yet another heritage property in our community – The Regent Theatre, an old cinema located on Picton’s Main Street. And this partnership led to another public outreach initiative – The History Moments series.

The History Moments Series

The History Moments are two – minute video vignettes on local history themes that play before movies at The Regent, are broadcast on cable TV, distributed into area schools, libraries, museums, used in the interpretative program for the over 550,000 annual visitors to the Sandbanks Provincial Park, retailed in many County stores, and broadcast online on my company website.  Features showcase early settlement, first industries, prominent people, and significant events that have shaped the history of our community.

The History Moments are sponsored by local businesses and organizations. It’s an advertising value for them which supports a community awakening to the rich history that is all around us. And they are incredibly popular.

Measureable Results ten years later

The restoration of Glenwood is really a great heritage success story. Over the past decade we have:

  • Made major road repairs
  • Undertaken a reforestation project to replace our aging urban forest
  • Digitized our records and placed them on a website
  • Hired professional staff and purchased new equipment
  • Renewed the board
  • Attracted major donations and bequeaths
  • Developed new community partnerships for collective action
  • Preserved a community heritage property

Why does heritage matter?

I do a great deal of public speaking in communities across Eastern Ontario and I am sometimes asked why does this matter? Here’s what I say:

It matters because the future of the Past is so uncertain in most communities.

Aging Volunteer Organizations

The big question is what’s going to happen when you and I can’t do our volunteer work anymore 

I believe it’s a great folly to believe that things will always be just because they have always been. I could name you a dozen organizations on the verge of folding in Prince Edward County. They are older; they have no money; no staff; and no succession plan. They often work in isolation competing for limited resources, volunteers and event dates.

But they are also inter-connected and the failure of one can mean the failure of another. At Glenwood, we count on the annual generous donations from many of these organizations. If they fail, then perhaps we will fail. Over the next 10-15 years, many organizations will fail and fade into the past in communities across Canada – a sort of collective collapse of communities.

Municipal governments should be interested in this because the millions of dollars raised each year by volunteers in their communities – all for free – may not be there in the future. The thousands of hours donated – for free – to a wide range of community services may no longer be available.   So what’s going to happen when you and I can’t do that work anymore?

We need to think bigger. We need to act collectively to share limited resources. We need to become the sum of our parts rather than remain as isolated and largely irrelevant organizations. This is how we can renew our organizations and plan for a future time. And if not every organization can be saved, perhaps others can carry on their work. That’s why history and heritage matters.

Reaching Future Leaders

The next generation of community leaders and volunteers are students. We need to engage them in the history that is all around them. We’re tried to do this.

Teachers in Prince Edward County are using the History Moments as learning resources.

This year, students at the high school in Picton are selling the series to raise money for a trip to battlefields in Europe where Canadians fought. The Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board is sponsoring a History Moment on early education in the area.

There are 54 schools and 17,000 students in the Hastings & PEC School Board. You can see the potential of engaging schools, teachers and students in our project. That’s why heritage matters.

Our Disappearing Heritage

Last August, we tore down on a Methodist church built in 1875 located on our Main Street.

It is just down the street from the block we tore down in March last year to build a new box store. That will sit next to the mini-mall we built in the 1970s after tearing down all the gracious old homes that lined our main street.

This is a squandered inheritance. It is testament to poor planning, a lack of vision, and to mistaking progress for the same bland look that is everywhere else. If you tear down all the special places in your community, you have to wonder what’s so special about your community?  And the sad answer to that is “Nothing.”

We have had some successes in restoring heritage buildings, but the fact is we are tearing down heritage properties faster than we can restore them. I believe most communities are engaged in this battle to save open spaces, landmark properties, farmland and all the special places…and it is a battle we are losing. That’s why this matters

A Lost Business Opportunity

Finally, it matters because it is such a lost economic opportunity. If we could transform this dormant asset in our communities – our hidden history – into popular history – goods and services that meet the worldwide marketplace for history and heritage, we could develop a “heritage economy” that powers up our local economies, turns heritage organizations from municipal loss leaders into profit centres, and preserves the historical integrity of our communities 

We need to value heritage not so much as a  “warm and fuzzy” – a vague, cultural asset.  We need to consider it as an untapped commodity –“ a hidden wealth” that can drive our local economies. Heritage ultimately is about money…. and big money at that.

The Marketplace for History

History is one of the top three reasons why people travel. The History Channel links advertisers with a consumer demographic – 9.2 million boomers and their parents. Every month, 68 million people around the world Google the word “history.”

Gettysburg makes $91 million/year and has created nearly 2,500 jobs from the 1.2 million people who visit annually. Every year, they tell the same story and make $91 million dollars. So why don’t we tell our stories to the world and develop a heritage economy?

Manufacture professionally produced goods and services

We need to develop our own line of heritage products such as:

  • Specialty wines and foodstuffs
  • Videos, books, lectures, and bus, walking, and historic house tours
  • Period events (re-enactments, Picton Fair as an 1880s period fair, War of 1812 bicentennial, 400th anniversary of Champlain’s visit in 2015, and the 200th birthday of Sir John A. Macdonald in 2015)

The Macdonald Project

John A. Macdonald spent his early years in the Picton area and as a teenager, he practiced law there in the 1830s. The Macdonald Project is an initiative to erect a bronze sculpture of him in Picton during the 200th anniversary of his birth in 2015. This project and Macdonald’s birthday have the potential to be a major local, regional and national event.

The Miss Supertest Celebration – August, 6,7th, 8th 2011 

50 years ago this August, the Canadian race boat Miss Supertest captured her third – and last – victory in the Harmsworth international races held in Picton.

On August 6,7,8th we will celebrate this sports history with the launch of a Canada Post commemorative stamp honouring the boat, and a weekend of boat displays and activities.

The celebration has the possibility of being a test case for history in Prince Edward County to show the economic benefit to the community of this once-in-a- lifetime event.

Heritage Revenues

Over the past 5 years, our partnership of several community heritage organizations has evolved and a long- term plan is emerging to:

– Retail heritage products to our 700,000 annual visitors

– Use our heritage products for worldwide online Tourism Marketing

– Track retail sales with a % saved in a Heritage Fund administered by The County Community Foundation

– Our Heritage Fund is complemented by donations and bequeaths and supplemented by 1% municipal heritage fee on new development

Objectives:

  • To transform “the hidden wealth” of our history into a heritage economy
  • To transform heritage properties (archives, cemeteries, libraries, and museums) into profit centres
  • To create “popular history” products as tourism marketing resources
  • To create public and educational resources
  • To promote new community partnerships for greater community engagement and better use of limited resources
  • To create jobs for young people and for our trades
  • To create new revenue streams for heritage organizations
  • To assist private property owners and businesses to maintain heritage properties
  • To preserve our community history and heritage before it is lost to Time.

We’re not there yet…. but we’re working towards this and the formation of a new heritage organization tasked to take on this work – to be an umbrella group for heritage groups to work together, and to be an instrument of change. We have started in our community to “create the will” just by transforming the “hidden history” in our community into “popular history.” And we have changed our world, just a little, by forging new partnerships with heritage groups, diverse sectors like municipal government, schools, private businesses sponsoring the History Moments, crafts people making heritage materials, and retailers who sell our products. We have created public education materials to engage our community and to awaken them to the rich history that is all around us.

The third series of History Moments will be launched on Monday, July 4th at 2pm at The Regent Theatre in Picton. I invite you to attend this free public event to celebrate our local history. The series will then be featured at the first ever Picton film festival that takes place in July. This year we will be launching a series in Belleville and Hastings County in partnership with groups there.

We have also developed some media partners. If you read Watershed Magazine, a magazine distributed from Cobourg to Kingston, you will notice our featured history articles. The Miss Supertest event is featured in the latest summer edition. So we have made a small start on developing a “heritage economy” by developing a line of heritage products to retail within our community. Marketing our product lines is the next phase of the project. Along the way, our history project has fostered a critical mass for change capturing the interest of our community and directly engaging them as participants in history and heritage.

We have made History.

I will leave you with a question. Why don’t you make history in your community and create the will – a community resolve – to preserve your history and heritage before it is lost to Time?

Thank you very much.

Creating the Will – Heritage Conference in Cobourg June 3-5, 2011

Creating The Will heritage conference in Cobourg June 3-5, 2011

Creating The Will is the theme of a June heritage conference in Cobourg sponsored by Heritage Ontario and the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario. Peter Lockyer of History Lives Here Inc. will be one of the featured speakers discussing Making History: The Economics of Heritage – Municipalities, Heritage Organizations, and Communities as Stakeholders in History.

The presentation builds upon the author’s decade of experience developing strategic partnerships in his hometown of Prince Edward County to awaken the community to its rich history and the potential economic benefits of developing a heritage economy by telling old stories to new audiences.

For more information, visit the conference website at  http://www.cobourgtourism.ca/heritage.html

2011 History Moments Launch – Monday, July 4, 2011 at 2 pm

The History Moments are a series of two-minute “popular history” segments on local history themes, which play before movies at The Regent Theatre.

Twelve more vignettes on the rich history of Prince Edward County will be premiered at a free gala event open to the public. This year’s series includes stories on temperance advocate Letitia Youmans, prominent Loyalist settler Peter VanAlstine, The Quakers, Mohawk settlement on the Bay of Quinte, Sir Thomas Picton, the old Danforth Road linking York (Toronto) with Kingston, the Glenora Ferry, and others. One of our sponsors, the Black Prince Winery, will be providing complimentary wine at a reception which follows the premiere.

Please plan to attend this celebration of Prince Edward County’s history!  

A Sober Life The Life Of Temperance Pioneer Letitia Youmans April 2011

Letitia Youmans was a teacher in Burlington and Picton in the 1840s, a position that made her acutely aware of the misery of families with drunken husbands and fathers. She became a temperance advocate founding the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement in Canada in 1874. Read her life story in our article – A Sober Life – in the spring 2011 issue of Watershed Magazine. http://www.watershedmagazine.com

Experiences | Product Development | Multimedia

History Lives Here Inc. provides archival research and editorial services, web content and design, creates heritage products such as tours, re-enactments, events, and experiences, and provides full-service communications and video production services.

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