The Editor,

The Peachland Historical Society would like to acknowledge the District’s former Director of Community Services, Cheryl Wiebe for the work that she accomplished with us during her tenure.

In our view, Cheryl brought an infectious enthusiasm to every project she worked on, not the least of which was her diligence in preparing and submitting the application for a provincial government grant to restore the exterior of the museum building on Beach Avenue. If it were not for her ingenuity and persistence, the repairs and refurbishment of the museum building, which is slated to start this spring, would not have been possible.

Perhaps the most recent and visible initiative that Cheryl and the Society worked on together is the Historic Signage project.  Anyone walking along Centennial Way will have noticed the Historic Interpretive Marker signs. This was an instance of true partnership between a municipality and a volunteer society and it was Cheryl who led the project. There are currently thirteen signs, most on Centennial Way, but others in different locations from Renfrew Road to the Trepanier Creek Bridge, which display photographs (then and now) of how the scene has changed since the earliest days of Peachland. The Historical Society is most grateful to Cheryl for facilitating this presentation of Peachland’s history for the benefit of residents and tourists alike.

Creation of our Road Post signs was another project which successfully combined the efforts of the Historical Society and the municipality through Cheryl’s leadership.  Almost all of Peachland’s roads have been named after Peachlanders who are remembered for making Peachland a better place. To highlight this, The Peachland Historical Society, through the efforts of author Don Wigfield and his wife Anne Wigfield (our researcher extraordinaire) compiled the records of the lives of these citizens and the details of their contributions to the town .  Thanks to Cheryl and the municipal team, the road post signs, of which there are also thirteen on display, tell the stories of these remarkable Peachlanders.

The Peachland Historical Society will continue its close collaboration with the municipality but, whatever the future, we will always be grateful to Cheryl Wiebe for her genuine heartfelt support of our efforts to preserve, and present to the public, Peachland’s history and heritage.

The executive and members of the Peachland Historical Society sincerely wish Cheryl every good thing for the future.

Kind Regards,

–Barbara Dionne, President
Peachland Historical Society

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