A year of celebration and reflection came to a conclusion New Year's Eve at the North Battleford centennial closing ceremonies.
The event was a luncheon held at the Dekker Centre and served as a formal recognition and thank you to the numerous centennial committee volunteers, sponsors and others who had worked tirelessly on the various events and projects that made up the anniversary year.
The events began with a New Year's Eve bash at the Civic Centre and continued on with the May 1 anniversary ceremonies at Central Park and July 1 Canada Day celebrations at the Ag Society grounds, which included the staging of the North Battleford version of the Amazing Race.
The May 1 event included a performance by Kurtis Kopp of the official song of the centennial year called Centennial Begins. Kopp was back performing that same tune again at the event Tuesday at the Dekker Centre.
There were several other events held that year including one on Sept. 28 which marked the recreation of the famous 1938 "Four Corners" photograph taken at 101st Street and 11th Avenue. The 2013 version was shot by local photographer Paul Sayers, and copies of that photo were presented to all those in attendance at the luncheon.
The year also saw the compilation of the Reflections of North Battleford book as well as the Pictorial Story of North Battleford book by Julian Sadlowski, a project that was five years in the making. Tribute was paid to Sadlowski, as well as all those who collaborated on the Reflections book.
Another important part of the year was the 52 North Battleford "notables" by Richard Hiebert in collaboration with the City of North Battleford 2013 Centennial Historic Committee that were an ongoing series in the News-Optimist throughout 2013.
At the closing ceremonies, Mayor Ian Hamilton suggested there should be a 53rd notable write up - that of Tammy Donahue-Buziak, for her work in chairing and leading the centennial efforts in 2013.
Hamilton, as well as centennial special events chair Sharon Mohagen, were emotional on stage Tuesday as they thanked the volunteers for their efforts in the centennial year.
MLA Herb Cox also expressed the government's congratulations to the committee who worked so hard on the centennial efforts.
Cox noted there was some interesting weather that accompanied the various events, with the July 1 event happening on the warmest day of the year while the May 1 event, attended by Lieutenant Governor Vaughn Schofield, happened on one of the coldest. "I remember sitting out in the park and watching our Lieutenant Governor almost turn blue," Cox recounted.
As it turned out, the final centennial celebrations of 2013 coincided with a shivering -30 C day outside. Fortunately, all the events of this final centennial celebration were indoors.
The final act of the centennial year is the closing of the time capsule. Several items that are to go in that capsule were on display at the closing ceremonies.
Among the items are a Saskatchewan Roughriders 2013 Grey Cup shirt, a North Battleford centennial jacket, correspondence from the office of Lt.-Gov. Vaughn Schofield and various books, certificates and other memorabilia, including the centennial pin.
Numerous envelopes with submissions from the general public were also provided for the time capsule.
About 10 containers were to be filled with those items. Plans are to bury those containers in Central Park in May, with plans not to open them again until the city commemorates the North Battleford bicentennial of 2113.
