Heritage of Hope Museum celebrates 20-year milestone

DENZIL — “Every small town needs a museum.” These were the words that began it all for the Heritage of Hope Museum in Denzil in 2004. This past week, the volunteers and board members celebrated their 20th anniversary with members of the community and the surrounding area.

The Heritage of Hope Museum opened its doors for the afternoon, treating guests to a lunch of homemade soups, traditional German dishes and a special cake for the event. Irvine Seiben, chairperson for the museum, took a moment to welcome everyone and gave the mayor of Denzil, Larry Reiniger, and a representative for the RM of Eye Hill, Greg Rissling, the opportunity to speak. Both men congratulated the current eight board members on the milestone anniversary before a slideshow of the past 20 years was played and tours of the museum began.

The history of the museum itself is quite simple. After the community participated in the Communities in Bloom competition, the suggestion of establishing a small-town museum sparked conversation among Denzil residents. It was decided to use the old elementary school to house the museum, sharing the space with the seniors centre. Volunteers spent many hours over two months creating the attraction, which opened for its first viewing on June 7, 2005.

Close to 1,000 items were donated to the museum, filling four of the seven classrooms. Renovations were slated to alter two rooms into one, giving the seniors centre more room to operate out of. By mid-August, the volunteers held the museum’s grand opening with fresh-baked bread, homemade butter and jam, and a rope-making demonstration.

Although the museum is by appointment only, the attraction brings in between 150 and 250 tourists annually. Volunteer and board member Lloyd Reiniger met with SaskToday prior to the celebration, showing all they have to offer. Reiniger has been a part of the Heritage of Hope Museum for the past 10 years, bringing his years of growing up in the area and ideas to the table.

“I’m very interested in history and I’m a firm believer that if you’ve got something of interest, you should exhibit it. I took it upon myself to do a lot of cataloguing, changing displays and showing off what we have,” said Reiniger.

One of his ideas that had a domino effect was the Century Club, a display of photos of community members who reached or exceeded 100 years of age.

“I found a little plaque of one person who was over a hundred years old while going through some stuff. I thought this was something we don’t see every day and should be on display. I started talking about it to other board members and started questioning if any other locals had reached a centennial birthday.”

Reiniger started inquiring, resulting in four more people being added to the wall display.

Of the current board members, Reiniger was the only member born and raised near Denzil until recently.

The Heritage of Hope does receive some funding from the RM of Eye Hill on an annual basis to help with operational costs and relies on donations to help cover some of the costs.

“We don’t have a large bank account, but we don’t need a large bank account. Almost all of the artifacts, except for a select few, have been donated. The only expense we have would be if we have to get picture frames for the veterans’ room and our rent to the village,” added Reiniger.

Now in his retirement years, Reiniger travels from his home in Unity to Denzil regularly, spending a little bit of time finding ways to display the artifacts, doing research and cataloguing the items. Much like the other board members, they have found a purpose within the walls of the museum, showcasing the ever-changing history of the village of Denzil.