Dozens of varieties of mouth-watering apple pies attracted huge crowds to Mossbank and District Museum’s annual Apple Pie Day at the Mossbank community hall on August 23. This event proved to be so popular that more tables had to be set up to accommodate the hundreds of people attending. It’s one of the museum’s biggest fundraisers of the year.
Apple Pie Day got its start over 25 years ago. The museum had an apple tree and, at first, a coffee and dessert event was a way to raise funds. It grew in popularity and into its current form. All of the 75 pies served were homemade by volunteers who pick the apples, make the pies and help serve them.
The museum fundraiser brought the community together for socializing with old friends and making new ones. Almost 300 visitors attended coming from Mossbank and local communities as well as further points in the province and abroad. Traditionally, Apple Pie Day has become like a community reunion.
Former residents of Mossbank from out of town return especially for this day to visit with old friends and sample the pies, said Joan Bumphrey, who is president of the Mossbank and District Museum.
Bumphrey praises all the volunteers contributing to the event. “It’s an amazing community,” she said. Mossbank is a community known for its volunteerism.
The pie day also included a raffle and silent auction. The Conexus Credit Union and Mossbank John Deere donated a barbecue smoker and a final flurry of ticket sales and the draw took place at the fundraiser. The silent auction featured one-of-a-kind ceramics by the late Linda Olaffson and the proceeds are being donated to the museum.
The Mossbank and District museum includes a complex of five buildings. The museum, run by a board, relies on volunteers for its operations. It has received grants for summer students which has allowed volunteers to work on other projects. One of the unique features of the museum is that it has the only working blacksmith shop in Saskatchewan that is still operating on its original site.
The Ambroz blacksmith shop is a heritage site built in 1920. The shop is fully-furnished and the museum has professional blacksmith Don Fox come in to do demonstrations for special events and schools.
The museum also has an extensive World War II display. Back in the 1940s, Mossbank was home to the Number #2 Bombing and Gunnery air training base. This training base had military stationed there from around the Commonwealth and boosted Mossbank’s population to about 3,000. Bumphrey said that the museum is excited to soon be receiving the Bombing and Gunnery’s last building. It is now located at the golf course and is being repaired for the museum’s use.
The museum will be holding a Live History event called Mary’s Odyssey on Saturday, September 16 with showtimes at 1 p.m., 3 p.m., and 5 p.m. The audience will go back in time to help Mary solve a long-hidden mystery.
