Quandary Solutions was a printing company run in Edmonton by Jon Hall that published the newsletter Scoutlook for various provincial Boy Scout associations. Hall was also a long time member of the Boy Scouts of Canada Alberta Board of Directors. The material was created under contract for the Boy Scouts of Canada, and thus was owned by the Boy Scouts of Canada. Quandary Solutions ceased operations in 2002.
Queen Elizabeth II Hospital Auxiliary Association
The Queen Elizabeth II Hospital Auxiliary Association is a volunteer group whose aim is to support the work of the Hospital and associated care facilities and to increase the comfort of patients by volunteering, participating in events, and fundraising to purchase equipment. The first Hospital Aid society in Grande Prairie was established at a January 29, 1922 meeting attended by 35 ladies. The first President was Mrs. W. Pratt, the Vice-President Mrs. Begenon, the Secretary Mrs. Pentland, and the Treasurer Mrs. Gold. Villages and districts surrounding Grande Prairie were also encouraged to form auxiliaries, each with a vice-president responsible for organization in that area, although the system does not seem to have been well-received in the outlying area, the only assistance coming from Sexsmith and the Women's Institute at Hermit Lake. The Aid society supported the work of the hospital by sewing and repairing items such as pillow cases, sheets, towels, diapers, gowns, and pneumonia jackets, providing reading material to patients, hospital visiting, and helping finish and furnish the Nurses' Residence. The Aid society also engaged in fundraising efforts. The Hospital Aid disbanded in December 1936. A new group, the Grande Prairie Municipal Hospital Auxiliary, was organized at an Open Meeting held October 28, 1949. The first elected officers were Mrs. Oliver (President), Mrs. Neville (Vice-President), Mrs. Carleton (Secretary), and Mrs. Bochor (Treasurer), with various other ladies serving on the Work, Visiting, Program, and Membership Committees. After being known variously as the Ladies Auxiliary to the Grande Prairie General Hospital (ca. 1960s), the Ladies Auxiliary to the Grande Prairie Municipal and Auxiliary Hospitals (ca. 1960s-1970s), and the Ladies Auxiliary to the Grande Prairie Hospital Complex (ca. 1970s-1980s), the Auxiliary was officially incorporated as a society in 1983 under the name of the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital Auxiliary Association. The executive at that time was composed of a President, 1st Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. After various amendments to the constitution and bylaws in the intervening years, by 2005 the executive was composed of a President, Immediate Past President, 1st Vice-President, 2nd Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Past and current committees have included: Membership, Visiting, Program, Work, Publicity, Baby Cupboard, Library, Candy Stripers, Gaming Activities, Foundation, Volunteer Services, Patient Library/Archives, Phoning and Hospitality, Visual Arts, Gift Shop, Coffee Money, Kitting, Special Projects, various events committees, and others. In the early days of the reorganized Auxiliary, fundraising often took the form of raffles and social occasions such as dances, teas, card parties, and fashion shows. The Auxiliary began a number of new programs from the late-1960s to mid-1980s, related to both volunteering and fundraising. The Candystripers program was started in 1966 and in 1975 the Volunteer Program, supervised by a paid Volunteer Services Director, began to be sponsored by the Auxiliary. New revenue streams included rentals on the T.V. Steri system in 1974, a Gift Shop in the new Queen Elizabeth II Hospital starting in 1984, and working bingos from 1985 onward. Programs combining service with revenue generation included the Hair Care Program, instituted in 1976, and the Baby Photo Program, instituted in 1982. From the mid-1980s onward, fundraising efforts also included casinos, hole-in-one tournaments, duck races, the Festival of Trees, and the Dream House Lottery. Many of these efforts were done in conjunction with the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital Foundation. Items purchased by the Auxiliary for the Hospital and Mackenzie Place have included such things as pianos, televisions, computers, drapes, tape recorders, projectors, Christmas gifts, stuffed toys, and many items of medical equipment including respirators, a fetal heart monitor, oximeters, a coagulator, a mobilizer stretcher, steel trays, pediatric cradles, a Choledoscope, ortho biotic chairs, a portable blood pressure apparatus, a scanner monitor, a blood incubator, and contributions to an MRI machine. The Auxiliary also assists in increasing hospital aesthetics by contributing to the visual arts program and wind garden project. Other activities of the Auxiliary include running a library for patients and providing a bursary program for nursing students through Grande Prairie Regional College. Auxiliary members also donate numerous hours as volunteers, including visiting and assisting with feeding programs, patient help services, and food and drink in the Cancer Clinic. The Auxiliary is co-sponsor, with the Hospital, of the Volunteer Services Department. The Auxiliary has membership in and pays dues to the Alberta Association of Health Care Auxiliaries, which is affiliated with the Canadian Association of Health-Care Auxiliaries. The Auxiliary has also been affiliated with the Northern Regional Conference of the Alberta Hospital Association.
Simon John Clarke demolished the Castle Mountain Billiard Hall and Saloon which he had co-owned with M. Beaudoin in the 1880s to make way for his Queen's Hotel, built in 1892-1893. The new hotel at 802-2nd Street SE, Calgary, Alberta, was three storeys, and after an addition was built in 1902, it had about 85 rooms. Simon owned it until his death in 1918, and it remained part of his estate until it was sold to Calgary Hotels Ltd. in 1932. It was then sold to the City of Calgary in 1980 to make way for the new Civic Centre. The hotel was demolished ca. 1982. The hotel's managers included Edward Mayhew, 1929-1940, and Harold J. Scott, 1940-1960. Businesses at the street level included a barber shop, dry cleaners, tobacconist and cafe.
Queenstown Community Hall was built on the north west corner of Railway Avenue and 1st Street South, in late 1927, and subsequently [before ‘47] moved across the street to the south west corner, the former site of the teacherage.
One of the first events held there was an “Old-Timer’s Dance”, held In January 1928, which was sponsored by a group of long-time area residents, and offered the enticements of both old-time fiddlers and moose meat sandwiches. Other events held over the years included student concerts and festivals; dances; wedding receptions; Stampede Wrestling; adult Drama Club productions; tap dancing classes; Royal Canadian Legion Children’s Christmas parties; town meetings; Women’s Institute functions; badminton club; and a movie every Saturday night. These were originally presented by a travelling agent from the Film Exchange, who would bring a screen and projector along with the film reels; by the late 1950s, the Hall had its own equipment. The girls of the Queenstown Explorers club used to make pop corn to sell at the screenings.
Some members of the Hall Board were also members of a town hockey team called the Queenstown Cleaners, and by the mid-1980s the team as a whole had unofficially become responsible for overseeing Hall activities, mainly hockey parties, dances, stags, and poker games. The last function held at the Hall was a New Year’s Dance, December 1990, attended by area’s young adults; the older generation had a separate gathering, in the new Community Hall that had been built in Milo.
The Queenstown building was subsequently purchased and used for storage by a private individual.
The Queenstown Hotel was situated on Railway Avenue, between a butcher shop and a billiard hall. According to Snake Valley II: a history of Lake McGregor and area, the Queenstown Hotel was first owned by Art Bremner, “... followed by Harry White, Wally McLean, Jack Harley, Mr. Spence and George Long.” The lobby was lushly carpeted, and the main floor had a dining area with nicer tables as well as a lunch counter. A barber chair, manned during the 1950’s by part-time Queenstown resident Ken McLean, served both locals and hotel guests, and the barroom was an adjunct on the south side of the building. A stairway beside the registration desk led upstairs to the 8 rooms, which through the late 1940s went for $1.25 a night, $2.00 for double occupancy. While the majority of guests were from southern Alberta, the registry pages have entries from as far away as Fort Nelson, BC, and San Francisco, California.
The hotel ceased operations sometime around 1960, and the building was demolished in 1971.
Queenstown School No. 1798 was the first school established in the Milo area, on April 13, 1908, with George L. Macomber, who had helped to organize the Queenstown School District, the first Chairman of the Queenstown School Board. The one-room school was built, furnished and fenced with the help of a $1000 loan, and over a dozen students attended grades 1-8. From the beginning, the building was used not only as a social centre but also by the Lutheran church, who for some years conducted services there in Norwegian. The community gathered to plant trees in 1914, with the hope that they, like the students, would “grow ... and flourish well”.
When the railway came through the area in 1926 and a town began to grow, it was decided to move the building “a few miles” north-west to a new site just south of the town, and a second room was added. The curriculum was expanded to grade 9, with high school students travelling to Cluny where they stayed in a dormitory. The new site eventually offered such amenities as a tennis court and baseball diamond, and when electricity was installed at the school in 1948, one of the first purchases was a “motion picture machine”.
By the early 1940’s, school populations were declining in many of the area’s one-room schools, and in 1942 students from Shouldice and Giffen Schools began attending Queenstown School. That same year Willard School closed, and its building was moved to Queenstown to accommodate high school classes, through grade 12. When the Bow Valley School Division made the decision to build a new Consolidated School in Milo in 1952, following the formation of the County of Vulcan, Queenstown School was closed, and its remaining students bussed into Milo.
Queenstown Seed Cleaning Plant
The Queenstown Seed Cleaning Plant was proposed in December 1958 and was up and running by the summer of 1960. Built for around $51,000, the plant cleaned 130,000 bushels of seed in its first year of operations, and membership in the Queenstown Seed Cleaning Association was a $100 share. By the mid-1980s the plant was starting to show its age, and it was decided to build a new facility. A building committee was formed, and a request was made to the provincial Department of Agriculture to have the Association’s name put on the list for replacement of plants. At a projected cost of around $1,000,000, membership went for a $500 share, and a sod-turning ceremony was held in July 1992. Construction, which was followed with interest by many local residents, was completed on schedule on January 1993, with much of the landscaping and interior office finishing was done by volunteers. The first load of wheat was hauled in for cleaning on February 2, 1993, and an official opening ceremony was held in June of that year. Because the new plant was located near the town of Milo, it was decided to change the name to the Milo Seed Cleaning Association Ltd.
In July 1913, following a meeting at the home of Mrs. Louis Aasgard, 21 women agreed to pay a 25¢ annual fee and signed their names as members of the Queenstown Women’s Institute. The organization, often referred to as WI, had begun in Ontario in 1897 with the goal of “improving society through improving the individual”, and the Alberta branches, dedicated to providing emotional and intellectual support to Alberta women, were under the direction of the Provincial Department of Agriculture.
The first President of the Queenstown WI was Mrs. W. (Louise) Bertrand, with Mrs. W. (Helen) Durston Vice-President, Mrs. J. T. (Elizabeth) Robinson Secretary, and Mrs. J.J. (Aletta) Aasgard, Treasurer. Under their leadership, the branch undertook a wide range of activities, including educational programs, music and other cultural gatherings, and countless fundraising and charitable projects. These ranged from visiting shut-ins and providing hampers to needy families, to raising money for Belgian Relief and arranging for dental care for area school children. The WI assisted the School District Nurse with her monthly Baby Clinics, and in 1917began the work of compiling and publishing a cookbook of “Tested recipes” to be sold at their Bazaar. Even their annual picnics were opportunities for fundraising, through the sale of prepared sack lunches. Provision of scholarships to local students, and donations to organizations such as the Red Cross, continued through the life of the Queenstown WI.
Roll Call was taken at every meeting, and often, each woman responded not with ‘Present’, but with her answer to the day’s question, such as ‘Favorite Author’, or ‘Where I’d like to holiday’. For many years, a standing item on the agenda of the monthly meetings was a topic for discussion. These often focused on the more practical aspects of rural life, such as the August 1914 meeting where “Poultry” was the chosen subject for discussion”, but over the years a multitude of social issues were also considered. “Consolidated Schools or Municipal High School” was one of the topics in 1914, and ”Resolved that wife has more responsibility on farm than husband” was debated in June, 1926. The Queenstown WI hosted and attended Constituency Conferences, and representatives were sent to District and Provincial Conferences whenever possible.
The 21st Anniversary Tea, held in August 1934, was attended by 50 women. Membership numbers remained strong through the 1950s, and a 50th Anniversary celebration, held in 1963, attracted almost 100 current and former members, some of them founders. By 1969, membership was down to 7 members, and the Queenstown Women’s Institute was officially dissolved in 1970.
Quiet Nook School District No. 2500
Quiet Nook School District No. 2500 formed in 1911 at the South East of Section 6, Township 58, Range 13, West of the 4th Meridian (6-58-13-W4). Mr. Coyne served as the first teacher. After a two-room school house was built on the northeast of Section 6, the original one-room school was sold for use as a community centre. In 1957, the school closed and the children were bused to Vilna.
A group of interested people formed the Quilting for Humanity Society in Athabasca, Alberta in 2005. The primary mandate is to provide quilts for those in need by distribution through a number of not-for-profit societies or organizations. The aim of Quilting for Humanity is to also make a meaningful contribution to society by getting seniors or out of their homes to volunteer together to make quilts. The society is funded by selling tickets for annual raffles of quilts. They also received an Alberta Government Community Initiatives Grant in 2017. Quilts are donated to Athabasca and area groups such as Santas Anonymous, Good Samaritan Mission Association, Road to Hope, North Central Alberta Child and Family Services Authority, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and disaster relief entities. When needed, the quilters also perform acts of kindness for area quilters. The society won a Paul Brandt “Small Town Heroes Award” in 2011 and won a Volunteer of the Year Award in 2012. The society published as a fund raiser, “Patchwork of Hearts Cookbook,” which includes a brief history of the society, member profiles, and over 300 recipes. The quilters moved their equipment and supplies to the basement of Royal Canadian Athabasca Legion No. 103 building in 2011 and they meet once a month for four days to quilt together. The society has created more than 6000 donation quilts as of 2019. The current president of Yvonne Doroshenko.
