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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.

Northern Heights Historical Society was created in 1988 for the purpose of researching and writing a local history book, “Reflections from Across the River: A History of the Area North of Athabasca.” Executive members were: President; Alex Krawec, Vice President; Joan Crusch, Secretary; Debbie Nelson and Treasurer; Lorraine Gislason. A large board of directors conducted interviews, researched and found photos, created drawings and wrote the book. The board fulfilled an Alberta Historical Resources Foundation grant of in-kind funding for the project when the book was published in 1994.

Fred Evert Brewer was born in Toronto, Canada on February 12, 1884 and died in California on April 1, 1951. He married Violet Mary Corbett on March 4, 1914 in Chicago, IL. He worked as a carpenter, building the family home in Chicago. He retired from Ovaltine Chocolate and moved to California in 1949. Their daughter Doria Elaine Brewer married Robert W. Payne on March 2, 1946 and then moved to California.

In Canada, several veterans' organizations emerged during World War I. The Great War Veterans Association was by 1919 the largest veterans' organization in Canada. Following World War I, fifteen different organizations existed to aid returning veterans in Canada. Field Marshal Earl Haig, founder of the British Empire Service League (now known as the Royal Commonwealth Ex-Services League), visited Canada in 1925 and urged the organizations to merge. In the same year, the Dominion Veterans Alliance was created to unite these organizations.
In November 1925, the Canadian Legion was founded in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as the Canadian Legion of the British Empire Services League. The Canadian Legion of the British Empire Services League was incorporated by a special act of parliament the following year. The Legion grew steadily through the 1930s and then expanded rapidly following World War II. In 1960, Elizabeth II granted The Legion royal patronage and it became The Royal Canadian Legion.

Glacial ice left the Calling Lake area about 9000 years ago and radiocarbon dating of artifacts indicate Indigenous occupation of the area from between 3000 and 1000 BC. Archaeological work was initiated by members of the University of Alberta Department of Anthropology from 1966 to 1968 and reported in “Archaeological Research at Calling Lake, Northern Alberta,” 1981, by Ruth Gruhn.
In 1920, Calling Lake, Alberta could be reached by a newly-surveyed gravel road from Athabasca, Alberta and the first telephone line was put in in 1921. Some of the traditional families were Gambler, Cardinal and Grandebais and early European settlers were Crawford, Gislason and McIntosh. Calling Lake had three stores and weekly mail delivery. In 1922, James McIntosh travelled to Edmonton to meet the Deputy Minister of Education, John Ross, to represent the residents of Calling Lake in regard to a school for the community. The “Alberta Gazette” published a government notice on June 19, 1922 establishing the Calling Lake School District No. 4124 of the Province of Alberta.
The first term of the school was held in Gisli O. Gislason’s sod-roof log store, Gisli having moved the contents of the store into his family’s living quarters. There were six students that first year, Gisli’s three children among them. The first teacher was Arthur Cocke. Total receipts were $79.95 and expenditures were $431.05. To establish a one-room school, Calling Lake residents were required to choose a site for the school, obtain materials, construct the building, equip it with supplies and furnishings, and pay the teacher’s salary. There were no classes in 1923, however local residents donated materials and labour and got a government grant for $140 to begin construction of a log school house. Contributions of labour, materials and cash were recorded. James McIntosh was the school district secretary. The first Calling Lake School was ready for the 1924 term and Ralph McLean was hired as the teacher.
Through subsequent years, the school was moved to various buildings, or buildings were added on to. A two-storey log cabin was used from 1930 – 32 and Cloe Day (nee Payne) was the teacher. A new one-room log school was constructed by local residents in 1932 and was in use until 1953. It originally had a sod roof that was replaced several years later. Alfred Gorman was the teacher in 1932. A permanent site for Calling Lake School was obtained in 1941 at NW 17-72-21-W4. The school was not financially viable for many years and creative ways of raising funds were reported in the “Athabasca Echo.” The school board found it difficult to collect taxes. A new school building was urgently needed by 1947 with 115 children between the ages of one and 16, and capacity for only 35 students at the old log school. It was finally condemned by the health inspector in 1953. Attendance had dropped through the late 1940s and into the 1950s as many children left the community with their families to seasonally fish, hunt and trap. In 1951, teacher Fred Warren boosted attendance by purchasing a movie projector and occasionally showing education films during the school day and movies in the evening, charging ten cents for admission.
Agreeing on the location of the new school was one of the reasons it was so long in planning. A meeting of the Calling Lake School District was called in 1953 and it was moved and seconded that a committee be established to draw a map of Range 21, TWP 72, and locate the families with school-age children. It was decided on May 29, 1953 and the location of the school was confirmed as NW 17-72-21-W4. With the matter settled, plans for a new two-room school with a basement were drawn up in the fall of 1953. However, the bulldozer to excavate the basement broke down and construction didn’t start until 1957.
To solve this new dilemma, the now-vacant one-room Youngville School in the Sawdy area, north of Athabasca, was moved to Calling Lake in October, 1953. It was set up to the south east of the old log school. By 1956-57, 47 pupils were enrolled with Mary Astley teaching Grades 4 to 6 and Anna Rose Nafziger hired to teach Grades 1, 2 and 3. The old log school was renovated and cleaned for use as Miss Nafziger’s classroom. Construction of an addition to the Youngville school began in 1957 and it was moved onto a new foundation in November. The addition was built during the winter months including a foundation for the second room, a hallway and two storage rooms. Miss Nafziger’s class moved out of the old log school on April 14, 1958.
Plans were completed for the third room on the new school complex in 1960 with a basement and water cistern added beneath the new classroom. It was bright and spacious with west-facing windows. Enrollments at Calling Lake School continued to grow. On December 9, 1960, Northland School Division No. 61 was formed by an order in council by Hon. A. O. Aalborg, Minister of Education. Twenty school districts in northern Alberta were organized into the new school division. Calling Lake residents were asked to vote if they wanted to be included in Northland on November 2, 1961 and on November 7, 1961 the school committee of the County of Athabasca unanimously approved the transfer.
On January 1, 1962, Calling Lake School District No. 4124 was officially part of Northland School Division No. 61. Immediate benefits were that residents no longer had to pay for school supplies, materials and furnishings. A fourth classroom was completed by May, 1962 and new redwood siding improved the exterior of the complex.
As the predicted post-war baby boom materialized the need for another addition on the school was identified by 1965. The old log school was once more temporarily refurbished for the Grade 1 classroom. The sum of $115,173 was borrowed by Northland School Division to build a cinderblock addition on to the Youngville partition including a classroom, science room, science storage room, two washrooms, caretaker’s room, furnace room and an activity room as well as renovations to the existing complex. Water and sewer systems were included and the property was landscaped. Construction continued through the winter months under a plastic dome and the four-room school was completed in the spring of 1966.
By 1974, growing enrollment numbers had brought two portable classrooms onto the property. New administrative offices were subdivided from the former fourth classroom. A school lunch program was run from the community hall (the old log school) and later from a trailer on the property. In 1977 – 78, Calling Lake School was comprised of a front entrance and boot room, five classrooms, several storage rooms, a furnace room, physical activities room with storage, staff washrooms, boys and girls’ washrooms with showers, staff workroom, library, nurse’s office, principle’s office, and administrative office. For a decade, Grade 9 students, and later Grade 7 and 8 students were bussed to Edwin Parr Composite School in Athabasca for classes. However, many of the children did not progress well because of the long bus ride and the distractions of downtown Athabasca which was a short walk down the hill from EPC. By 1982-83, Grade 7 was once again taught in Calling Lake and a portable was brought in for Grade 9 in 1984-85.
By 1987-88, The Youngville School section of the building had been in use for 30 years and was difficult to maintain. Imagining what was feasible and acceptable in a new school took several years of planning. The cement block section of the school built in 1967 would be added on to and the older section demolished. Classes would be held in portable classrooms as needed during construction. In 1988-89, Calling Lake School consisted entirely of portables however, construction of a new school complex was underway. It was completed in the spring of 1989 and moving day was on Monday, May 29. The grand opening, including a traditional ceremony performed by Albert Auger and Sampson Beaver, was held on October 20, 1989 and was attended by many dignitaries and local residents. The new school is built of red-brick and yellow-brick sections, as well as portables incorporated into the layout. It includes a bright and spacious rotunda, classrooms, work rooms, two-story library, gymnasium, administrative offices, computer room, and early childhood services classroom. The front entrance and rotunda are decorated with murals created by local artists which acknowledge traditional heritage and practices. Kindergarten to Grade 12 is taught at Calling Lake School.
Adapted from “By a Lake of Sparkling Blue: A History of Calling Lake School No. 4124,” 1997 by Dora Shwaga.

The Athabasca Peace Initiative (API) was a group of interested Athabascans who initially met in January 2003 to respond to initiatives from the United Nations International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World, and the World Council of Churches Decade to Overcome Violence. Members met monthly to learn about and discuss aspects of peace as related to developing and implementing a vision for a peace institute based in Athabasca, and to research, teach and support peace making and peace keeping in families, communities and the world. They researched the possibility of a peace-initiative program that could be delivered by Athabasca University. API hosted peace walks, candlelight vigils, discussion groups, and prayer services. Between 2004 and 2009 they hosted annual ethnic dinners and presentations. They cosponsored the 2nd Annual Alberta Peace Education Conference with Athabasca University and Edwin Parr Composite School in 2004. They sponsored the White Ribbon Campaign Community Forum on Family Violence Prevention in November 2006. They also cosponsored environmental presentations, the Athabasca River Basin Conference in June 2007, hosted two “Entertaining Peace” concerts, hosted a monthly peace-related film series, and acknowledged those “found making peace” in the community by sending them a card. Through the years, the scope of the group expanded to addressing human rights issues, environmental concerns and family violence prevention. Two initiatives that evolved from or were created by API were Athabasca and Area Prevention of Relationship Abuse and Keepers of the Athabasca. Founding members were Bruce Jackson, Cecile Fausak, Rhonda DeLorme, David and Rosaleen Gregory, Jerry and Lynne MacLean, Kelly Johnston, Louis and Annamarie Schmittroth, and Ann Stiles.

Ted Langton-Adams was a Canadian photo journalist based in Vancouver, BC. He was born in the United States and came to Canada to enlist in the military, having been unable to join in the US. He served as a reconnaissance rider during WWII. After the war, he was employed in the commercial airline industry by Trans-Canada Airlines (later Air Canada) and Western Airlines (later acquired by Delta Airlines). Ted Langton-Adams was the president of Trail North Foundation in 1978 and was part of a historical motorboat trip on the Athabasca River from the Town of Athabasca northeast to the Grand Rapids. Others on the trip included Town of Athabasca Mayor Herman Leicht, County of Athabasca Reeve Lee Melsness, several town and county councilors, and representatives from Athabasca and District Chamber of Commerce. Ted Langton-Adams was widely traveled and enjoyed a number of interests including photography, vintage motorcycles and automobiles, and breeding Boxer dogs. A book of his motor sport photographs, The Photographic Art of Ted Langton-Adams: Europe 1962, was published posthumously in 2009 by Thomas E. Johnston Ventures Inc.

Rose Laura Barrett (Koerner) was the eighth of thirteen children born to William Edward Koerner and Wilhelmina Carolina Becker. She attended school at the Parkhurst School, northeast of Athabasca, AB. In 1932, she married Albert Barrett. They farmed and raised their five children in the Athabasca area. Rosie wrote her autobiography which was completed i 1981 and she was interviewed by Frank Falconer in 1983. They discussed the Parkhurst District, Chautauquas, teachers, Hugo Carlson, Dr. George Meyer, Dr. Edwin Wright, Alfred Barrett, the Anglican Church, wild game, homesteaders, cutting ice and fairs.

Viola Overholt's birth parents were from Ontario and divorced before 1923. Vi was adopted by Harry and Mabel Overholt in 1923 at the age of 7. She attended Sawdy School and the Sawdy post office was run by Overholts. She married Walter Overholt, son of Lewis and Mary Overholt, in 1931. Walter died at the age of 45 of a heart attack in 1952. They had five children; four boys and a girl.

Peter Rosychuk is a retired railway station agent and telegraph operator of the Northern Alberta Railway (NRA), now the Canadian National Railway (CNR). He lives in Westlock, Alberta.