News
41 days till our first Open House for 2018
We are excited to announce the Grand Opening of our new Interpretive Center.  |
Lesley Avant Joins our Board
We welcome Lesley Avant to our Board. Lesley has been a staunch supporter and member of the Friends of the Forestry Farm House for many years. In 1989 the Saskatoon Zoo Society was given the contract to
staff the zoo gate and do their best to try to provide food services to the
public. Paws Inn was born and Lesley Avant was hired to manage the operation
for one year. The building was and is totally inadequate for this but Lesley
persevered and through hard work and wonderful staff over the years she managed
to make the entrance the welcoming face of the site.
At Paws Inn prices for food items were kept reasonable so that people did not feel gouged by being a ‘captive audience’. One of Lesley’s dreams was to have a zoo-themed gift shop and so a small section of the concession was turned over to t-shirts, plush toys, and souvenir items – as much as could be squeezed into the tiny space allotted to it. Funds raised at Paws Inn helped the Saskatoon Zoo Society to provide quality educational programs.
The Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park and Zoo finally got a stand-alone, exit-through gift shop which opened in 2016. In preparation Lesley was in her element deciding on layout and merchandising and what new stock to carry now that there was space.
In May 2017 after 29 years Lesley retired from a contract position that she had promised to run for one year.
After a year of well deserved R and R. Lesley is ready to join our Board. We know she will bring with her new ideas and insights learned from her experience working at the Forestry Farm and we welcome her with open arms. |
2018 Heritage Festival of Saskatoon
Visit our booth at the Heritage Festival on Sunday, February 4th, 2018, 12 – 5 pm at the Western Development Museum, 2610 Lorne Avenue. Free admission to the displays and the museum for this occasion. |
Newsletters
I will try to add newsletters to this post as they become available. |
| Attachments:
FFFH winter newletter 2018.pdf
Presenting our Centennial Book
Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park & Zoo A Photographic History Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park & Zoo: A Photographic History tells the stories of the people who worked at the Sutherland Forest Nursery Station, the trees distributed to prairie farmers, the evolution from nursery station to a city park, the move of the animals to the site all the way to the sites centennial in 2013. Amazing archival and contemporary photographs are combined with insightful vignettes from the forest nursery station's beginning on a stubble field through two World Wars and the Depression, to its transfer to the City of Saskatoon and subsequent developments. About the Author - Sara WilliamsRetired as the horticultural specialist, University of Saskatchewan, Sara Williams is the author of numerous gardening books, most recently, the new and revised edition of Creating the Prairie Xeriscape. She also has written hundreds of articles on horticulture. Sara was inducted into the Saskatchewan's Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2013. She developed her first garden in the 1960s in the school courtyard in Tanzania, East Africa where she was a volunteer teacher. More recently she has helped to raise over $200,000 for a hostel for Tanzanian girls so that they can attend secondary school. She gardens on 5 acres of sand near Saskatoon. Book Sales and ContactsThe book is available in Saskatoon from McNally Robinson, PAW's Inn at the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park & Zoo, the University Bookstore, Western Development Museum Gift Shop in Saskatoon and Turning the Tide Book Store for $20.00. If you are outside of Saskatoon, you can contact Claire Bullaro, 306-373-1787 or email c.bear@sasktel.net. |
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