A group of residents came together Saturday to reminisce about the history of Parkdale, and how the past can help determine the community’s future.
The group met at Parkdale Elementary to celebrate Parkdale Days, an event that began last year as a class reunion, but has become a mobile museum of the community. Parkdale, which was a town for many years, amalgamated with Charlottetown in 1994.
Mary-Lynn Bruvels helped organize the event. She said many items have been collected since last year, and they wanted to display them. The collection is far from over, she said.
“It’s part of the journey we hope will go on for some time.”
While she said one option would be compiling a book, she wasn’t sure what would become of the items.
“At least we’ll collect it and preserve it.”
The exhibit included photos from town councils past, pages from school yearbooks and minutes from several meetings, which were handwritten on fading paper.
There were also living exhibits, who told the stories of Parkdale past through their memories.
Pex MacKay, who had an exhibit at the event, said the exhibit reminds people of how much the community has changed.
“The Parkdale we grew up with is disappearing, so we decided to freeze it in time.”
Bruvels said she’s happy so many people made it to the event.
“A lot of different age groups, a lot of people that have lived a long time and a lot that are new to the area.”
Fellow organizer Kathleen Ross said she hopes the day informed newcomers of what the community was all about.
“We’re trying to familiarize with people in this community the history that this community stemmed from.”
Charlottetown Mayor Clifford Lee and MLA Doug Currie were also on hand at the event.
Lee said it’s important to recognize Parkdale’s past.
“To recognize the preservation of that important history and what it means to the future.”
Currie, who grew up in the area, said he remembers many things about Parkdale.
“I still remember at one point in time when we still had our own police service.”
