By Vicki BROOKER Review Staff
The clang of a timeworn brass school bell called a large crowd to the re-dedication ceremonies for the newly restored Fern Chapel School, in the Ferguson Flats area northeast of Elk Point. Olga Ockerman, who has been one of the restoration’s most tireless workers, welcomed former students and guests who gathered outside Fern Chapel’s successor, now the Ferguson Flats community hall.
“T can’t find the words to express the gratitude I feel at seeing Fern Chapel School become a historic site we all can be proud of, and which so many people pulled together to restore.” Following the routine in one-room school days, all stood to join in the singing of O Canada and to repeat the Lord’s Prayer. They remained standing for a minute of silence honoring the “dearly departed” - area pioneers, teachers and students of Fern Chapel.
“When this project started, we didn’t want the ‘heart of the community to die,’ Ockerman said. “So we thought we would put it on life support and put on a new roof. That’s as far as we thought we would get. We didn’t have a cent. In three years, we have accomplished what was only a dream. “T hope this school will serve as a legacy for the future, and as a tribute to the pioneers who sacrificed to see their children had a school. It has stood for 90 years.”
Ockerman added that this was “not only a school, it was the heart of the community” where residents attended dances and church services as well. “I don’t think today’s students will have such a sentimental feeling about their schools.”
Fern Chapel was built in the days when a local school ‘board hired and paid the teachers, took complaints from local residents about too much homework for the students and put out tenders for scrubbing the schoolhouse floor.
Today’s school board trustee, Darrell Younghans, represents a much larger area, but both he and his wife have ties-to Fern Chapel, where his grandmother, Wilma (Salmon) Kjenner went to school and his great-grandfather, John Salmon, was on the school board. His wife, Doreen, is an Ockerman descendant whose grandmother attended the school.
Younghans welcomed the visitors on behalf of the trustees of St. Paul Regional School Division #1, and said its “humbling that all these people came” to see the restored school. With school board and county elections coming up in October, Younghans joked that “I'd like to take credit [for the restoration] but I can’t. It was spearheaded by Olga Ockerman, and I would like to thank all those who worked on it. Their efforts show that there is still a sense of community here.”
“I really commend the Ferguson Flats Community Association and the volunteers,” County of St. Paul Division 1 councillor Allen Young said. “Without them, this would never have happened. The oil companies and the industry really came through for us, too.” Ockerman noted that the restoration “took many dollars, but not as many as it did volunteer hours. “I really appreciate MLA Ray Danyluk’s assistance. I think it was with his cooperation that we got the CIP grant,” she added.
“Tt’s so, so important to have an identity of where we come from,” Danyluk said. “So many have come back here on a very fitting weekend, and they have so much to be proud of.” He said he had “special memories of the Ferguson Flats hall - I learned to play cards here and learned to dance from Elsie Zapesocki.” He said the restored school has “such a beautiful setting, and with no dust on the roads,” for which he thanked Young.
“We helped so little with the restoration project,” Danyluk concluded. “The volunteers did so much.”
“What a wonderful afternoon!” exclaimed Alberta Historical Resources Foundation (AHRF) director Iola Vartja, who said that after adjudicating 94 applications for heritage preservation, Ferguson Flats Community Association had been one of those receiving approval in June 2001.
“To approve things on paper is one thing. To see the results is another,” Vartja said. “One room schools are very rare. You have no idea what a treasure you have. There is no way to express how grateful we are.”
Vartja brought a message from AHRF’s board chair, calling Fern Chapel “the best local resource project we have ever seen. The AHREF funding went a long way.”
When Ockerman contacted the AHRF, “I showed David Capelatto what it looked like. It was so forlorn, but he took many pictures. We filled out the applications and bragged about what we planned to do. A lot of people dug down deeply to match the $5,000 grant.” Finding the money was only a start, she added. “When we started looking, we found that a new roof was like putting a patch on raggy overalls,” as more decay was discovered.
The numerous volunteers didn’t let setbacks like rotting sills get them down, however. They hunted out sources of materials, “worked hundreds of hours and gave up their summers. I hope now they can go fishing,” Ockerman said.
Four of the most dedicated volunteers, former students Ed Hillebrand, Neil Nelson and Bruno Kummetz, and wife and sister of former students Judy Ockerman, were called forward to receive plaques and collections of pictures taken during the restoration. Olga Ockerman added her personal thanks to the four and “all the others who helped in every way. You can spearhead a project and get all the money, but without the workers, forget it.”
She, too, received a plaque, presented by Kummetz with thanks for her valued leadership in the project.
The ceremonies wound up with a poem written by former student Irene Melin, who was unable to attend the gathering, but who summed up the value of the vintage hall of learning in her final lines,
“We learned three Rs and a whole lot more In that little school.”
The entire assembly then trooped over. to Fern Chapel, where former students Wilma (Salmon) Kjenner and Beulah (Nelson) Williams held the scarlet ribbon, which was cut by the school’s final teacher, Gwen Nelson.
The school’s reputation as the heart of the community was celebrated with music. Gabe Bayduza listed a number of musicians who played for dances at the school many years ago, including her late father who taught her to play many of the old time songs. One of those musicians was Walter Saranchuk, who took up the banjo he had played at those dances to accompany Bayduza, on accordion, and Marge Heffernan on guitar in a medley of old favorites, with the audience joining in the final chorus of “School Days, School Days.”
Visitors were then invited to tour the school, with its tidy rows of desks topped with vintage readers and textbooks, shiny wood heater, lines of ABCs and arithmetic questions on the blackboard, and a treasure trove of memories for all who attended school back in the day.
“You can spearhead a project and get all the money, but without the workers, forget it.” - Olga Ockerman
