Greetings to all the members of the Alberta Estonian Heritage Society

When I last wrote in Ajakaja, we were just preparing for the Jaanipäev celebration in Stettler which was held on June 25. The theme for the event was to honor the pioneer Kerbes family who organized many of the local picnics and were very active in the community with the 4K’s orchestra. A Kerbes style family picnic featured outdoor events. The men’s nail pounding event was won by Ron Hennel and the women’s by Irene Kerbes. Evi Valge and her daughter won the women’s log sawing event, and Larry Klaus and I won the men’s event. It just goes to show that age and experience can beat the young bucks, at least once. The highlight event, where the ladies throw rolling pins at a stuffed dummy, was won by Helgi Leesment. She won the honor of being the “Queen of 4 AM”.

The 4K’s orchestra gained its name from three Kerbes family members and one Klaus. One of the original members, Charlie Klaus was present, as was Marguarite Kerbes who played with the band for a long time. Recorded music from the 4K’s was played during the afternoon, and later, Larry Klaus (nephew of Charlie) and Marlene Kuutan played and Evi Valge and Evelyn Shursen, two very talented singers, sang a few of the old melodies. Later in the evening, Marguarite’s son Hal Kerbes and his daughters, along with one other band member put on a most inspiring show of classic Kerbes tunes and a few numbers from their own performances. It was a fun filled afternoon of games, singing and entertainment which was a true tribute to the Kerbes family and the 4K’s who led and inspired social activities in the Linda Hall community for over 50 years.

Over 100 people attended the event from Edmonton, Calgary, Eckville, Red Deer, Stettler, Medicine Hat and locations as far away as Toronto, Saskatchewan and even Estonia. There were several good articles written about the event and published in the local newspapers. The Red Deer Advocate published an excellent article that included excerpts of interviews with many of those that attended.

We were all saddened to hear about the passing of Rudolph Hennel on October 2. He was in good spirits at the Jaanipäev celebration, and was looking forward to the article about his family farm to be published in this AjaKaja. He was the last sibling of the 10 Kristjan Hennel children and lived on the homestead that his family has farmed for 100 years. He along with his brother Edward Hennel inspired Marian Collin (nee Hennel) to start recording the Hennel Family tree, which has so far grown from 256 names in 1980 to over 2000 names so far. His sons Ron and Allan Hennel will continue to farm the old homestead, so the farm will still be in the Hennel family for many years to come.

On October 26, the Calgary members of the AEHS executive held an informal meeting on the activities that have taken place since Jaanipäev. Our society is now registered under the Societies Act with both Alberta and the Federal Governments. Most of the discussion was concerned with the development of the AEHS website which is being ably undertaken by Bob Kingsep. A workshop would be held in the next month to introduce AEHS members on how to access and use the website. The workshop would also give Bob an opportunity to solicit ways to improve the site.

All the AEHS members were all asked to give suggestions on what should be our next year’s activity, and where it might be held so we can continue to build on the success we have had so far in our first year of existence.

Tervitust

Bob Tipman, President, AEHS