For the second consecutive year, Fort William Historical Park (FWHP) has won the 2009 up! Magazine Value Award.  Up! magazine is the in-house publication of Westjet Airlines.

FWHP was singled out for the terrific value offered to its customers. Value Awards winners are chosen by Westjet travellers who select "places, businesses and events that deliver a great bang for the travel buck and provide a high-quality and unique travel experience that over-delivers when compared to other similarly priced offerings...." 

In the view of readers of up! magazine, the benefits and rewards of the travel experience offered by the award recipients are greater than the cost.

FWHP was among 200 organizations to receive the honour.

 

State-of-the art information technology took centre stage at the Regional Showcase staged at Fort William Historical Park May 13th.

This marked the second consecutive year that the Regional Showcase was held at the Fort. Over 365 delegates attended various exhibits and workshops held throughout the day. The Regional Showcase made full use of FWHP's multi-room exhibit centres featuring high-speed Internet services and audio-visual systems.

The Regional Showcase provided an opportunity for individuals to participate in learning as well as experience the latest applications and initiatives from different ministries that relate to information technology and improvements of service delivery and the continued modernization of the OPS.

The Fort's Visitor Centre featured a variety of exhibits collectively offered by Northern Development and Mines, Environment, Natural Resources, Justice, Ontario Shared Services and several other ministries.

Several FWHP heritage structures with contemporary interior service capabilities also served as host venues on the historic site. Workshops centered on related themes including the effective uses of Outlook and the Blackberry, ITS Service, Improving Customer Engagement, Career Management and Lifeskills.  

Keynote addresses were provided by David Nicholl, Corporate Chief of Information and Information Technology Officer, Ministry of Government Services and Ron McKerlie, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Government  Services, Associate Secretary of the Cabinet and Secretary of Management Board of Cabinet.

Consensus among the participants was extremely positive for both the Showcase presentations and FWHP as host venue.

 

 

 

Fort William Historical Park (FWHP) has added yet another plaque to its ever-growing award wall. The Fort is the recipient of the Excellence in Diversity Award that was presented at the Northwestern Ontario Aboriginal Youth Achievement and Recognition Awards ceremony held April 30th at the Victoria Inn.  

The Fort was recognized for employing First Nations and Métis people and for being committed to keeping traditional culture alive and growing through its varied educational programs.  

Since the Fort's opening in 1973, aboriginal culture has played an important role in the Fort's fur trade story, where First Nations people have been employed as historic interpreters at the Ojibwa Native Encampment and as resource staff for the variety of educational and community programs offered by FWHP.  The Fort's Learning Wigwam and its attendant Sleeping under Bark program as well as the Ojibwa Keeshigun Native Festival have stood out among innovative programming highlighting the role of First Nations peoples in the success of the fur trade and the development of Canada.

More recently, FWHP has also partnered with the Métis Nation of Ontario in securing summer student placement positions in the Fort's Native Heritage Program.

Receiving the award on behalf of FWHP were Peter Boyle, Manager of Historical Operations, and Elliot Cromarty, Native Heritage Interpreter.

 

 

Fort William Historical Park did its part in recognizing Earth Day, April 22nd.

As part of the global initiative, FWHP took visitors on four Earth Day-themed tours during the day.  The tours highlighted how both the aboriginals and fur traders at Fort William utilized natural resources to both survive and thrive during the early 1800s.

The historic site offered a whole spectrum of examples how nature touched almost every aspect of life at the time, including food (wild game and plants), shelter (birch bark and spruce boughs used for wigwams, wood for over 40 Fort structures), warmth (animal fur, fire lighting and fuel), medicine (poplar for headaches, herbal teas and other applications), spiritual (sweet grass used in aboriginal ceremonies), transportation (black ash snowshoes, spruce gum and birch bark for canoes) and shipping (kegs made from cedar and white pine), just to name a few.

As a further benefit, each visitor received a free spruce tree seedling as an enduring commemoration of the event and a tangible means of nurturing our planet.   

Some of the tours were cross-generational, running the gamut from young children to grandparents, illustrating the universal appeal and relevance of the day's theme.

 

The Fort also observed intermittent ‘power outages' during the day as an observance in reducing energy consumption.

FWHP's initiative was one of just two community-oriented events that received prominent profile in local media.  

FWHP is considering expansion of the event in the future to provide opportunities for both education and community groups.