A view from the museum
On Canada Day, Brubacher House has normally been open for the public to drop-in during the University of Waterloo celebrations. Most hosts had volunteers, friends and family, who were stationed in each room of the museum and visitors would cycle through. Hosts and volunteers got front row seats to the entertainment and fireworks at the end of the day.
July 1, 2005
“Canada Day was a big event...After the tours were over, we loved that we could invite all our friends and family over to our 'front lawn' to watch what felt like our own private fireworks display over Columbia Lake. We also remember how quickly the events on the field were dismantled after the crowd left, and how bright the lights were to allow workers to clean up the tents and garbage well into the night, leaving a perfectly clean field the next morning.”
July 1, 1998
“Our first day was on July 1, 1994 - and was quite an immersion experience!...We answered basic questions, directed traffic and did 'crowd control.' We enjoyed the day, because of the 'buzz' but also the opportunity to hear from local volunteers who had a strong connection with the House and the wider Pennsylvania Mennonite Dutch story. Personally, we also had a great seat to watch the evening's fireworks!”
“Volunteers made sure visitors didn't touch anything they weren't supposed to (or try lying down on the bed). It was often sweltering hot. Some years the stone house was still cool inside, but not always.”
July 1, 2018
“We seemed to get Canada Day down to a science, and then the university stopped running the event!
"It always took about a week to set up, and a week to wrap up such a big event...Besides the museum tour, we would usually have kids’ crafts and the museum video running in the basement, and MCC comforter knotting on the veranda. Our apartment would become the VIP lounge and cooling station, where we would provide pizza, lemonade, snacks, and a fan for tired volunteers. It was always a fun but exhausting day, as we would welcome around 300-400 visitors in the course of a few hours, and volunteers would have to shout over the loud music from the concert stage out back. Over the years, we added a banner on the back porch and lawn signs around North Campus, which helped to bring more people in, and Laura’s uncle would also walk around handing out old postcards of the museum and inviting people in for a tour, so the museum became quite a draw. We always kept our doors open a little longer than posted, just because there was so much interest. At the end of the day, we would close up, and our crew of volunteers would find a nice spot on the hill to enjoy the fireworks together. ”
“We did open house hours with a few volunteers to divide and conquer. One year a photographer set up a time lapse camera in our apartment to document the crowd for UW Canada Day.”
July 1, 2008
“Canada Day was always a very busy day. There was a constant flow of people visiting the museum. We provided refreshments and bbq for our volunteers, and then enjoyed the live music and fireworks.”
July 1, 2016
“We had very enthusiastic friends volunteer to be trained and lead tours throughout the day. A few years we had volunteers standing in each room, chatting about the space as curious guests came through; other times, if the flow of traffic was slow, we could take individuals on personalized tours. We generally opened around noon, though traffic pickup was definitely highest in the hour before fireworks.
"We did connect with UW about any needs or expectations around the day, but in practicality our connections to UW the day of were usually just for a glass of water, an extension cord or a hose!”
After Museum Hours Celebrations
July 1, 2005
July 1, 2007
July 1, 2016
