“People were less involved with each other. I drove by houses every day; once I knew who lived there, and I didn’t anymore,” she described her revelation.
Jenkins decided to reverse her indifference and ensure the community would be recognized for its past, present and future through a community history book.
She had become active with the Kelvin Grove Women’s Institute, and felt the project right for their realm, especially as a celebration of the 2014 anniversary of the Confederation Conference.
“They are a group that works for community. That’s why they exist, to help their community be the best it can be,” she explained.
The Women’s Institute agreed, and created a volunteer committee to work on the project. Jenkins started with notes her late mother, Mary Picketts, had compiled earlier for a similar idea, and used her own graphic arts experience to edit the information that would become “Home Sweet Home Kelvin Grove: History of our community through its architectural heritage to 2014.”
“I wanted it to be more than a dry genealogy,” described Jenkins, who settled on the theme of “home” that flows from the focus of the Women’s Institute.
“One of the chapters is on sharing and collaboration,” Jenkins exposed, relating the help the community gave her own family, with space and feed for animals when their barn burned, as well as a picture of area men actually shoveling snow by hand to clear the main roadway.
“I wanted to be sure it brought out the pictures,” she expressed, hoping stashed-away photos would be revealed to inspire family and community connections rather than letting history become legend, like a four-storey mill that was once the center of community industry.
A survey went out to each residence asking for information and stories they might want to add to the book. Some returns were scant, others extensive, but all provided for what Jenkins had envisioned.
“Besides past history, we wanted to document where Kelvin Grove was in 2014,” Jenkins added, noting that contributor Marilyn MacMurdo provided colour photos of every current residence.
Jenkins also designed a storage pocket into the back cover of “Home Sweet Home” to encourage saving photos for future community connection.
Kelvin Grove, bordering on Kensington, has significantly increased in population over the last five years, and Jenkins is pleased that many of the newcomers contributed.
“We need to know who our neighbour is. If you know who your neighbour is, you’re not far from help,” she advised.