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The Coin Launch February 1, 1999 The historic day finally arrived … February 1, 1999. I woke up with great excitement at 4:00 am. After getting ready, I went to the local Robin's donut store to pick up 5 dozen donuts and 46 cups of coffee, which had been specially prepared for the trip. Next, I picked up my parents at their hotel and from there we drove directly to St. Leo Centre. A new 56 passenger Brewster bus was already in the parking lot waiting for us. As it turned out, Keith, the bus driver, was a retired Park Ranger who had worked in the Milk River area and, as a result, was able to provide us with his own personal knowledge of that area throughout the trip. The back entrance to St. Leo Centre was decorated in a festive atmosphere. Coffee and donuts were placed on several tables, which were covered with turquoise table cloths. My large three-dimensional coin was on display along with a 3' x 8' banner that read:
This area became a beehive of activity as people started to arrive. With coffee and donuts in hand most people spent their time “meeting and greeting”, while others helped to load the bus with supplies. When Louise De Jourdan, from the Royal Canadian Mint, arrived with three thousand dollars worth of February millennium quarters everyone got excited. After she passed out quarters to everyone, we got into the bus and started our trip to Milk River. The time was 6:15 am. During the first hour on the bus we let everyone sleep or talk quietly. After that, the rest of day was packed full of non-stop activities. The first thing on the agenda was introductions. Although most people knew everyone, there were a few new faces in the group. The following people were on the bus: Lonnie Springer After the introductions, Vic talked about the grade 4 Social Studies unit that we were going to develop. Next, he showed a video on how Global Positioning Systems (GPS) were being used in the US Social Studies curriculum and Ozzie Sawicki provided more details on how the GPS actually works. As we entered the small historic town of Fort Macleod, Gary de Leeuw and Dr. Dale Walde, two archaeologists from the University of Calgary, talked about the history of southern Alberta and life of the natives on the plains. Their talk was followed by a video produced by Alberta Achieves which gave more background information on native culture and got everyone on the bus prepared for the rest of the day's events. Throughout the morning the entertainment committee, Ed Hergott, Stan Spavor and Dale Potts, made sure everyone was well fed and looked after by going up and down the aisle of the bus passing out muffins, donuts, juice and refilling coffee cups. Just before we arrived at Milk River, I passed out "The Great Canadian February Millennium Coin Bus Quiz" to everyone. Because this was suppose to be an educational trip, I wanted to make sure everyone had been paying attention during our morning lectures. The prize for the one who got the highest score on the test was a beautifully framed colour pencil drawing that I did of my millennium coin. As it turned out, everyone got a perfect score because someone (namely me) had printed the answers on the back of each quiz sheet. As a result, we had to make a draw for the prize and Chris Volk, Supervisor of Fine Arts, was the winner. As we drove through the town of Milk River the excitement in the bus started to build. Under a clear blue Alberta sky and with the wind blowing 90 k from the west, we arrived at Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park twenty minutes later. Bonnie Moffat, a park ranger, gave our group a private tour. Her enthusiasm and love of the park was contagious. She explained with great care and detail the geology, plant and animal life of the area. Moreover, she gave us a fascinating glimpse into native life on the plains of Alberta as we toured of the petroglyphs that were etched into the steep sandstone cliffs. Our group was especially touched after seeing in real live the petroglyph images that were to appear on the February millennium quarter. With sand in our hair, mouth and eyes from the blowing wind, we climbed
back onto the bus at around 11:30 am to return to the Milk River for the
afternoon ceremonies. Our entertainment committee passed out specially made
millennium coin box lunches containing a variety of sandwiches, a plastic
bag of fresh vegetables, and cookies. People also had their choice of different
juice drinks, pop and coffee. This was one of the few moments on the bus
when the group was silent. The only sounds that could be heard were those
of hungry people enjoying an excellent meal. The event started with the singing of “Oh Canada” by a choir of students and this was preceeded by an entrance of distinguished delegates: members of the RCMP, president of the Royal Mint, local and provincial politicians, park rangers, members of the Blood reserve, and, of course, myself. Next, Frank Weaselhead, an elder from the Blood Tribe, gave an opening prayer in his native Blackfoot language. This prayer helped to set the mood for the rest of the afternoon activities. Tanja Harrison, the master of ceremonies, welcomed everyone to the coin launch. Tanja, a student at the Alberta College of Art and Design, was one of the judges for the millennium coin contest. She introduced the Olivia Tailfeathers and the Kainai Grassland Singers, a teacher and students from the Kainai Middle School in Standoff, Alberta. They performed a contemporary native American song called “Indian Summer”. Accompanying the music were two native girls who performed the “Fancy Shaw Dance”, which depicted the graceful movements of the butterfly. Next Tanja introduced Dannielle Wetherup, the president of the Royal Canadian Mint. Ms. Wetherup gave a short speech in which she talked about the “Create A Centsation” contest, the historical and cultural importance of the images that were on the February coin and congratulated me both as a winner of the contest and for bringing attention to these significant native petroglyphs. I followed Ms. Wetherup with my speech by thanking everyone in attendance and expressed my gratitude to the Royal Canadian Mint for having a national contest to allow ordinary citizens to design its currency. I then went on to provide the audience with a brief account of the history of the Milk River area and the significance of the three petroglyphs images that appear on the February millennium quarter. I often had the audience refer to a timeline handout that I had provided to them. After my speech we had the unveiling of the coin. The Royal Mint had made a large copy of the coin and it was on stage cover by a native wool blanket. To help with the unveiling were three Milk River students, Martin Heavyhead, Dannielle Wetherup and myself. We took off the blanket to a loud around of applause and the flash from hundreds of cameras. Following the unveiling, David Mistakenchief, a student of the Kainai Middle School, did a traditional native dance around the coin. Harrison Wolfchild, a Blood elder, accompanied the dance with loud rhythmic singing and drumming. After this beautiful dance, DannielleWetherup presented the Writing-On-Stone park rangers with a framed cast of the February millennium coin to be placed on permanent display at the park. The next agenda item of the ceremonies got missed and a few people from the Royal Mint were embarrassed. However, I found it to be a little amusing. What happen was that I should have been presented with my gift, a framed cast of the coin, for winning the contest but somehow this got overlooked and, instead of getting the gift during the ceremonies, it was presented to me after the ceremonies had ended. Immediately following the Writing-On-Stone presentation to the park rangers, Ty Lund, Minister of Alberta Environment Protection, brought greetings from the Province of Alberta. He congratulated me for winning the contest and expressed his gratitude to me for giving all Canadians a chance to share in the beauty of Alberta. Next, Martin Heavyhead, Blood Tribe Chief and Council Member, gave a short speech. He talked about native history and thank me for not only including his people's images on the February millennium quarter but also for the research I had done on native culture in preparing for my speech. Just when people thought the launch was over … the lights of the community centre suddenly when off … fire works exploded and the Time Traveler magically appeared on stage. The Time Traveler is a character that the Royal Mint invented to help with the publicity of the millennium coin activities. He travels through time collecting coins and appears at each launch ceremonies to trade new millennium coins for the old caribou quarters. During his visit at our coin launch, he performed a number of magic tricks to keep everyone entertained. He pulled a white dove out of an empty container. The dove flew around and then, just as if it had been rehearsed, perched itself on the top of the large millennium coin that was on stage. This brought much laughter and clapping from the audience. After the Time Traveler disappeared into the future, Olivia Tailfeathers and the Kainai Grassland Singers came back on stage and performed a very emotional song called "Writing-On-Stone". At the end of their performance, Tanja invited everyone to the back of the community centre to trade their old caribou quarters for the new "Etched In Stone" February millennium quarters. This of course resulted in a good old fashion stampede. Thus the small town of Milk River in southern Alberta became the first community in Canada to start the circulation of my new quarter. Unfortunately, I was unable to participate in this fun activity because I was immediately surrounded by the press and had to give numerous interviews. When all my friends were back on the bus for the return trip to Calgary, I thanked them for helping to make this day such a special event. I then gave each of them one of my limited edition hand-signed coin cards. John Chalmers presented me with two bottles of his home-made wine which he entitled "Petroglyph Plonk". As we pulled out the parking lot of the community centre, my millennium coin TV commercial was placed in the VCR and turned on. The commercial had been continually playing on a TV set in the back corner of the community centre. However, I had never seen it until this moment because I had been too busy with the various launch activities. Louse de Jourdan was very anxious to see my reaction to the commercial. Though out the commercial I had a big smile on my face and I was busting with pride. I thought the commercial turned out great … of course I had to see it several times before I would allow anyone to turn off the TV sets in bus. Seeing the commercial using a VCR is one thing, but actually seeing it live during a television program is completely different. I remember the first time I saw the commercial … it caught me totally by surprise. To think thousands of Canadians were also watching it at the same time … that is unless they went channel surfing or to the fridge to get something to eat. Before the month of February was over, I saw the commercial four times. Moreover, everyone I talked to saw the commercial and were very impressed by it. By the time we reached the city limits of Milk River, the wine and beer was starting to flow and the bus began to take on a party atmosphere. Our entertainment committee did an excellent job in making sure that everyone had lots to eat and drink during the return trip. Thus ended a day that I will never forget!!! Lonnie's Coin Journal Introduction | The Phone Call | The Commercial | The Trip | The Events | The Coin Launch Other Documents Press Release | The Speech - given at the Coin Launch | Timeline [pdf] - given at the Coin Launch |
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