More than 100 people show up for grand opening of Henteleff Park
More than 100 people sat in the sunshine and celebrated the long-awaited grand opening of the interpretive centre at Henteleff Park on Saturday.
The park, located at 1964 St. Mary's Rd., has taken more than a decade to open.
"A number of years ago when this land was about to be developed for commercial purposes, a group of us called Friends of Henteleff Park, decided that it should not be developed commercially," said Yude Henteleff, president emeritus of the Henteleff Park Foundation.
"It's a beautiful, gorgeous piece of land that should be developed as a park."
The site was previously Winnipeg's Henteleff Tree Nursery and in 2002 it was rezoned a park.
Since then, the group has reforested the land by planting more than 5,000 trees and shrubs and established three kilometres of trails. They also rehabilitated Normand Creek.
"This will always be a passive park. A place for meditations, a place of platitude, a place for serenity, a place to just be by yourself with nature," Henteleff said.
The interpretive centre pays tribute to the Métis families who played a large role in settling and developing the community as well as the Henteleff family story and the contributions of other Jewish farm families in the province, Henteleff said.
"It's an extraordinary day," he said, adding "so many people came here today, more than 100 … to celebrate this event and celebrate the importance of maintaining places like this."
