Lunch With
RON ULRICH
Fernie Museum and Heritage Executive Director Lindsay Foreman Can you share your educational and work background with us and describe your connections to Fernie? I have worked in the museum sector since I was 15, first starting as a volunteer, then becoming a summer student. After graduating from university and a subsequent museum studies program, it’s been my only career. My love of museums began with a field trip to Fort Steele Heritage Town. Our family has always celebrated our immigrant roots, and I’ve had
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countless relatives share their early lives in Canada. So, when I was participating in the Home Sweet Home program at Fort Steele as a Grade 4 student, all those stories about hardship and work by hand came alive in a way that still is quite vivid. I’ve been interested in museums since, and their ability to affect children and youth particularly. When the opportunity to join the local historical society, which was wanting to start a museum in the Crowsnest Pass, came along, I jumped at the chance. It was hands-on learning at its best, and I still am nostalgic about those days learning how to catalogue collections while sitting with elders in my community telling stories about the objects they were cataloguing. Those stories still stick with me. Fernie is home. My great-grandparents came to Fernie when they landed in Canada. My grandfather was born here. While the family moved to the other side of Alberta/BC border for work, our family roots have long been tethered to Fernie. Its full circle for me to come back to the mountains, and I’m loving every minute.
