A group of civic-minded Otter Lakers have spent the past few months hunched over the question of how best to celebrate an important milestone in the town’s history.
A committee of volunteers has been meeting since early this year to brainstorm activities for the 150th anniversary of the municipality’s incorporation in 1876.
“We were able to get a group together of different backgrounds, different ages, and we had a brainstorming session and it just built from there,” said Lory Beaudoin, co-chair of the committee, speaking about the first meetings.
She said many ideas have been tossed around, including organizing a winter carnival reminiscent of the ones organized in Otter Lake starting in the 1970s.
“That’s been talked about by a lot of residents who remember going to a carnival and having a fun time with them,” she said.
Otter Lake mayor and committee member Jennifer Quaile, who attended many winter carnivals growing up in Otter Lake, said they featured snowmobile races, parades, and a pageant involving a carnival king and queen. “They were fun nights,” she said.
The committee is aiming to have several events spread out throughout the year, including one coinciding with Canada Day, as well as other small events, such as an Otter Lake-themed trivia night with questions about the municipality’s history and people.
The municipality will set aside funds in its 2026 budget for the celebrations and will seek help from various levels of government to finance the fun.
In recent weeks the committee has also invited residents to contribute to several grassroots fundraisers, including a community cookbook, a calendar made up of community-submitted photos and a collaborative quilt that will be auctioned off.
“We’re hoping we can get some people to submit some photographs, and we can put a calendar together, and then the calendar is also a commemorative item,” Beaudoin said.
A portion of Quaile’s contribution to the celebrations will be to update a book called A Century of Unity, written in 1976 by her parents Grace Dagg Quaile and former Pontiac warden Basil Quaile on the occasion of the municipality’s 100th anniversary.
“They did research of council meetings going as far back as 1872 [ . . . ] and it’s got various pictures, and talks about industry and lays out photographs of the churches and schools,” she said, adding that the book is in popular demand.
“People approach me often and ask, ‘Do you have any copies of that book?’ and I only have two at this point, so it’s worth having it reproduced. And then I thought I would want to do some updates to it as well,” she said.
Quaile, who grew up in Otter Lake only to move back later in life, said the wealth of ideas thrown around at the meetings has shown her once again what is special about her community – its people.
“It’s the people and the community. I think it’s always that, the community that lives here in Otter Lake [ . . . ] I’ve been away for many years living in the city, but coming back, it’s just evident,” she said. “For a little town, it’s really good.”
Beaudoin, who also moved back to Otter Lake later in life, said for her it was important to celebrate the town’s builders and the people who continue to push it forward.
“A 150th anniversary is rare and remarkable. I don’t think it’s just a number, it’s a celebration of generations of people who built this town, raised their families here, and contributed to the great traditions alive,” she said.
The committee will be in need of volunteers for the 150th celebration next year. If you are interested, get in touch with the committee by email at otterlake150@outlook.com or by phoning the municipality at 819-453-7049.
