Barrie’s heritage is long and storied, and Craig Froese is one of many people making sure residents find out all they can about it.
The Heritage Barrie committee is an advisory committee appointed by city council to build awareness of local heritage matters, provide heritage information and encourage preservation of heritage buildings and landscapes.
Froese is vice-chair of the committee and, while at his booth at the Barrie Farmers’ Market, told BarrieToday that being visible in the community is key to building passion for local history.
“People love hearing about history, particularly the history around them,” said Froese. “To be able to set up a booth here and answer the many questions people have face to face only furthers the relationship between residents and that history.”
Froese is a history teacher and a resident of Barrie’s historic Allandale area.
With development on the way for Barrie and the city’s population about to nearly double over the next decade and a half, Froese wants to make sure we protect the past as well as move forward.
“I live in Allandale. It’s a beautiful community and I love the historical nature of the area, and with more pressure from development, we’re just trying to preserve what we have there,” he said. “We just want to get people in the Barrie community to understand that the heritage of the city and different little communities are important.”
As a history teacher, Froese deals with kids and their natural curiosity every day, and he says despite what you may think, students love the past.
“I try to connect the local community to history,” he said. “That connection for kids makes history come alive and then they become more engaged in the subject and in the area. You just have to help them understand why it is important and try to connect them to something interesting.”
There are 300 streets in Barrie named after veterans, and it was Froese who approached the city years ago about honouring those veterans by placing poppies on the street signs that bear their names. Since doing so, he said he has seen a spike in interest around local history and has seen communities become closer.
“I get people emailing saying they live on a street with a poppy and (they) want to know more. I then send them the information needed,” he said. “The best story I had was a guy who told me he lived on Armstrong and, after I gave him the information, he wrote it up and handed it out to all the neighbours on the street.”
The committee meets every second Wednesday of the month at city hall. Meetings are open to the public.
