WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 11, 2015
PILOTS IN A TAILSPIN After three straight losses, Abby has slipped to fourth in the standings A24
your life
A B B O T S F O R D
your community.
twitter.com/abbynews facebook.com/myabbynews
abbynews.com m
Online all the time. In print Wednesday & Friday.
READY FOR THE WINTER GAMES A26 Eight Abby athletes will represent Team BC at the Canada Winter Games
This photo, of Abbotsford schoolchildren protesting a 1947 increase in the cost of chocolate bars, is one of tens of thousands in The Reach’s archives.
From past to pixels
Reach Archives P1345
The Reach’s archives put a century of history at locals’ fingertips
Tyler OLSEN Abbotsford News
O
n a sunny day more than 37 years after an astronaut and a mayor opened the 16th Abbotsford Airshow, Tricia Taylor leans toward a photo on her computer monitor to learn why the politician is clutching a pair of crutches. The moment once warranted a coveted spot in the front section of that week’s Abbotsford News. But if journalism is the first draft of history, it often shares the same unglamorous fate as first drafts in the literary arts: to be relegated to a filing cabinet, discarded in a trash bin, or forgotten as memories and ideas pile up and decompose under their own weight. But the photographs and moments that once catalogued the day-to-day life and existence of Abbotsford’s citizens are now reappearing – not on
NEW STRAIN OF AVIAN FLU A4 Different strain of avian influenza detected on backyard chicken farm in Chilliwack
POLICE WARNING
yellowing newsprint but online, in pixels and computer code, thanks to an ambitious project at The Reach Gallery Museum’s archives. Eventually, Taylor’s boss, Reach collections manager Kris Foulds, will click her mouse and the moment now on the screen will again become as accessible to the family of the astronaut or mayor as it is to The Reach staff. TTTTT Several years ago, the News donated its collection of photographs — including 35 file boxes full of negatives – to The Reach. The pictures give a first-hand look at more than nine decades of history as seen through the eyes of photographers whose job it was to capture a community’s day-to-day life. But actually cataloguing the massive donation Continued on A5
A3 Abbotsford Police issue public notice on man recently released from prison
Q
Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A9
Q
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A24
Q Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A8 Q
Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . .A27
85¢ Matsqui mayor Harry DeJong welcomes astronaut James Irwin to the 16th Abbotsford Airshow. Reach Archives P27571
More ways to keep you mobile. Over 500 replacement cars.
JVÀ>vÌÃ > Ã «ÃÊUÊVÀ>vÌÃ > V Ã °V