As the summer winds down here in Dawson, and with no special occasion on the horizon, this week seemed a good time to sum up a few of the events that have preoccupied our social calendar without making it into this column.

It has been a summer of ribbons and scissors, as project after project was completed and introduced to the public.

I’m not sure how many people actually cut the ribbon to officially open the new 19-unit social housing apartment building on Turner Street. I missed that one back in July somehow, and I still don’t even know what they intend to call the building.

It replaces the John Korbo Apartments, which are to be demolished to make way for a sort of public-private partnership of low cost (but not subsidized) housing. Calling it The Korbo, Mark II would seem unimaginative somehow.

The quirkiest ribbon cutting of all had to be the one held to open the new Beaver Pond Trail out at Tombstone in the latter half of July.

An arch had been built by weaving some live willows together near the beginning of the trail, and other willows had been braided into a sort of ribbon across the trail.

Two women who had had a lot to do with the research for the trail bent down and chewed through the willows (well, it was about beavers … right?) to open the way in the light rain.

I’d share one of the best photos here, but Helen Dobrowolsky made me promise not to use her impersonation of Castor canadensis at work.

August was full of bits of snipped ribbon, but no ceremony would be larger than the one at the Discovery Claim on the real Discovery Day, August 17, when no less than 10 people, with 10 pairs of regular sized scissors, made confetti out of a yellow ribbon stretched across the entrance to the new walking trail.

The official ceremony to inaugurate the improvements to Dawson’s waterfront park was less ambitious, although there were two ribbons, a blue one and white one braided together.

I’m not sure why the mayor and the MLA didn’t have matching scissors, but one set had orange handles and the other blue. There was cake, however, and that made up for the drizzle.

The opening of the new Yukon College building had another large number of people involved. There were eight people lined up behind the big red ribbon (about a hand span wide) but only one pair of really large, vaguely golden scissors was employed, and one person did the actual cutting.

September continued the trend, with the first weekend having the official re-opening of the entranceway to the Anglican Church’s Thrift Shop. The original, hastily assembled, entrance had to be torn down after 32 years and replaced with a properly insulated corridor between it and the Richard Martin Chapel.

The manager, the MLA and the contractor wielded the scissors to sever the pink ribbon on this occasion.

Next summer and early fall we can expect official opening ceremonies for the secondary sewage treatment plant and the new hospital. It’ll be interesting to see what kinds of scissors and ribbons get used for those.

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