HAPPY CENTRE SCHOOL - For much of the winter the primary weather word has been cold.
But Saturday temperatures climbed, the sun shone, and snowmobilers attending a vintage snowmobile derby southwest of Willowbrook were smiling.
The event has been held for a number of years, explained Wayne Nagy with the Happy Centre Community Club which organized the derby.
“We probably had one of the first vintage ones in the area. We’ve had lots,” he said.
The event has a sort of dual purpose, explained Nagy, being part about just having a fun day riding old sleds – in this case sleds that are from 1981 or older. The oldest sled was likely a 1966 Snow Cruiser.
Other vintage sleds included a Johnson Golden Ghost 30 and an Aloutte Super Brute among numerous Arctic Cats, Yamahas and even a Mercury or two.
The second purpose for the ride, which started out at the Happy Centre School was to raise money to help do some fix-up to the school building first constructed in 1905.
“We want to keep the building up. We hope to do some work this summer,” said Nagy, who added there are still people in the area who attended the rural school, including himself.
“For three years I came here. I used to drive a horse four-and-a-half miles to school here, summer and winter – in all kinds of weather and there were no cellphones,” he said.
The event was expected to attract about 75 riders, said Nagy.
