Pense resident Doug McGillivray started his first sports collection in 1942. After 70 years, he’s still working on projects.
Most recently, he documented the building of Mosaic Place. McGillivray filled five books with his photos, captions and newspaper clippings detailing each development and the temperature throughout the entire project. He started taking photos the day the golden shovels touched the ground in June of 2009, until its full completion in September of 2011.
“It’s been a hobby of mine, all my life. I love to take on little projects where I can do the typing, make a story of it and out it in a nice tidy loose leaf book,” said McGillivray. “I like to be really accurate. I hate to see incorrect information.”
McGillivray has been an avid sports collector his whole life. In fact, he used to have a museum off of his house in Pense, though most of it has since been donated. “I’ve done family histories before, too. It’s just something I really enjoy doing,” he said.
McGillivray visited the multiplex two-to-three times a week to take his photos and catch up on the latest developments. In the end, he had over 400 photos. As a regular on the site, one of his favourite parts was getting to know the crew.
“I loved meeting the project manager and rest of crew. I could go to the office, get a hard helmet and go say hello,” he said. “I met a lot of nice people and really enjoyed watching it go up.”
