The Lakeside Historical Society was organized back in 1976. Olga Puhn joined the society after she retired from work in 1978 and she is still on the job, like an Energizer Bunny©, she keeps on going, and going, and . . . After all these years she is still a volunteer, working hard at the Historical Society store every Friday. She also attends the Wednesday archival workshops and helps keep the files and news articles in order. She also volunteers as a docent at our new Lakeside Museum.
  Just last month she gave one of her historical slide shows to a group from an adult education classes. The class was supposed to see a video but the new-fangled electronic equipment didn't work. So, Olga whipped out her old fashioned slide show to the delight of the history buffs. For many years she had a traveling history show and would go to various schools and organizations to show and tell the history of Lakeside. Most of those times she wore her old fashioned period costumes that she had sewn herself. The kiddies were especially fascinated by her clothing, often asking "How old are you?"  Olga would keep them guessing on that one. Olga and her daughter, Judy, created the slide show themselves by taking slide photos of the historic old photos that are in the archives. 
  July 3 - 5 of 1986 was the Centennial Celebration of Lakeside; the town was officially 100 years old. Olga was serving as President of the Historical Society so she was in the middle of all the planning and work for the event. They put on a big celebration in Lindo Lake Park. A coalition of all the other community organizations were involved with the party, and the whole community was invited to join in the fun.
  Meanwhile, there was a committee that set about gathering history and compiling a book on the history of Lakeside and its families. The Legends of Lakeside was practically written by Olga.  What started out as a committee of 19 persons, ended up with just a few hanging in there to complete the book. Olga was there to the bitter end, it took 4 1/2 years but what great results

they had with the publishing of our first local history book.
  Also the Historical Society members were collecting Lakeside memorabilia and they opened a store front in the building that is now Cups and Cones Ice Cream Parlor. When the Legends was finally published they had a special book signing event at the store front, and the hard bound books were given to the supporters for $100 each. Later the Lakeside Community Service Association took over the store front in their quest to have a community center built in Lakeside's Lindo Lake Park.
  Olga was one of the instigators of the first Lakeside Museum in Lindo Lake Park. It was open every Sunday and holidays to show off the collection of memorabilia that the society had collected from pioneer families. She even made old fashioned costumes to wear when working at the museum. 
  As LHS President, Olga chaired the committee to take on the challenge of negations and renting the Olde Community Church and Manse (cottage next door) for the Historical Society to meet and restore. They had a lot of cleaning out and repair work to do because the building had been neglected for many years and had fallen into great disrepair. They had a lot of painting to do too.  Olga was the only one small enough to fit into the closets to do the painting. Then the fundraiser began, the fledgling Historical Society held any type of fundraiser they could think of to raise money for the restoration of the 1896 church and 1911 manse. It was an ongoing project for many years.
  Olga and her family moved to Lakeside in 1946.  They lived in a shack on their property while they built a new house on Westhill Road. With that pioneer spirit, they built it themselves and they had three acres of fruit trees to care for.