She moved across the world for love, and stayed in Collingwood for the arts and culture.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we sat down with Hella Sandberg, 80, costume maker, image consultant and local arts and culture champion.
Q: How long have you lived in Collingwood?
A: It’s a little bit of a story.
I grew up in Denmark in Germany.
I actually met my husband Allen – who was from here – in Germany, in 1960. We had to have a certain document (to get married) and he couldn’t come up with it because it doesn’t exist here (in Canada).
His background was Swedish/Finnish, so he went to Sweden and as it turned out, the bishop there didn’t ask for any (document), I just had to go there for three weeks. We initially intended to stay in Sweden but things didn’t work out.
So, we came to Canada in 1961.
It’s a funny story, the way we met.
Q: Would you like to tell me the story of how you met?
A: My mother died when I was 11 years old, so it was decided I would be sent to live with an aunt in Germany. I spoke German and English.
I started work to become a drogist which is what they call it in German, but it sounds terrible in English. A drug store in Germany isn’t quite like it is here. There, it’s like a health food store. They also had a make up and skin care counter.
It just so happened the one I was working in also had a camera department.
One day, I was in the back and my manager came in and said there was someone out in the camera department who spoke English and since I spoke English he asked me to go help him.
I knew school English but I didn’t know anything about a camera in English.
I went out there and there was this very attractive man and between us we managed to work out that he bought the camera.
He asked me to come to his hotel that night to talk and have dinner. I went and we had a wonderful time together. He asked me to get together the next day but I couldn’t because the next day was Mother’s Day and I had wanted to take my aunt out.
On Monday, he came back to the store to show me the camera and how he had taught himself to use it. Afterward he said, “Well it was very nice meeting you. Goodbye.”
I thought, oh geeze, I finally met someone who interested me and he takes off!
The following Saturday my family had plans to go out to dinner. He had to cross a bridge to get to the restaurant.
Who was walking on that bridge? Allen.
I said, “Oh, that’s my Canadian walking on the bridge!”
My brother-in-law asked me if I wanted him to turn around and I said yes because we couldn’t stop on the bridge. I got out and we chatted and I asked Allen to come along.
Then, I kind of had an idea that maybe I would see him again. (smiles) So that’s how it started.
The reason I’m telling you this story is because, I very much believe that things happen for a particular reason. We were meant to get together. No question about it.
We were married for 58 years.
Q: Once you came to Canada, how long was it before you moved to Collingwood?
A: We moved to Toronto in 1961.
Allen got a job teaching French. He spoke English, French, Italian and Spanish. I taught him German.
In 1967, we bought a farm up on top of (Blue) Mountain. It was at the end of Sixth Street. There were 200 acres up there that was ours. Initially we came up on weekends and vacation like every other idiot as I say from the city. (laughs) In 1974 we decided to move up and Allen got a job up here teaching.
In 1984 once our three children had left home, the farms around us started to get bought up by city people.
So we said, it’s time to move into Collingwood. We’ve been here since then.
Q: When you moved up to the area, was that a big culture shift to come from Toronto?
A: Yes, it a way, it was. At the time, I still stayed home. I was very happy doing that. I always did a lot of crafts and that kind of work.
At one point, the high school was looking for people to teach crafts. I worked with the senior citizens group. I did macrame, weaving and basket weaving. I saw Georgian College was teaching classes in textile design, and I already was interested in that. I made clothes for myself and my children.
In 1980, I heard the Laughing Water Festival was starting in Meaford. It was a semi-professional theatre (group) that developed out of the Meaford Town Hall Players.
I asked them if they could use me, and they said they could use volunteers.
The first show I did was The Wizard of Oz. I designed and made the costumes with some other volunteers.
Q: What draws you to costuming as something to which you wanted to give your time?
A: I had always done it at home. I had some knowledge of it but I wanted more so I could do more with it. I was with them until 1984. In 1984, Theatre Collingwood started, and I did both. It was crazy!
Have you ever heard of image consulting?
Q: What is image consulting?
A: It was very big in the 1980s. An image consultant has knowledge of looking at a person and seeing what suits you colour and style-wise.
A lot of us, when we are young, make the mistake of seeing what others wear and (just copying). But if that person is straight up and down and you are curvy, the same clothes are not going to work and vice versa.
With image consulting, you bring out visually the best you can look. It’s very important, say when you’re going out for a job. When an interviewer sees you, they can make up their mind just like that.
With colours, your skin tone would determine if you were a spring, summer, fall or winter.
I thought that was very interesting.
When I worked in Germany I had learned make up and skin care at the store. I thought I could add that to it, so I took a couple of courses.
I also learned reflexology and Reiki.
In the 1980s, Theatre Collingwood came to me again about doing costumes but I couldn’t with my own businesses, so instead I did make up for them instead.
I worked with all of that until about 2012.
Q: You’ve been active in the theatre community with volunteering, but I understand also at the library. Could you tell me more about that?
A: Well, it was more my husband, with the library. When my husband retired... he came here everyday. The library was just his perfect place.
At one point, I became, what they call, a “Reading Granny.”
It was a very, very interesting experience. I had a young girl who was seven at the time, but she couldn’t settle down to learn how to read.
What we were doing is teaching them how to read with a certain program we had to follow. I couldn’t work with her that way... she couldn’t settle down to do it. So I thought, with my theatre background, maybe I could make it a bit theatrical and maybe that would work.
So I went to my wardrobe and I got a fedora, and a tie and a pink boa.
She looked at me and said, “What are you doing?”
I had bought a little book that was about a farmer pig who had problems with crows eating his corn. We were playing. She got into it. After that, I used a lot of my background in theatre to work with her.
I just found out she finished high school this year with very high marks in English.
Q: How did that make you feel?
A: It made me feel really good.
I remember (when we worked together) I said to her at one point that she could actually read now.
She said to me, “Well, what are we going to do then?”
I said, there’s no reason why we can’t go on. Let’s go on. I told her to tell me when she thought she was ready to go on her own, to go on her own.
When summer vacation came that year, she told me she thought she could do it on her own.
She really spoiled me for anybody else. I enjoyed it so much, I didn’t want to do it with anybody else.
I have lost touch with her now. Being a teenager, she has her own plans and her own life. I helped her at the time when she needed it.
Q: Allen passed away in February, and memorial donations made in his name were earmarked for the Collingwood library. Can you tell me what went into that decision?
A: This was his second home. He loved coming here. He joked around with the ladies down at the counter. Books were his thing and he loved to read.
It was very natural for the family to do, instead of giving flowers for the celebration of life.
The money came in and Ken (Haigh, Collingwood Public Library CEO) talked to me and asked what I would like to do with the money. I wanted him to tell me what they needed.
He said they needed two hearing aids. I thought that was perfect because Allen wore hearing aids.
In some ways, it really represented Allen here.
Q: You’ve done a lot of work promoting arts and culture in Collingwood, including compiling a three-volume history of arts and culture in Collingwood that is stored in the Genealogy department of the library. Can you tell me about that?
A: Well, Tanya (Mazza) from the town’s arts and culture department asked me to compile a history of arts and culture in Collingwood.
I loved doing it and it was very interesting, but of course it took a lot of work. I went back to 1858... as far back as I could.
It took me a couple of years to complete.
I knew about some things, some I got from the library. Other times, I would just talk to people. I talk a lot, as you know.
What I discovered is the arts and culture community has always been very strong in Collingwood. The focus has always been on sports. It still is kind of that way today. However, the arts and culture community is growing so strong that now we are demanding to be heard. (laughs) We are here too!
Q: What are your thoughts on the push to create an arts and culture space in Collingwood?
A: I’m part of that too.
We want an arts centre. The Simcoe Street Theatre with 100 seats, we need that too because not everybody needs a 500-seat theatre or even a 250-seat theatre.
We are at a point now where we need a large centre, not just for theatre but for entertainment and the visual arts. We have to get somebody who wants to actually design it.
We also need the town to go along with us.
Q: What does the future hold for you?
A: Right now, I’m working on a project with Sharyn McNabb to compile information on the arts scene of today (in Collingwood). Anyone who paints, sculpts, etches, works with stained glass, theatre, actors, authors, bands and choirs are invited to participate.
What we are asking is for them to provide a picture and a bio to fill two front and back pages to be slipped into plastic sleeves. The binder of all sleeves will be stored in the Genealogy department of the library. (EDITOR’S NOTE: To participate or for more information on the project, call Sandberg at 705-445-2999 or McNabb at 705-445-0533)
I want the future to know about what’s happening today. I’m very passionate about this. I think it’s fantastic... what’s happening in little Collingwood with the arts and culture.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we’ll be speaking with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way. This feature will run on CollingwoodToday every Saturday. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
