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‘Will Senger Way’: committee proposes street name change on Fairgrounds

Cloverdale Rodeo Association committee looking to honour former rodeo chair Will Senger
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A new section of 177B Street between 64th and 62nd Avenues is seen next to the sight of the new Cloverdale Sports and Ice Complex (currently under construction). A Cloverdale Rodeo Association committee is trying to get the name of this section of road changed to “Will Senger Way” to honour a longtime rodeo volunteer who passed away in 2017. (Photo: Malin Jordan)

Will Senger may yet get a place of permanent recognition in Cloverdale.

A new rodeo committee has been formed to try to get something done to honour Senger’s contribution to the Cloverdale Rodeo over several decades.

Senger, a longtime rodeo volunteer, passed away in 2017. His association with the rodeo began when he started volunteering at the event in the ’50s. By the middle ’70s, he was rodeo chairman.

Kathy Sheppard, Cloverdale Rodeo Board president, said although she’s not on the committee, she’s eagerly awaiting something that will commemorate Senger.

SEE ALSO: Cloverdale Rodeo legend Will Senger, 85, passes away

“It’s definitely time to recognize Will’s contributions,” Sheppard said. “He was a big part of the rodeo and he was also inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame.”

Rick Hugh, rodeo board vice-president, said the process to commemorate Senger is still in the early stages.

“There’s a hope on our part that there would be something of a more permanent memorial to Will, given that he put so many years into the Cloverdale Rodeo,” explained Hugh.

Hugh said it would be wonderful if the street was renamed, but he added anything commemorating Senger would be great. “He was such an integral part of our event. He was a competitor, then rodeo chair and so on. He’s done it all.”

After Senger’s death in 2017, Shannon Claypool, Rocky Rockwell, Penny Smythe, and Jamie Rogers formed a committee to advocate for a memorial of some kind. In 2020, that committee attended a Cloverdale BIA board meeting in an effort to get Hawthorne Square renamed Will Senger Square. However there was pushback from Michael Gibbs, who at the time was the commissioner for the Surrey Heritage Advisory Committee and past president of the Surrey Historical Society.

SEE ALSO: Group advocates changing name of Hawthorne Square to Will Senger Square

SEE ALSO: Commissioner for heritage advisory committee opposes renaming Hawthorne Square

Gibbs told the Cloverdale Reporter back then that Hawthorne Square sits on the location of a road that used to be called Hawthorne Avenue, one that dates back to 1908. It was a change he and other Surrey Historical Society members vowed to fight.

After pushback from Gibbs, momentum stalling because of COVID, and Claypool losing his bid for reelection to the Rodeo Board’s presidency, the move to rename the square petered out.

The new committee, led by Penny Smythe, a past member of the rodeo board, is working on two options. One is to rename the new section of 177B Street between 64th and 62nd Avenues to “Will Senger Way.” The two-block stretch was just recently built as an access road for the new twin arena being built on the north end of the Fairgrounds. Another idea is to create a heritage storyboard that will be put up somewhere in the downtown Cloverdale area.

SEE ALSO: Mayor and councillors break ground for new Cloverdale Arena

Smythe, who is also the mother of current president Kathy Sheppard, did not respond to an interview request by publication time.

Paul Orazietti, executive director of the Cloverdale BIA, said he met with the committee last week and said it “only makes sense” to honour Senger.

“The committee has been here before because Will passed away a few years ago,” explained Orazietti. “Will was a significant individual when it came to the rodeo and the idea was to start dialogging on two options: getting a road renamed or putting in a heritage storyboard.”

He said if the storyboard flies, it would focus on the rodeo and its relationship with Cloverdale and it would include a story about Senger. As such the board wouldn’t memorialize Senger, but would highlight his “invaluable” contribution to the rodeo over the years.

In 1992, Senger received the Governor General’s Medal for Dedication to Rodeo, and in 2004 he became the first British Columbian to be inducted into the Canadian Professional Rodeo Hall of Fame.



editor@cloverdalereporter.com

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Malin Jordan

About the Author: Malin Jordan

Malin is the editor of the Cloverdale Reporter.
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