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by Alexandra Heilbron, Toronto, Ontario

Source: The Avonlea Traditions Chronicle, Issue No. 26 Winter 1998/9

On September 13, 1998, Kathryn Gallagher Morton, president of Avonlea Traditions and publisher of The Avonlea Traditions Chronicle attended Westfield Heritage Village's annual Anne of Green Gables Day. Mrs. Morton was delighted and amazed when she saw a red-headed little girl, dressed in exactly the same outfit as the Avonlea Traditions doll she was carrying. Not surprisingly, the little girl won first place in her age category in the Anne Look-Alike contest that day.

Mrs. Morton spoke to the little girl and discovered she was Kassandra-Anne Birtch of Oakville, Ontario, a bright, articulate ten-year-old who had received the doll as a Christmas present from her grandmother, Laurette Chabot.

The Avonlea Traditions Chronicle decided to do a follow-up on Kassandra-Anne, to find out how she had first become interested in Anne of Green Gables. Her mother, Line Birtch, explained how her daughter happened to be wearing an exact replica of the Avonlea Traditions Special Edition porcelain doll: "It was Kassandra-Anne's idea. She wondered if we could duplicate the doll's dress, so we went to a fabric store, looking for something similar to it and we were amazed when we found the exact print."

Mrs. Birtch designed and sewed the dress herself to exactly match the dress which came on the doll.

The entire family is supportive of Kassandra-Anne's devotion to Anne. "She's always been an Anne fan, she's had the books and the movies for a number of years," says her father, Ken. Kassandra-Anne adds, "And both of my grandmothers have encouraged me."

She first started to hear about Anne when she was three. "People would come up to me and tell me I looked like Anne of Green Gables." She didn't know who that was, until one day, when she was seven, she was browsing in a book store with her mother and came across the Anne books. She asked her mother if that was the girl everyone was comparing her to. "My mom said yes, so I told her I would like to get the books for my birthday. As it turned out, I ended up getting the movies before the books and I really liked them. Then I started reading the books and I gradually started to like them even more than the movies. I'm reading Anne of the Island right now and I've read Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea."

In August, just one month before winning Westfield Heritage Village's Anne of Green Gables Look-Alike Contest, Kassandra-Anne entered Bala Museum's Anne Look-Alike Contest, and won second place. "The girl who got first place did very well. She deserved it," good-natured Kassandra-Anne states of Tiana Bol, Bala's 1998 winner.

Exactly a month later, Kassandra-Anne entered Westfield's Anne Look-Alike Contest and came in first among twelve contestants in her age category. The competition was fierce, and this time, there was a talent section as well. Not only were the girls required to go up on stage one at a time and answer questions about Anne of Green Gables, they each had to sing a song, or present a piece from the books. Kassandra-Anne's flair for the dramatic came in handy.

"I did a part from the first book," Kassandra-Anne recalls, "where Anne got really mad at Mrs. Lynde because she had called her an ugly, red-haired little snippet. I said the part where Anne says 'I hate you!' to Mrs. Lynde and tells her she's fat and clumsy, and then I stomped off and when I got to the door, I said, 'Bye, bye!' and ran off."

Kassandra-Anne's prize was a set of Sullivan Entertainment's Anne of Green Gables movies on video, and she has them displayed on her shelf as a souvenir of the wonderful Anne of Green Gables day at Westfield Heritage Village.

Westfield Heritage Village in Rockton, Ontario, Canada continues to hold an annual
Anne of Green Gables day. It was also used as a filming location for Anne of Green
Gables and Road to Avonlea. For information go to: www.westfieldheritage.ca
TEL: 519-621-8851 FAX: 519-621-6897

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