The community's name was originally Szewczenko, the Polish spelling of the surname of the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko.

When the railway arrived in the district in 1910, the company decided that "Szewczenko" was both unpronounceable in English and too long to be put on train schedules.

[7] The Vita Cubs and Vita Mallards played distant teams like Angusville from the Saskatchewan–Northwest Border district; Chatfield/Grosse Isle in the Interlake; Kenora, Ontario; Greenbush, Lancaster, and Karlstad, Minnesota; Plum Coulee/Winkler to the west, and many other teams (Grunthal, St-Pierre-Jolys, Vassar, Dominion City, Sundown, etc.).

][citation needed] The 1955 Vita Cubs team was elected into the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame along with Steve Derewianchuk, catcher.

Vita's High School, recently elevated to the status of Collegiate Institute, resembled a debris of giant toothpicks.

The full force of the tornado struck Vita at 4:28 p.m. CST.A second disaster struck in early October 2012 when a wildfire swept into Vita, burning four homes and a bridge on PR 201 west of the community[9] – two vehicles attempted to drive over the collapsed structure with slight injuries to the two drivers.

By early evening, the high winds that had put Vita at risk calmed down and the evacuation order was lifted.

[11] The community and area saw relief from the fires in the form of an abnormally early winter storm that saw the region receive snowfall of about 25 cm (9.84 in).