Remembering the Kindersley Elks

January 15, 2023

2 minutes read

By Gary Hamilton, Past President of The Kindersley Elks

The Elks in Kindersley were chartered in 1965, with 35 members signing the Charter. Kelly Rowland was the first Exalted Ruler (President).

In a couple of years, we had purchased a church on 6th avenue west and the had a home. Renovations took place, and we had a facility to carry on our projects.

The Lodge was involved in the community right from the start. We did raffles, caterings, supported the midget hockey program with coaches, and funds. We continued to grow throughout the 70s and in 1979 had the largest organization in town with some 200 members. This made our facility very small and after much looking, the Elks decided to build a new facility. Land was purchased and debentures were sold.

October of 1981, the Lodge opened its new facility with the Saskatchewan Elks Walkathon being held with some 250 guests raising funds for the less fortunate.

The 80s were our most successful with caterings, wedding parties, banquets, baseball tournaments, and rodeos. We continued to support minor hockey in Kindersley and had many trophies to support our efforts.

In the 90s we burned our mortgage and continued to support the Town. We gave pop at the July 1 celebrations supported hockey. We used our Elks Fund for Children for fire victims as well as cochlear implants. We used our Provincial Foundation for Cancer sufferers.

As we moved into the 2000s our membership started to drop. We were becoming older and our members were retiring and moving away. We did national Curling, Provincial Darts, and the Provincial Conference in 2001. Our membership had declined and it was quite a feat to host so many functions. We continued to host Christmas parties, and looked after Bars for weddings and other functions. We also started Bingo which was very popular among seniors in town and surrounding area.

In 2009 we entered into discussions with the Town and we donated our facility to the Town. We were able to keep the small Hall to hold our meetings.

In 2015, we held our 50th anniversary with a huge party. Elks for miles around helped us to celebrate.

It was interesting to note that over 1.2 million dollars had been donated by our Lodge to various projects throughout the years. In 2020 it became evident we were having a difficult time. Our efforts at gaining membership were failing and we were down to 20 members. Our Secretary was instructed to contact all members to see if we should continue, or surrender our Charter and close our Lodge. The vote was to close and we started the procedure.

By 2022 we were ready to disburse our funds and close. We talked to the Plains Museum and found a place to be seen by the public. We donated the Museum $5,000.00 to have this space. We gave the Town of Kindersley $2,000 and our Funds for Children totalled $13, 371.22. Our Provincial Foundation was $4, 457,07.

It is very sad when an organization has to close because of lack of membership. Volunteers work very hard in every aspect of community life to make their communities a success.