Elks of Canada Kindersley Lodge No. 492 closes
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 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, catering, and supported the midget hockey program with coaches and funds.
Gary Hamilton (centre) presents a cheque for $4243.01 to the Kindersley & District Plains Museum - the remainder of the Elks organization’s funds. PHOTO COURTESY KDPM
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. The land was purchased, and debentures were sold. In 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 catering, 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 out pop at the July 1 celebrations and supported hockey. We used our Elks Fund for Children for fire victims, as well as cochlear implants. We used our Provincial Foundation for those suffering from cancer.
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 hosting so many functions was quite a feat. 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 the 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 from miles around helped us to celebrate. It was interesting to note that our Lodge had donated over 1.2 million dollars 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 $5,000.00 to the museum to have this space. We gave the Town of Kindersley $2,000.00, $13,371.22 to our Fund for Children, and $4,457.07 to our Provincial Foundation.
It is very sad when an organization has to close because of a lack of membership. Volunteers work very hard in every aspect of community life to make their communities a success. I wonder what will happen when the volunteers stop?
Submitted by Exalted Ruler, Patricia Fleming, and Secretary, Gary Hamilton.