Editor: The Kinsmen, Kinette and Kin clubs across Canada are the only all-Canadian service clubs in the country. We were founded on Feb. 20, 1920 in Hamilton by Hal Rodgers a First World War Canadian veteran.
Over the years, the association has grown to hundreds of clubs across Canada.
Almost all of our fundraising dollars stay in Canada. Our motto is “Servicing the communities’ greatest needs.”
The Chatham Kinsmen club was chartered in August 1928, the 16th club in the association.
Some of our major contributions to the community include the gifting (for $1) of the Kinsmen Auditorium in 1948 . It was used for many years hosting major events, conventions and shows until it’s demolition.
We gave a $100,000 donation to the building of ARC Industries at the end of Park Avenue West.
We built Kinsmen Pee wee baseball park in 1949.
A founding donation of $50,001 to the Active Lifestyle’s Centre helped it open.
We contributed towards a major addition to the then-Northside Arena in 1986 and then major renovations in in 2005-06.
When the Thames Campus arena was built, we donated a $50,000 Zamboni. Several mini-vans were donated to the Chatham police as a safety service vehicle for Elmer the Safety Elephant.
Chatham Kinsmen took over the spring fair when the Jaycees folded in 2006. It runs today in late May or early June lately with no gate fee.
For many years we put on a pancake breakfast during Canada Day festivities and served thousands.
In 2003 during the beef embargo we cooked approximately 4,000 beef burgers along with corn, free, in Tecumseh Park thus helping to set a Guinness Book world record for the most amount of beef products served in one day.
In 1992 in preparation for Canada day we took part, as many Kin did, in taking a giant Canadian Flag to schools, the mall and events to have people sign it and it was taken to Ottawa along with many others. It was named “The Proud to be Canadian” tour.
Our organization has also been a great help in funding and promoting Cystic Fibrosis since 1964.
We also support many initiatives, organizations, groups and kids sports in Chatham and have donated well over $2 million back to our community.
If you have ever thought about joining a service club , think about an all-Canadian organization. For more information, you can contact Bob at 226-626-2693 or visit our web site at Chatham Kinsmen.
Robert Hughes
Chatham
