Though there hasn’t been a Kinsmen club in Collingwood for several years, one resident hopes local men will band together to bring it back.
Glen Card was a member of Kinsmen clubs for ten years in Shelburne, Orangeville, and Ottawa. Since moving to Collingwood, he’s been looking for the same friendship he found in as a member of Kin Canada, but said he hasn’t quite found it.
“What I like most about Kinsmen was the good, strong camaraderie,” said Card.
He’s working with Brandon Ward of the Stayner Kinsmen Club to drum up members for a new Kinsmen Club for Collingwood and Wasaga Beach.
Both Ward and Card are aiming to startup the club by September.
The first Kinsmen Club was started by Hal Rogers after the First World War. Rogers was a veteran of the war and when he got home, he missed the camaraderie of his fellow soldiers. He started Kinsmen, which later became Kin Canada. By the Second World War, there were Kinsmen clubs across Canada, and Rogers led a campaign called Milk for Britain, to raise funds to buy powdered milk for children in Great Britain who were suffering from the German u-boats destroying supply ships.
The country got behind the Kinsmen clubs to help raise funds. The wives of the Kinsmen formed Kinette groups and helped with the efforts.
By the end of the Second World War, the Milk for Britain campaign raised more than $2.6 million to buy powdered milk, which is approximately $40 million in today’s dollars.
Kin Canada clubs, including Kinsmen clubs, continue to fundraise today. The clubs meet once or twice a month, usually for a business meeting, a dinner, and some social time.
“You network and you make a family,” said Ward.
The motto for Kin Canada is to serve the community’s greatest needs while fostering lifelong friendships along the way.
In Stayner, the Kinsmen hold an annual duck race. In Collingwood the Kinettes hosted the Diva on a Dime dress sale this weekend, and hosts an annual blood donor clinic. One of the baseball diamonds at Heritage Park in Collingwood was built thanks, in part, to the former Collingwood Kinsmen Club.
In Lucknow, the Kinsmen club hosts an annual Music in the Fields festival, and in Port Dover, the Kinsmen club hosts the annual Friday the 13th motorcycle ride.
The funds raised at Kin events are donated back into the community, and the organization also donates about $1 million to Cystic Fibrosis Canada.
Card said the Collingwood/Wasaga Beach club will be hosting local fundraisers and supporting local charities, but the details will have to be worked out once the club membership comes together. He and Ward hope to get about 20 to 25 members for the September start up. Kinsmen Clubs are open to men aged 18 and over.
They will be attending local events such as the upcoming Collingwood Vendors Market on May 11 with an information booth. Anyone interested in more information about joining a local Kinsmen Club can contact Card by email at [email protected], or Brandon Ward the CF director for the Stayner Kinsmen by phone or text at 705-443-1461 or by email at [email protected].
For more information on Kin Canada, visit the website here.
