FERGUS – Way back in February, the Fergus and District Kinsmen Club raised a flag to mark the 100th anniversary of Kinsmen in Canada, with a view to celebrating the club’s own 30th anniversary in May.
Fast forward to now and there will be no public celebration as originally planned.
But the dozen or so members of the local club couldn’t help but do some reminiscing. Given the size of the group – never more than 26 members and sometimes as few as six – the events the club has organized over its 30-year history have been remarkably ambitious.
Like the famous Coins for Change penny drive in 1993, a fundraiser for the Kinsmen’s partner charity, Cystic Fibrosis Canada.
“We kicked it off in September and by May had collected $45,000,” said Bruce Lloyd, current president who joined the club about six months after it began in 1990.
It was a bit of a shock when they took the money to the bank and asked that it be changed into coins – old pennies, new pennies, dimes and nickels to be exact. Then those coins were spread on the floor of the Fergus sportsplex in a design that included the Kinsmen logo and the Cystic Fibrosis logo.
It took a weekend to lay it all out and it was only open for viewing for an hour.
“There were 4.5 million pennies and they all had to touch,” Lloyd said. “The floor looked like marble. It just glimmered.”
Barry Rawn is a founding member and he recalls another ambitious project the club undertook for Cystic Fibrosis: Bike for Breath.
Three men – two Fergus club members and one with Cystic Fibrosis himself – cycled around Ontario for 30 days in 1996 to raise funds and awareness of the disease.
Rawn drove a van for a few of those days, following the cyclists and carrying food and supplies for them while they travelled.
“It was really unique,” Rawn said. He credits Lloyd with bringing these kinds of projects to Fergus.
“Bruce is quite a leader,” Rawn said. “He became our ideas man. He really pulled things together for us. We never would have done these big projects without him.”
For his part, Lloyd credits the Kinsmen organization for providing training and learning opportunities for members.
“It’s because of this organization that I started going to conventions,” Lloyd said. “They have great teaching tools and seminars available on leadership and fundraising. At first, I was just happy to be one of the guys pitching in.”
As well as supporting national Kinsmen campaigns, the Fergus Kinsmen also support local causes, such as the food bank, CrimeStoppers, minor sports, Boy Scouts, and the agricultural society. They sponsor a bursary at the local high school and are responsible for clean-up of a section of a county road.
Normally they meet on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 7pm at the Stone Gable Hall on St. Andrew Street East.
With COVID-19, the club is on ice for the time being.
Rawn said it’s heartwarming that some of its newest members are the adult children of some of its oldest members, including his own son.
“I’ve made some lifelong friends here. What’s important to me is that my family sees the importance of what we do,” Rawn said.
For more information about the club, email Lloyd at bruce@ralphbasset.ca.
