On September 25, the Ladysmith Kinsmen Club held their 59th Annual Installation of Officers.
A special event was held at the Kinsmen Hall with Kinsmen from around the area as well as special guests and Kin wives. Also attending was a special entertainer, “Elvis”, made an appearance and entertained the crowd with a whole array of his songs.
Outgoing (and in-coming) President Rod Saunders, thanked the members for their hard work this past Kin year.
It was a great year for the Ladysmith Kin as they held three very successful fundraisers for the new playground at Kin Park/Brown Drive. That project has been way more successful than what the members had anticipated for the year. It was a goal to try and have Phase 1 built and hopefully most of the fundraising for Phase 2. In fact the club, with great support from the community, managed to get Phase 2 built by early summer and have plans in the works for fundraising for phase three and completion by summer 2012.
Also the Ladysmith Kinsmen have almost completed the outdoor ball hockey arena with the Stz’uminus Youth Ball Hockey team. There were four very successful work parties and the rink will be totally upgraded in time for their tournament in October. Saunders stated that it was a great achievement and a lot of fun working with members of the Stz’umninus First Nation. The club hopes that this will be the first in more projects between our two communities.
Besides the continuation of the two major projects Saunders said that increasing membership will be a goal for 2011/2012. Right now the club has 20 members but hopes to see that grow to at least 30 by next summer.
Saunders presented the Rookie of the Year award to Ron Legault for his hard work on the two major projects. The President’s Award was split by Kins Kevin Pugh and Al Robinson.
Due to their many “incidents” during the construction of the Youth Ball Hockey rink, Kins Jason Kelland and Duck Paterson were presented with the coveted “horses ass” award. Both members gave the members quite a few stories of interest to talk about.
The members of the Ladysmith Kinsmen voted Kin Duck Paterson as the “Kinsmen of the Year” award for his hours of work to raise funds not just to build the Kin Playground but his other efforts in many Kin projects as well as the ideals of Kin and fellowship.
Paterson thanked the members for the honour but stated that it takes more than one person to make all this happen and is proud to be just one member of the Kinsmen team. Paterson has been a member of the Ladysmith Club for 36 years.
The Ladysmith Kinsmen meet, at the Festival of Lights building, on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month and would welcome any men interested in working and helping in their community. For more info individuals can contact President Rod Saunders at 250-245-3612