Chapter 3 - DECADE THREE 1950 - 1959

Work with the T.B. Association continued into the fifties as a major service activity of the Ottawa Kinsmen Club. By 1955 Kinsmen efforts in conducting the T.B. Seals campaign had raised over $350,000 and Kinsmen ran the city-wide X-Ray surveys again in 1952 and 1956. Subsequently another service club took over the campaign management; however, teams of Ottawa Kinsmen and Kinettes were called on to assist in the annual "seal-stuffing" work parties and countless man-hours were provided in preparing the mail-out envelopes. Tim out was taken to host the District Convention in 1954.

Volunteers were sought, during this era, by many major fund-raising agencies, and Kinsmen were active, it seems, in just about them all. The Red Cross, the Cancer Society and the Salvation Army all benefited from our participation in drives. Cash or equipment contributions were made to literally all of the homes for the aged, inform and wayward children; support of the School Board Milk Fund continued as did the maintenance of the Dental Clinic; camperships, Christmas hampers, parties and outings for the orphanages and emergency welfare support increased in expenditure level. Carleton College, the beginning of what is now one of Ontario's leading universities, enjoyed the financial support of Kinsmen to its Development Fund in 1951. Kinsmen involvement in post-secondary education progressed from scholarship prizes to the establishment of a major four-year award program, with the setting up of a self-sustaining Scholarship Fund in 1959.

The old methods of raising service account funds through raffles, bazaars, fun-fairs, dances slowly gave way to more experimental attempts at sponsoring Motor Cycle races, English League Soccer touring teams, Elsie the Borden Cow, etc. Not all of these were terribly successful so, by mid-decade, we had zeroed in on Bingo as the most reliable of fund-raising projects. Monster Nights, as they were called, with fabulous prizes of automobiles and major appliances were held on an occasional, but quite frequent, basis to comply with the legal requirements of the day for this type of "fund-raising for charitable purposes". The manpower necessary for these events and the level of involvement by members was instrumental in increasing club membership, which peaked in 1956 at 92. That year, continuous Newspaper Bingo was introduced and became so successful that by the end of the decade it was the only fund-raising project of the Kinsmen Club of Ottawa.

Presidents decade three