From The Scrap Book
Harvey Lions Club
July 13, 1990
By: Dr. Bill Randall
I was living in Edmondson in 1983 and on a visit to Harvey learned there was going to be another hall built!
I have mentioned in an earlier article that I has felt Harvey had a pleura of halls, and so I sighed secretly, thinking, “Oh no, not another hall!” But I was wrong! The Lions Club has shown this community that they are truly a SERVICE club. You will see in the accompanying picture the Lion’s Club hall with the latest addition of 1990.
I wanted to explore their history, and now I’d like to share it with you.
Jerry Chessie, modestly will likely frown at this, but I think it was he who having had prior experience with the Lions of Oromocto, brought the idea with him when he came to Harvey to live. Sponsored by the Oromocto Lions Club, the Harvey Lions Club was chartered on November 23, 1968 in the New market Rec. hall. Present were:
Alex W. Bell, A.R. Barrel, Tho mas Gorman, S.R. Jackson, H.G. Kilgour, Burns Little, Cleighton Little, Murray Lister, William McGee, Ambrose McGee, El wood McGee, H.D. Matheson, G.A. Miller, Ronald Messer, Joseph Murch, W. Rutherford, J.W. Saunders, Harold Swan, Leroy Swan, Martin Trail, Hugh Watson, Blair Watson, Donald Weeks, Peter Wood, George Wood and Jerry Chessie. From those present Peter Wood was elected to be the first president.
In the early years following their formation they had no home of their own, but met when ever a meeting place was avail able for their use. They met in the Taylor Hall and when the season came that it was difficult to heat that hall, they would meet at Russell Burrell’s restaurant. Re member? There were basically two areas for serving the public the one with the soda bar, stools and booths, and then the Dining Room. A good average attendance would be in the range of twenty. Sometimes they would meet at the Knox Young People’s Hall. But also up over the old creamery in a hall which had once been the meeting place of the Masonic Order. Climbing up those narrow stairs must have motivated the members to the point where they decided to build their own hall. They chose a location in Acton, and some of us thought they were dooming their future by being so far out of the village. There again we were wrong; they had plenty of parking space, space available for outdoor events, like horse shows, and is the future demanded it, room to expand.
Their hall cost them about $80,000 and yet remarkably they paid off their mortgage in three years and three days.
I asked them what their fund-raising strategy was, for we’ve all been impressed with its success. Locally they gave a great deal of credit to the ladies, the Lioness Club formed in the late seventies. Probably their most successful on-going project is bingo, but they have all kinds of sales, auctions, road-tolls, ticket sales and of course rental from the use of their complex.
It would be difficult to make an accurate list of the projects they support but to name a few they are the cadets, cubs, students, the hospital, and the Harvey Fair Days.
Now in 1990 their numbers are still at twenty-six but they has built an addition to their hall which has probably cost them in the vicinity of $40,000 (author’s estimate only).
The president in 1990 is Allan Russell, the secretary is Donnie Phillips and the in-corning treasurer will be Joey Jones.
Since this article was prepared the Lions Club have also made a financial contribution to the Harvey History Association and we wish to express our sincere thanks to them.
Source: Rev. Bill Randall’s “From The Scrapbook Vol. One.”
