1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach Grow: Kinsmen and Kinettes service is a lasting legacy

There is an old saying that all good things must come to an end. And so it was with the Steinbach Kinsmen in 1992, when the small group of men, who were making a valiant attempt to keep the club going in Steinbach, decided to call it quits.

In order for a community to grow and expand, and fully get on with the business of life, its people must actively participate in efforts that benefit the whole community. The members of the Steinbach Kinsmen Club proved this a thousand times over, starting in 1951.

The organization of the Steinbach Kinsmen Club was spearheaded by George Derksen, of Derksen Printers, who became the first president of a 16-member club in January of 1951, 30 years after the Canadian service organization had its start in Ontario in 1920.

Hal Rogers, just returned from the trenches of the First World War, took the advice of his father to get together with young men of his own age and that sparked the formation of the Hamilton Kinsmen Club.

The second club came through the transfer to Montreal of an enthusiastic Hamilton Kinsmen Club member. The third club was formed in Winnipeg.

When the Steinbach Kinsmen Club received its charter Feb. 28, 1951, it became the 15th club in Manitoba.

Over the next 40 years, until 1992 when membership dwindled to half a dozen enthusiastic members, the Kinsmen Club of Steinbach amassed an impressive record of community service.

Over the years, the Kinsmen were involved in a variety of major community projects, which began with the connection of waterworks to Steinbach Bethesda Hospital in 1956.

The club raised money in a dozen different ways and supported a dozen different community causes at the same time. The community provided overwhelming support for fundraising projects that ranged from a K-400 club raffle with a $100 ticket and $1,000 prizes, to bringing the circus to town, running a food booth at the Chamber of Commerce Dominion Day festivities, to donkey baseball at the Steinbach fairgrounds and “Schmockey Night” at the arena where the Kinsmen and Kinettes ran the canteen for a number of years.

The projects these fundraisers supported were just as varied. The most ambitious included a van to transport those with disabilities, and major financial assistance for the Kindale Occupational Centre where people with disabilities worked and the Kindale Manor, a unique community group residence, opened in 1973, where many of the occupational centre workers lived.

The Steinbach Kinsmen also built a swimming pool and playground for the community to enjoy in the summertime and developed, Kin L.A. Barkman Park on land donated by the Barkman family.

There were also countless donations to the community’s health care facilities, senior citizens’ home and the Kinsmen Day Care Centre.

The Steinbach Kinsmen were also involved in raising money for cystic fibrosis, Bethesda Hospital, Kinsmen Day Nursery, Fernwood Place, Backstage, and the Canadian Association for Community Living as the club lived up to its motto, “Serving the community’s greatest needs.”

Most fundraisers involved hands-on participation of Kinsmen Club members. Trees were planted at the parks, playground equipment was painted, picnic tables were built, Kinsmen and Kinettes took turns in the canteen at the Steinbach Arena, and members pedaled more tickets than Art Vogt, Steinbach’s most celebrated ticket seller.

But none of this seemed like work for this group of community service volunteers. Anyone belonged to this organization for a few of those 40 years would fondly remember the fun of the work parties and the Christmas tree cutting trips to the Sandilands. The one possible exception may be that work party the year a farmer donated a not-completely composted manure pile and Steinbach Kinsmen sold and delivered tons of “garden fertilizer” as a fundraiser.

But in a world that is ever changing, and getting ever busier, the Steinbach Kinsmen Club found it could no longer compete for time with a host of other interests and the recruiting of new members stalled.

In July of 1991, Steinbach Kinsmen president Kerry Snead and the six-member club decided to make one last-ditch effort to revive the dwindling membership.

The Manitoba Telephone System construction manager had been club president for two years and a member of the club for eight. He said the membership had slowly been declining over the years, but the enthusiasm of the remaining small group and the support of the community never wavered.

It was difficult to run projects like the annual apple sales in October, the arena canteen in the winter, or telephone book deliveries in the spring with so few bodies, Snead said.

The club was financially healthy and still in a position to donate a fair amount of money to local charities. The $13,000 the Kinsmen and Kinettes provided for an operating room monitor for Bethesda Hospital in 1991 was one of the final Kinsmen donations to support the community’s health care facilities.

At the time the club was winding down, it allocated a $5,000 donation to the Steinbach Fire Department to go towards a rescue van.

Steinbach Kinsmen Club averaged between 18 and 20 members for many years and over a dozen were needed to maintain official Kinsmen Club status at the district and national level.

The Kinsmen president, at the time, said people were always willing to donate funds and purchase tickets to support projects, but more than half a dozen Kinsmen members were needed for an official Kinsmen Club.

The situation was re-evaluated at Christmas of 1991 and the decision was made to wrap things up in October of 1992.

Announcing the decision to dissolve the Steinbach Kinsmen Club, the organization took the opportunity to offer a final thanks to the community for 40 years of support.

It has often been said that people are not often remembered for what they say but for the example they set. For 40 years, the Steinbach Kinsmen and Kinettes not only “talked the talk” but also “walked the walk.”