1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach Grow: Vandals give Kinsmen extra work party

JUNE 9, 1966—For two weeks this spring, the Steinbach Kinsmen have been out in force, raking, painting, cleaning, replacing windows, doors, and what have you, in an effort to get their park ready for the season.

During the winter, or early spring, vandals broke all the windows in the change-room building, next to the Kindale pool, and damaged or destroyed the doors as well. Benches were thrown into the pool. Playground equipment was carted to an area nearly a block away. In the kiddies’ wading pool, broken glass from drink bottles, was further evidence of the vandalism.

During the last week in May, Kinsmen volunteers replaced the broken windows and doors. When they returned again with another work party to clean up the rest of the mess, they found the windows had all been broken again. The Kinsmen replaced them again.

During the summer months, a caretaker is hired to look after the park, but the Kinsmen are still responsible for it. Right now, the heaviest part of the work, the annual spring clean-up, is carried out cheerfully by Kinsmen work parties. Members of the organization are contacted to see what evening they are free, and when a suitable time is arranged, they show up, armed with hammers and saws, rakes, paint brushes, and a number of muscles in their backs and arms they didn’t know they had.

The Kinsmen hope, in spite of the repeated vandalism, to open the pool early in July to accommodate this year’s sessions of water safety and swimming lessons.

Beginning July 4, the Steinbach Kinsmen, in conjunction with the Steinbach branch of the Red Cross will be sponsoring water safety classes. There will be four sets of classes at the swimming pool from July 4 to August 26.

These classes costing $3.50 per person, but not more than $8.00 per family of all children under 16, will be supervised by local organizations, including the Red Cross.