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The Kiwanis Club of Ottawa was formed in December 1917, and celebrates 100 years of good deeds Friday — unpunished or unheralded — with a luncheon at its home base, the Château Laurier.
In a century, millions have been raised, causes won, networks forged, friendships born, careers launched, mayors made — it will all have to wait for the book, which Shirley Tomblin, the club historian, is just wrapping up. (All volunteer, of course — the club’s DNA.)
Ottawa-Sep 4, 1997- Citizen file photo – from June 21, 1983 – Princess Diana and Prince Charles leaving Chateau Laurier Hotel.
There is, as an appetizer, the Prince Charles and Diana caper of 1983, which she retells with great relish. Wonderful story, almost as good as when Jim Durrell, in a long line of mayoral Kiwanians, used his chain of office, if not his big mitts, to crack open a beer truck, maybe two, in 1988 to save a Grey Cup party. (Film at 11, but pearls before swill.)
At the time, Tomblin, now 88, was the club’s executive secretary, a post she held for 21 years (she also became the first female member admitted, in 1990). News had broken that Charles and Diana, by then probably the most famous couple in the world, were making their first visit to the capital.
Knowing Charles had a keen interest in the environment, Tomblin wondered if he could be persuaded to speak to the service club, which had an agricultural and environment committee. It was, of course, a ridiculous long shot. The trip would be filled with pageantry, PMs and GGs — would the prince seriously speak to a club that held TV auctions and duck races?
“We were always looking for good speakers, so I brought it up at a board meeting,” she said this week, joking about her reputation as “the best beggar” in town. “There were 16 men sitting there. They just laughed and said, ‘go ahead, invite him’.”
So she did. For weeks, she was teased by disbelievers with, “have you heard from Charlie yet?” jabs.
Well, the prince said yes, didn’t he? Came the day, June 22, Ottawa in a heat wave: the Château Laurier ballroom booked, 800 tickets sold, a city, a nation, a press horde, watching. Then, boom — the power went out to a chunk of downtown, including the hotel, plunging the luncheon into the dark.
“The security people were going crazy.”
A generator came on, but the lighting was still poor, and the air conditioning weak. The royals, meanwhile, had to walk down four flights of stairs, along a dim corridor to a head table in semi-darkness. Well, just as suddenly, the power came back on in time for Charles’s dire warnings about acid rain, and the event was saved.
The Ottawa Kiwanis Club is celebrating their 100th anniversary on Friday.
Say this about Ottawa — it is a city of networks, which goes to the heart of the Kiwanis success. Historically, of all the city’s service clubs, the central Kiwanis group probably snagged more of the city’s elite. Virtually every mayor in the last 40 years was a member, as were prominent business people named Freiman and Caplan, Hulse and Fisher, sports figures named Pullen or Nicholds.
So they made things happen. The club raised more than $4.5 million for CHEO through its famous “duck race,” supported an annual music festival and focused on youth, with seed money that created an air cadet squadron, the precursor to the Boys and Girls Club, and so much more.
(There is a quite remarkable story about the Boys Club’s first member in a converted fire station on Somerset Street in 1924, a 12-year-old lad named Gordon Henderson, who went on to become a giant in Ottawa’s legal and philanthropic community and, revealingly, Kiwanis president in 1952. So did the club, the city, reaped what it sowed.)
There is so, so much to say about 100 years of helping, but the beer miracle of 1988 can’t go unmentioned. It was a Grey Cup year in Ottawa and Kiwanis had organized a fundraising party at Lansdowne, with supplies for 1,000 fans. Well, didn’t 4,200 thirsty sports show up?
“Luckily for us,” reads the club history, “Mayor Jim Durrell was a member of our Club and, when he was approached with our dilemma, he gave the order to break into the beer trucks which were on hand for the next day’s Grey Cup game — this saved the night and helped us prevent what could have been a real disaster.”
In 2017, there is something old-fashioned about service clubs, the world being full of new ways to volunteer time or give money.
(I had a grand chat with Allan Castledine about his link with the club, which began in 1951 and followed his father Victor’s footsteps, from 1928.)
“It’s a chance for me to give back to the community. Like this weekend, we’re going to deliver 400 food hampers.”
The retired stockbroker, by the way, turns 92 on Monday. Does that not say it all?
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
In a century, millions have been raised, causes won, networks forged, friendships born, careers launched, mayors made — it will all have to wait for the book, which Shirley Tomblin, the club historian, is just wrapping up. (All volunteer, of course — the club’s DNA.)
Ottawa-Sep 4, 1997- Citizen file photo – from June 21, 1983 – Princess Diana and Prince Charles leaving Chateau Laurier Hotel.
There is, as an appetizer, the Prince Charles and Diana caper of 1983, which she retells with great relish. Wonderful story, almost as good as when Jim Durrell, in a long line of mayoral Kiwanians, used his chain of office, if not his big mitts, to crack open a beer truck, maybe two, in 1988 to save a Grey Cup party. (Film at 11, but pearls before swill.)
At the time, Tomblin, now 88, was the club’s executive secretary, a post she held for 21 years (she also became the first female member admitted, in 1990). News had broken that Charles and Diana, by then probably the most famous couple in the world, were making their first visit to the capital.
Knowing Charles had a keen interest in the environment, Tomblin wondered if he could be persuaded to speak to the service club, which had an agricultural and environment committee. It was, of course, a ridiculous long shot. The trip would be filled with pageantry, PMs and GGs — would the prince seriously speak to a club that held TV auctions and duck races?
“We were always looking for good speakers, so I brought it up at a board meeting,” she said this week, joking about her reputation as “the best beggar” in town. “There were 16 men sitting there. They just laughed and said, ‘go ahead, invite him’.”
So she did. For weeks, she was teased by disbelievers with, “have you heard from Charlie yet?” jabs.
Well, the prince said yes, didn’t he? Came the day, June 22, Ottawa in a heat wave: the Château Laurier ballroom booked, 800 tickets sold, a city, a nation, a press horde, watching. Then, boom — the power went out to a chunk of downtown, including the hotel, plunging the luncheon into the dark.
“The security people were going crazy.”
A generator came on, but the lighting was still poor, and the air conditioning weak. The royals, meanwhile, had to walk down four flights of stairs, along a dim corridor to a head table in semi-darkness. Well, just as suddenly, the power came back on in time for Charles’s dire warnings about acid rain, and the event was saved.
The Ottawa Kiwanis Club is celebrating their 100th anniversary on Friday.
Say this about Ottawa — it is a city of networks, which goes to the heart of the Kiwanis success. Historically, of all the city’s service clubs, the central Kiwanis group probably snagged more of the city’s elite. Virtually every mayor in the last 40 years was a member, as were prominent business people named Freiman and Caplan, Hulse and Fisher, sports figures named Pullen or Nicholds.
So they made things happen. The club raised more than $4.5 million for CHEO through its famous “duck race,” supported an annual music festival and focused on youth, with seed money that created an air cadet squadron, the precursor to the Boys and Girls Club, and so much more.
(There is a quite remarkable story about the Boys Club’s first member in a converted fire station on Somerset Street in 1924, a 12-year-old lad named Gordon Henderson, who went on to become a giant in Ottawa’s legal and philanthropic community and, revealingly, Kiwanis president in 1952. So did the club, the city, reaped what it sowed.)
There is so, so much to say about 100 years of helping, but the beer miracle of 1988 can’t go unmentioned. It was a Grey Cup year in Ottawa and Kiwanis had organized a fundraising party at Lansdowne, with supplies for 1,000 fans. Well, didn’t 4,200 thirsty sports show up?
“Luckily for us,” reads the club history, “Mayor Jim Durrell was a member of our Club and, when he was approached with our dilemma, he gave the order to break into the beer trucks which were on hand for the next day’s Grey Cup game — this saved the night and helped us prevent what could have been a real disaster.”
In 2017, there is something old-fashioned about service clubs, the world being full of new ways to volunteer time or give money.
(I had a grand chat with Allan Castledine about his link with the club, which began in 1951 and followed his father Victor’s footsteps, from 1928.)
“It’s a chance for me to give back to the community. Like this weekend, we’re going to deliver 400 food hampers.”
The retired stockbroker, by the way, turns 92 on Monday. Does that not say it all?
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
