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Kinettes commemorated their club’s 100th anniversary

Students gathered in the gym of the Assiniboia Composite High School on February 12 to listen to a presentation by Kinettes representatives, Lisa Martin and Lorraine Duxbury.

Students gathered in the gym of the Assiniboia Composite High School on February 12 to listen to a presentation by Kinettes representatives, Lisa Martin and Lorraine Duxbury. “We are here today, because Kinsmen clubs are celebrating their 100th birthday across the country,” Duxbury said.

“They are a huge part of our community,” added high school teacher, Al Wandler, also mentioning the Kinsmen’s support for the annual Pink Game basketball tournament in Assiniboia.

The Kinsmen are renowned for raising funds to help those in need across the country. Duxbury also discussed the Telemiracle during her introduction. The Telemiracle assists people to purchase expensive medical treatments and equipment they couldn’t otherwise afford. The Telemiracle is an annual telethon organized by the Kinsmen and Kinettes in Saskatchewan for the Kinsmen Foundation.  

In commemoration of the Kinsmen and Kinettes' 100th birthday, Martin and Duxbury showed a film to the students about the Kinsmen’s Milk for Britain campaign from 1941-1948. The campaign beginning in the Second World War was the Kinsmen’s first national charitable project. After the film, Martin and Duxbury handed out cartons of milk to the students at the doors of the gymnasium.

In response to a radio appeal for milk for British children, founder Hal Rogers called upon Kin members across Canada to raise funds to purchase powdered milk. The goal for the first year was to raise enough money to buy one million quarts within nine months. The Kinsmen and Kinettes were enabled to supply more than three million quarts for Britain in response. Rogers was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1948 in acknowledgement of his determination to organize the Milk for Britain wartime project.

The successful mission resulted in establishing 41 new Kinsmen clubs, as well as the creation of the woman’s branch, the Kinettes.      

The Kinsmen Club was originally founded 100 years ago by Hal Rogers in Hamilton, Ontario on February 20, 1920. The club grew by 1926, expanding to six cities across Canada. Three years later in 1929, the Kinsmen Club expanded to 24 clubs under five districts.

The club resumed their continual development after the Second World War and by 1956 there were 300 clubs across the county. Moreover, the club continued to be involved with charities. The organization has also assisted people with debilitating diseases such as cystic fibrosis – the Kinsmen had raised over $1 million for cystic fibrosis research in 1985. Subsequently, the Kinsmen adopted cystic fibrosis as a National Service Project in 1987.

The Kinsmen in Assiniboia have taken an active role in fundraising throughout the town’s history. The local Kinsmen sponsored a Food Parcels for Britain Program in 1948. A year later, the Kinsmen started a bond of $4,128 to help raise funds for a swimming pool in 1949. The Kinsmen have continually shown their commitment to funding local sports, such as in 1955, when the organization purchased sweaters for Assiniboia’s Pee Wee hockey team.