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The Kinsmen Club of Salmon Arm was founded in 1944 with twenty-seven charter members. It focussed on fellowship, service to others and the community.

The club was an active community player and sponsored many local projects. These projects included the adult oxygen tent for the hospital, landscaping at Rotary Village, the school Boy Patrol wading pool and playground equipment at Fletcher Park, lawn bowling greens, roofing and a public address system for the first arena, a Little League Pall Park, the McGuire Lake Fountain, a water softening system program, the Milk for Britain project, the Kinsmen Mothers March, Kin Bus, the Halloween bonfire, Kin Park, playground equipment in Canoe, Seniors Heritage Bingo and a commitment to the Community Centre.

About 1968 the Kinsmen Club purchased a building from the South Canoe Women's Institute on Auto Rd. S.E. Salmon Arm. They made renovtions, landscaped and installed playground equipment, and later donated the hall to First Salmon Arm Scouts.

In 1971, after being approached by the Family Court Committee, the Kinsmen Club of Salmon Arm accepted the responsibility to build a house which would establish a Receiving and Remand Home in Salmon Arm to provide short-term accommodation for children who were wards of the court. The home was opened in 1974 and operated until 2001.

When the Kinsmen Club of Salmon Arm disbanded in 2001, its assets were dispersed to other community projects.

Gordon and Gladys Thompson started a square dance group in 1979 at Shuswap Lake Estates Hall under the name of Estate Squares. The couple were experienced and had called at the Y.M.C.A. in Vancouver. They offered lessons for a couple of seasons and operated the caller-run club until 1984. Interest grew and, as membership increased, the group moved to the Blind Bay Hall. The first class of dancers graduated on April 28, 1981 and the club adopted the name of Ta’Lana Twirlers of Blind Bay.

Graduation played a big part in the growth of the club. A square dance candlelight service ensured that new members were encouraged to join.

In 1984 the club started hosting an Easter Bunny Dance on Easter Monday at the Sorrento Hall with a special guest caller. The club had attempted to have an Easter Hat Parade, but dropped the idea for lack of interest. In 1985 Audrey Rinas designed the club badges and banner. The same year the club joined the Thompson Valley Square Dance Association.

Presidents of the Association include:
• Gordon and Gladys Thompson (1979-1984)
• Joe Abear 1984-1986
• Ken Morrison 1986-1988
• Ed Strome 1988-1990
• Alf Ames 1990-1992
• Denis Benson 1992-1994
• Bob Stewart 1994-1997
• Ted Vlooswick 1997-2002
• Dennis Benson 2006-2008
• Darcey Venables 2009-2010
• Bud Schaffer 2010-2012
• Graham Bickle 2013-2014
• George Alison 2014-2019

Club callers include:
• Gordon and Gladys Thompson
• Ed and Darlene Wagstaff
• Gerry Lander
• Laurie and June New
• John Collier
• Art and Dot Poirier
• Peter and Carolyn Weel
• Rene and Joan Bourget
• Don Heichert
• Fred Adams (Cuing help Gerry Lander)
• Mariann Sanford

According to the BC 4-H Club website, the Boys and Girls Club came into being in 1914. In the first year, over 200 young people between the ages of 10 and 18 were involved in competitions sponsored by the Department of Agriculture. The first clubs focused on potatoes, but later expanded to poultry in order to attract more young people and widen the influence of progressive farming practices on the BC farming community (see footnote below for source). When a local chapter of the Boys and Girls Club was formed in Salmon Arm is not known, but the Club was first mentioned in the Salmon Arm Observer in 1917.

The Boys and Girls Club was renamed 4-H in 1952. The name stood for the 4-Hs were: Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. The Four objectives of the 4-H are:

1. To train the heads and hands of the boys and girls.
2. To give them broad and big hearts.
3. To improve their health by giving them an interest in outdoor life.
4. To encourage, on the part of all Canadians, a strong and more intelligent interest in agriculture.
   The objectives are accomplished by competing and exhibiting at Fall Fairs.

The motto of the club is “Learn to do by doing.”

Oddly, the first mention of the 4-H Club in the Salmon Arm Observer was in 1951 as members of Armstrong, Kamloops, Salmon Arm and Lumby 4-H Clubs joined together to attend
the PNE in Vancouver.

Over the years there were multiple branches within the Club including Beef, Dairy, Horse, Goat, Honey Bee, and Clothing Clubs. A 4-H District Council served the area from Sicamous, Mara, Grindrod, Deep Creek, Salmon Arm and Sorrento.

Footnote: History of BC 4-H Club https://www.4hbc.ca/contact/history

The Parksville & District Historical Society was established in 1976 as the District 69 Historical Society. In 1991, the Society amalgamated with the Nanooa Historical and Museum Society which had been established in 1981 to collect and preserve archival material and museum artifacts pertaining to Nanoose Bay. In 2004, the Society changed its name to the Parksville & District Historical Society. In 1983, the Society opened Craig Heritage Park. The Knox United Church was the first heritage building moved to the Park. Today, there are seven heritage buildings, including the McMillan House which is a designated Heritage Trust building.

he Parksville & District Historical Society was established in 1976 as the District 69 Historical Society. In 1991, the Society amalgamated with the Nanooa Historical and Museum Society which had been established in 1981 to collect and preserve archival material and museum artifacts pertaining to Nanoose Bay. In 2004, the Society changed its name to the Parksville & District Historical Society. In 1983, the Society opened Craig Heritage Park. The Knox United Church was the first heritage building moved to the Park. Today, there are seven heritage buildings, including the McMillan House which is a designated Heritage Trust building.

Pauline (1913 - 1995) and Ernest (1905 - 1994) Touzeau were longtime residences of Parksville. Ernest was a forestry engineer employed by the Northwest Bay Logging Company at the logging camp in Nanoose Bay. He served as a Commissioner on the Parksville Village Council from 1963 to 1965. For many years, Pauline was a trustee on the District 69 School Board. She was instrumental in the formation of the Society of Organized Services and served on its Executive and its President.

Harriet Wilson (1869 - 1958) was the wife of Rev. Randle Hugh Wilson, the first resident minister of St. Anne’s Anglican Church from 1912 – 1914. She was born in 1869 and moved to Parksville with her husband in 1912. In 1914, Rev. Wilson died and to support her family Harriet Wilson established a nursing home for births on a property adjacent to the Church. She operated the nursing home from 1914 to 1929. A logbook records each of births. Harriet Wilson died in 1958.

Heinz Peter Oberlander was a Canadian architect and Canada's first professor of urban and regional planning. He enjoyed four decades of teaching, research and public service in Canada. He became the founding Director of the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning, the founding Director of the Centre for Human Settlements, and a Member of the Order of Canada.
Oberlander, OC, PhD FRAIC LLD (HON), was born in Vienna, Austria on November 29, 1922. He emigrated with his family to Canada in 1940 to escape Nazi-occupied Europe and earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1945 at the School of Architecture at McGill University. Oberlander became the first Canadian to earn a Master of City of Planning degree from Harvard's Graduate School of Design in 1947 and subsequently, in 1957, became the first Canadian to obtain a Doctorate in Regional Planning from Harvard. After graduation from Harvard, Oberlander worked first in England before returning to Canada in July 1948 to work for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's Department of Research and Education. There he wrote a brief to the Massey Commission on the need for federal government fellowship support of the arts and sciences. The brief prompted UBC President, Dr. Norman MacKenzie, to ask Oberlander to launch Canada's first professional program in Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), established in 1954.
Oberlander became the founding Director of the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning and subsequently founding Director of the Centre for Human Settlements, devoted to planning research. From 2001 to 2002, he served as chair of the Applied Planning Assistant Program Advisory Committee, which provided advice in setting up the APA Program at Langara College. From 1995 Oberlander served as Adjunct Professor in Political Science at Simon Fraser University. He was concurrently UBC Professor Emeritus in Community and Regional Planning until his death.
Oberlander's commitment to public service work in British Columbia and Canada included being the co-founder of the Lower Mainland Regional Planning Board in 1949. He was also Chair of Vancouver's Town Planning Commission in 1967 until he resigned in opposition to the city's ill-fated freeway plans for Downtown Vancouver. In 1970, Oberlander served at the federal level for three years as the inaugural Secretary (Deputy Minister) of the newly established Federal Ministry of State for Urban Affairs. During his three-year tenure, he created a process of tri-level consultation on urban development among federal/provincial/municipal governments for the planned re-use of redundant federal lands for local community needs. These areas included Vancouver's Granville Island and Toronto's Harbourfront.
Between 1998 and 2008, Oberlander also served as a Federal Citizenship Court Judge. Oberlander's international public service began in 1952 with work on a three-member team assembled by the United Nation's Centre for Housing, Building and Planning in New York. In 1958 he was asked by the UN to assist Ghana in developing a national housing policy. Later in 1976, Oberlander created the UBC Centre for Human Settlements, which served as a depository for audio-visual materials from the 1976 UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat I). Between 1980 and 1990, Oberlander served on the Canadian delegations to the UN Commission's annual meetings on Human Settlements in Nairobi, Kenya. In 1996 he was appointed Special Assistant to Dr. Wally N'Dow, Secretary-General for the Habitat II conference in Istanbul, Turkey. In the early years of the new millennium, Oberlander became instrumental in securing Vancouver, BC, as the 2006 UN-Habitat World Urban Forum (WUF 3).
In the 1960s, Oberlander worked extensively with Thompson, Berwick and Pratt, an architectural and planning firm in Vancouver. During the 1990s, Oberlander maintained his professional involvement as Associate Partner with Downs/Archambault and Partners (now DA Architects & Planners) in Vancouver.
His many awards included an Honorary Doctorate from UBC in 1998, the President's Lifetime Achievement Award of the Canadian Institute of Planners at its inaugural presentation in 2006, a Civic Merit Award from the City of Vancouver in 2008 and posthumously, the United Nations Scroll of Honour Award on World Habitat Day, October 4, 2009, for his work and dedication in improving global urban living conditions.
Oberlander married architect and fellow Member of the Order of Canada Cornelia Hahn in 1953. The pair collaborated extensively on professional projects throughout their marriage until his death on December 27, 2008.

In 1947, talks started between the Trail Ski Club and the Rossland Ski club which resulted in the amalgamation of the two clubs. This formed the Red Mountain Ski Club (RMSC) in 1947. The immediate Objectives of the clubs were to build a chairlift up Red Mountain, a lodge at the base, and to extend the base area. Chuck Sankey was the first president of the club. The first chair lift on Red was built in this same year, and ran until 1973 when it was replaced by a Mueller lift. The Red Mountain Ski Lodge was built in the fall of 1947 using the timbers from the Black Bear Compressor House.
More area for skiing was cleared in the 1950s, and during this decade some of the prominent organisations to come out of the ski club were organised too. This includes the ski patrol, the ski school, and the start of the Red Mountain Racers. In 1960 a poma lift was installed from the lodge to the Back Trail. The Granite Mountain chair was installed in 1965 which opened up a wider area for skiing. This same year the Main Run was cleared, with Jumbo and South Side Road following the next year.
The ski area has also been the host for large events. These include the first World Cup to be held in Canada (the du Maurier International) in 1968, the Export “A” Cup, and the Shell Cup. The world cup was held at the RMSC again in 1988 (The Husky World Downhill). Additionally, the Red Mountain Racers held many different events at the Ski Hill over the years.
Many different professional athletes have trained and competed at and with the RMSC. Nancy Greene is a two-time winner of the World Cup (1967 and 1968 – winning the Giant Slalom) and an Olympic Champion (1968). She grew up in Rossland and was a member of the club. Kerrin Lee-Gartner, who won gold at the 1992 Olympics, grew up in the area and was a Red Mountain Racer.
In the 1980s, it was decided to sell the Ski Club as it was becoming much too large of an operation for volunteers to run. The RMSC and its facilities were bought by Eric Skat-Peters in 1989, though the Ski Club still ran until 1995.

The Trail-Rossland Ski Club dropped “Rossland” from its name at the request of the Rossland Ski Club in 1934 and became the Trail Ski Club. They built a cabin in Squaw Basin (on the North side of Granite Mountain), which became a hub for downhill skiing in the surrounding hills. Their main club cabin was at the North end of the Rossland Reservoir, and they skied largely on the East side of Red Mountain. In 1947, the Trail Ski Club and the Rossland Ski Club amalgamated and became the Red Mountain Ski Club.

The Rossland-Trail Olympic Promotion Committee was founded in 1961 with the goal of hosting the 1968 Winter Olympics. Whistler, Fernie, and Rossland-Trail all bid to be Canada’s entry for the games, but Calgary was selected. The committee wrote letters back and forth with Canada’s Olympics Committee, as well as compiled maps and research about the area and snow fall history. In the end, the 1968 Olympics were held in Grenoble, France.

While courses in women’s studies were first offered at the university in 1971, the degree-granting Women’s Studies Program in the Faculty of Arts began offering an undergraduate major in 1991. The program was an interdisciplinary field of study that drew upon the social sciences, humanities, research methods, theory, literature, and gender relations. Tannis MacBeth Williams was the program’s first chair.
Early faculty involved in the Women’s Studies Program were Dr. Dawn Currie, Dr. Valerie Raoul, Dr. Veronica Strong-Boag, Prof. Sneja Gunew, Dr. Sharalyn Orbaugh, Dr. Becki Ross, and Dr. Lenora Angeles. The Women’s Studies Program worked closely with the Centre for Research in Women’s Studies and Gender Relations (created in 1991 with a mandate to support research and develop links between local and international scholars, policy makers and activists). The Founding Director of CRWSGR was Veronica Strong-Boag. Graduate-level courses were first offered in the 1998-99 academic year, initially from within the Interdisciplinary Studies Programme in the Faculty of Graduate Studies. The CRWSGR began administering M.A. and PhD programs in Women’s Studies and Gender Relations in 2000-2001. It changed its name to the Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies (CWAGS) in 2006. In 2012, CWAGS and the Women’s and Gender Studies graduate and undergraduate programs merged to form the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, directed by Dr. Mary K. Bryson.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a fraternal social organization based around charity. Different societal branches stem from IOOF, such as the Deborah Rebekah’s for women. The origins of Odd Fellowship are unclear, but there have been IOOF Lodges in England, Sweden, Germany, the USA, and Canada. The IOOF has an emblem of three links with the letters, “F, L, and T” on them, which stand for friendship, love, and truth. The chain bonds members together and reminds them that the society is only as strong as its weakest member. In the late 1800s, Rossland residents not only wanted to make a living but sought out community and social events. A Rossland resident, Horace James Raymer, was a builder from Winnipeg and a former Grand Master at the Manitoba Lodge #1 between 1888 and 1889. Raymer, John Kirkup, and five others organized a meeting regarding the formation of a Masonic Lodge in Rossland. By May 11th, 1896, the seven organizing men received applications from ten men who wanted to become Odd Fellows. The Rossland Lodge #36 was instituted by the Grand Lodge of BC on that same day, May 11th, 1896. Elected officers served a six-month term, and the Lodge would meet in the Masonic Hall once a week. the Lodge parented the Rebekah Lodge #13, which began in 1899 in Rossland. By 1899 the IOOF hall was built. Thomas Embleton became Grand Patriarch of B.C. in 1904 and Grand Master of B.C. in 1907 (the only GM to come from the Rossland Lodge). By the end of the year 1900, there were 135 members for the Rossland Lodge #36.

From about 1940 until 1965, the IOOF Lodge saw a dramatic downturn in membership, fueled by the mines closing in Rossland, the Depression, and WWII. The membership began to grow again in 1965, with the Lodge having reached 54 members. By 1988, the Rossland Lodge #36 was the only remaining Odd Fellows Lodge throughout the West Kootenays. The Lodge celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1996 and is still open today in 2023. The hall was used for many purposes and the Odd Fellows have supported and sponsored numerous causes over the years.

The first Methodist Church carried out work as early as 1895. The first church building was built and opened in 1897. Mr. D.D. Birks from Vancouver was the Methodist student minister for two years, and Rev. Ladner followed in the premises on Washington Avenue. This building eventually was enlarged to include a reading room, Sunday School, and recreation hall. In 1917, the Methodist Church united with the Presbyterian Church. One of the past Pastors is Reverend A.M. Sanford.

The first Presbyterian Church was begun in May 1895 with the arrival of Minister Hugh J. Robertson. He held the first religious service in Rossland in a store at the corner of Sourdough Alley and Spokane Street. Sunday School was organized on Mr. Robertson’s second Sunday in the city. Opening services in the new church was held on 28 August 1895. Friends of Mr. Robertson’s in Ontario presented the church with its first organ. Mr. Robertson was succeeded by Reverend James Wallance, D. McGradier, J.M. Robinson, Reverend R. Grant, T.J. Robinson, Reverend James Dow, Reverend S.R. Sarkassian, and Reverend W. Robertson. The Presbyterian Church united with the Methodist Church in 1917.

As early as 1892, a traveling priest named Reverend Father Bedard visited the Rossland mining camp on his missionary circuit and conducted mass. Bedard was followed by Father Peylavin two years later in 1894. Father Lemay became the resident priest in 1895, and at this time mass was held wherever possible. The first Catholic Church in Rossland was built by a contractor named McCarthy in October 1895. A bell was installed in the tower in late 1900, after being shipped from England. In 1902, Father Welsh purchased land on the corner of Butte and Columbia to build a new church and turn the current church into a school. This plan was put on hold until 1915 when it was completed under the supervision and leadership of Father MacIntyre who replaced Father Welsh in 1912. Sacred Heart Catholic Church opened in 1915. The parish rectory was purchased in 1922. The Parish Hall was built across the street from the church in 1930. In the 1960s, the Father MacIntyre Centre (also called the Catechism Centre) was built beside the Parish Hall. In 1997, the priest position was reduced to part-time. Plans to renovate Sacred Heart Church and create a community multipurpose space were approved in 2012. The Parish Hall and Father MacIntyre Centre were sold in 2013 to pay for the renovations.

The first Canadian chapter of the Phrateres was established at UBC in 1935 through the initiative of Clare Brown Harris while president of the Women's Undergraduate Society. An international organization, Phrateres was first formed at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles by Dean Helen Matheson Laughlin in 1924. The Theta Chapter at UBC was the eighth to be established on the west coast. Phrateres, which comes from the Greek word for sisterhood, seek to fulfil the ideals of the modern University and to promote a spirit of friendliness among women of individual universities and of all universities. Membership in the organization, whose motto is "famous for friendliness", is open to both sorority and non-sorority women at a small cost. It seeks to enrich university life through a wide range of social and service activities, including dances, reunions, and fundraising. Theta Chapter is affiliated with the UBC Greek system (sororities and fraternities), and over the years has been subdivided into as many as twelve sub-chapters, named Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Eta, Zeta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Omicron and Sigma.
As of 2000, Theta Chapter at UBC was the sole remaining active collegiate chapter of Phrateres International.

In 1986 and 1987 there were numerous meetings held by the Jubilee Park and Playing Field committee concerning the proposed upgrade of the Jubilee Park for Rossland Secondary School (now Rossland Summit School). They proposed a slight leveling and raising of the field, a double soccer field, jogging track, tennis court, and basketball court. Cook Pickering & Doyle Ltd. surveyed and presented comments and recommendations on the geotechnical matters affecting improved drainage for the playing fields. Members of the advisory committee included Jean Cormack, Hugo Smecher, Lloyd McLellan, Harry Lefevre, Stan Fisher, Iain Martin, and Jack Richardson. Ultimately, the plans never went ahead, possibly due to lack of funding by the Ministry of Education.

The Rossland Club was established on November 12, 1896, on the second floor of Dr. Keller’s office on Columbia Avenue. James Sutherland Chisholm Fraser, manager of the Rossland branch of the Bank of Montreal was the first president of the club, accompanied by F.C. Loring as the vice-president and C.A. Cregan as the secretary-treasurer.

On December 1, 1897, the club moved to the former location of the Shaw Hotel on the west end of Columbia Avenue. The building consisted of three floors, all of which were utilized by the Rossland Club. By this time, the club had a membership of 125 and a developing reputation.

In 1899, membership had grown to such an extent that the Rossland Club found it necessary to build its own clubhouse. A new three-story clubhouse was built on the corner of Queen Street and Le Roi Avenue, costing $12,913.44 (approximately $500,000.00 in 2022).

Unfortunately, the building was destroyed on March 1, 1929, in “The Big Fire” which devastated much of Rossland’s business district. The Rossland Club received $14,500.00 (approximately $230,000.00 in 2022) as an insurance payout following the fire - most of which was used to pay off debts. Because of financial constraints and a declining membership, the Rossland Club decided not to rebuild after the fire. The land on which it stood was sold by the club to the West Kootenay Power & Light Company for $400.00 in 1929 (approximately $6,300.00 in 2022).

The club was inactive until July 1, 1931, when the remaining members decided to lease the second floor of the Cooper Block on 2059 Columbia Avenue. The club’s financial difficulties worsened after the fire and their once prestigious reputation began to fade. Despite a concerted effort to increase membership, by March 1950, only twenty-eight members remained in the club. One of the club’s efforts to increase membership was to begin hosting square dancing for members and their wives. Until then, women had not been allowed in the club. Wives, however, were only classed as ‘associate’ members and had no club privileges, no access to the club rooms at any time other than for square dancing, and were not allowed to consume alcohol on the premises. Unsurprisingly, the dances only attracted five new full members in 1952.

In December 1954, the club’s landlord informed the club that they would have to discontinue their square dancing events, meaning that women were no longer allowed in the club. For the entirety of the 1960s, the club was struggling to pay rent or attract new members, and by September 1969, they were asked to vacate their location in the Cooper Block. Following this, the club liquidated their assets and disbanded the organization.

Notable members included but not limited to: J.S.C. Fraser, John Kirkup, Walter H. Aldridge, Lorne A. Campbell, John Andrew Forin, Selwyn Blaylock, William K. Esling.

John Doe was born in Medicine Hat, Alberta to parents James and Jenny Doe.

The first meeting of the Corinthian Lodge in Rossland took place in September 0f 1895 between Brothers H.J. Raymer, Geo. N. Taylor, John Kirkup, G.C. Hodge, and Jesse A Bigelow. On 5 December that year steps were taken towards organizing a formal Masonic Lodge. By April 1897 the lodge was built and ready for occupation. In 1899 there was a fire on the south eastern end of the hall on Columbia Avenue. The lodge originally shared the building but raised funds to buy it out by 1911. The lodge held annual meetings. In 1979 a fire destroyed the lodge, and they used the hall of Sacred Heart Catholic church for meetings. In 2004, the Fidelity Lodge No. 32 and Friendship Lodge No. 144 of Trail consolidated into the Corinthian Lodge and meetings started to be held in Trail at the Masonic Hall.