History

The Motto: “Serving the Communities’ Greatest Need”
The 1920’s

• Kinsmen Began by Harold Allin Rogers, along with Harold Phillips, Trevor Thompson and Link Brace.

• 3 of the 4 founders were WW I veterans who missed the camaraderie of military life and there wasn’t a club for young business men in Hamilton at the time

• The founding meeting took place February 20th 1920 in Hamilton at the Namking Restaurant. Hence the Kinsmen Club of Hamilton

• Hal’s father, C.F. “Pop” Rogers gave the club the Kinsmen name based on a literary club frequented by Mark Twain from New York City called The Kinsmen Club   

• 1921 The second Kinsmen club to be chartered was the Kinsmen Club of Montreal. 1922 The third Kinsmen club to be chartered was the Kinsmen Club of Toronto

• Throughout the decade most of the club’s service projects dealt with assisting children and youth i.e. building playgrounds. Hamilton Kin got involved with the Hamilton’s Boys Home.

• To help with expansion into Saskatchewan, the Kinsmen amalgamated with a group called the Eclectics – of which then future Prime Minister John Diefenbaker was a member.

The 1930’s

• The creation of the Kinsmen now Kin motto “Serving the Communities Greatest Need” was coined by then 1938 National President Rich Richards as a way to help define Kin’s role within the communities of Canada

• The debate over the 40-year age limit raged throughout the decade at national conventions.

• Districts and annual conventions were created to better serve local club needs. Chartering clubs “50 in 15” They tried to charter 50 clubs to mark their 15th anniversary but fell slightly short with 43.

• District 7 – The Atlantic provinces was created with clubs in Sydney, Halifax and seven other clubs in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick

• 1939 the Association stretched from St. John’s NF to Victoria BC

The 1940’s

• Milk-for-Britain campaign was the largest national undertaking, which involved raising funds to send powdered milk to children in war torn Britain. Between September 14th 1940 and May 31st 1948 raised over 2.6 million dollars in this cause. In later years, the British government thanked Kin by awarding Founder Hal with the Order of the British Empire.

• At the 1942 National Kinsmen Convention in Vancouver signs of a formal Kinette structure started to appear. There were reports from 30 Kinette groups and a special committee headed by France Decew wife of the National President to “consider ways and means of national Kinette effort and organization.”

• By 1948 Fort Erie Kinettes Dawn Freeland and Kaye Turner became co-editors of “Open House” a full-page presentation in Kin magazine and which they described as the “News and Views of Kinettes Across Canada.” One of their first undertakings was to determine the number of Kinette clubs, their history, the names and addresses of current executive members. Their research found it was members’ wives from Toronto to be duly constituted; They had formed as the Downtown Kinette Club of Toronto in October 1939. An earlier group in Hamilton had formed but disbanded and never used the word Kinette in their name.

• 1945 The National Executive Committee undertook to raise $50,000 for cancer research by setting up a scholarship fund offering between $1800 and $2500 per year for medical doctors interested in undertaking cancer research and returning to Canada upon completion of their studies.

The 1950’s 

• K-W Kinsmen raised over $55,000 for the construction of the New Dawn School for Retarded Children opened in June 1958 and cared for 43 children. The Galt Kin expanded the William Anderson School for Retarded Children and the Windsor club opened the Kinsmen Training Centre for Retarded Adults.

• The Mother’s March of Dimes was National campaign and in 1957 with the help of Kinettes raised $450,000 in Ontario alone.

• In 1950 a flood relief fund was established for the victims of flooding in Manitoba (Hamilton Kin raised $5,500 with a local radio station asking for donations) and in 1956 and ’58 Kin provided funds for the mine disasters in Springhill NS. The National Directors created a separate Springhill Disaster Dental Fund for all of the fatherless children from both disasters and Kin donated $12,000

• By 1950 the Kinettes has ceased being merely an auxiliary because near the end of the ‘40s they had their own pin and own Kinette song and conducted themselves far differently than their male counterparts by traveling less and being restricted by a lack of funds.

The 1960s

• In 1964 after a chance meeting in a Scarborough bar, Dr. Crozier of Toronto Sick Kids Hospital spoke to North York Kinsman, Bill Skelly about the plight of his young CF patients. This conversation encouraged Bill to start his fight against CF. He invited Dr. Crozier to speak to his club and they enthusiastically embraced the cause and it became District 8’s district service project that same year.

The 1970’s

• At the beginning of the decade Kin wanted to celebrate it’s 50th anniversary and for it’s National legacy project, the Association raised, $350,000 to assist construction of the Kinsmen National Institute on Mental Retardation at Toronto’s York University.

• Kin also got involved nationally with the government sponsored initiative of Particip-action a physical fitness movement designed to get Canadians moving and active and clubs from around the country built or sponsored more than 100 Partcip-parks. The 1st park opened in Port Coquitlam BC in 1977 and the 100th park opened up in Moncton NB in 1981.

• On Februrary 21st 1977, Kin across Canada celebrated a National Heritage in honour of the 12th anniversary of the Canadian flag. Its purpose was to thank Canadians for their contributions in making Canada the country it is today. No two celebration were alike, Oakville Kinsmen gave a cheque for $10K as a first installment to build a new arena, the Harriston Kinsmen sponsored an essay writing contest and the winning entry by 11 year old Daniel Auger was published in Kin magazine

• In 1977, District 3, Saskatchewan started the province wide service project, “Kinsmen Telemiracle” and in its first year raised over 1 million dollars. To date, Telemiracle has raised over 68 million dollars to assist the people and needs of Saskatchewan 

The 1980’s

• Kinsmen and Kinettes finally have a permanent National Headquarters. NHQ was opened in Cambridge ON with it’s building facing the most traveled highway in all of Canada the 401. The entire cost of the building was paid for by Kin across Canada through the “Buy a Brick” campaign

• By 1985 every district within Kin had adopted CF as a service project making it our current National Service project. A young man afflicted with CF named Kevin Denbok with the assistance of Kin, helped to raise close to $500,000 through the sales of his album entitled, “People like You”

• Kin also supported Canadian hero Rick Hansen for over two years with his wheelchair tour, “Man in Motion” by doing a bucket brigade in every Kin town Rick visited. Kin helped Rick raise over $500K by the end of his tour. Rick received so many Kin pins that by the end of his tour, his jacket weighed over 20kgs.

• The age limit was raised to 45

• After more than 40 years, in 1989 Kinettes became full partners within the Association and were no longer an auxiliary branch. As Founder Hal always said, “God bless the girls.”

The 1990s

• Many milestones occurred during this decade, the “Proud to be Canadian Tour” in 1992, the first 20 million dollars raised for CF in 1993 and in 1995 our 75th anniversary in Hamilton ON.

• The age limit was completely removed allowing members to stay as long as they liked.

• Founder Hal passes away on September 15th, 1994 at the age of 95

The 2000s

• More than 40 million dollars had been raised for CF since 1964, the Association’s new name Kin Canada had been adopted and more than 15 million had been raised nationally for local service projects. 

• National executive changes with Kin Canada going to single leadership and in 2007, Kin elects it’s first female National President, Leona Thorogood

• Port Dover Kinsmen look to be entered into the Guiness Book of World Records for their “Friday the 13th” motorcycle project having more than 10,000 motorcycles in one place at one time.

• The most unusual club charter, the Lasalle Kin Club was chartered at the request of town council in order to build a new arena for the town.