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authority records
K-ette Club of Salmon Arm
MS 143 · Corporate body · 1984-2005

The Kinsmen Club of Salmon Arm was founded in 1944 with twenty-seven charter members. It was a service club dedicated to meeting the community’s greatest needs. It hosted Halloween parties for children, spearheaded the building of the pool and the playground at Fletcher Park. The club was responsible for the construction of the roof and installation of a public address system at the Memorial Arena, the lawn bowling greens, and the Kinsmen Little League Park. The club donated a water softener and oxygen tent to the Shuswap Lake General Hospital and installed the first fountain at McGuire Lake.

About 1968 the Kinsmen Club purchased a building from the South Canoe Women’s Institute on Auto Rd SE, made renovations and a playground, and later donated it to the First Salmon Arm Scouts.

In 1971, after being approached by the Family Court Committee, the Kinsmen Club of Salmon Arm built a Receiving and Remand Home in Salmon Arm, providing short-term accommodation for children who were wards of the court. The house opened in 1974 and closed in 2001.

The Receiving and Remand house was sold in 2001 and over $100,000 disbursed into the community: Little Mountain Sports Complex, the Salmon Arm Museum and Heritage Association, the Shuswap Community Foundation, South Shuswap First Responders Association, the Shuswap Health-Care Foundation, Salmon Arm Ambulance and the Canadian Cancer Society and the Shuswap Arena Society.

Salmon Arm’s Kinette Club was made up of participating wives of members of the Kinsmen Club. The women’s group was formed in 1947. The Kinette Club adopted the Kinsmen motto. Mrs. Tom Calvert was installed as the first president. The group worked on a campaign, Marching Mothers, to raise money to eradicate polio. They raised money to furnish the ten-bed pediatric unit and playroom at Shuswap Lake General Hospital.

Membership in the Kinsmen Club was restricted to men under the age of 40. As the club aged the “Kin Family” carried on. Older Kinsmen and Kinettes joined Kinsmen Club-affiliated groups: K-40, for men, and K-ettes, for women. The newly formed chapters were not active Kinsmen Club members because the club’s constitution and by-laws did not include them. K-40 and K-ettes did not pay dues to Kinsmen and the groups operated as social clubs rather than a service clubs. It was expected that the K-40 and K-ettes would lend support and expertise to their Kinsmen and Kinette Club counterparts.

A group met to establish a K-ette Club in January 1984. Betty Lou Wagner chaired the meeting and Mary Letham acted as secretary. The women ran an advertisement to encourage new members to join. An election was held at the second meeting. Eileen Bedford and Gladys Beech acted as scrutineers. Those who were elected were:
• President Mary Letham
• Vice President Gladys Beech
• Secretary Joyce Cummings
• Treasurer Dot Johnson
• Directors: Jackie Cannon and Jan Hunter

A K-ette Membership Certificate laid out the aims of the Club:
• To continue the fellowship experienced by the members while they were active in the family of Kin.
• To be an auxiliary of the sponsoring Kinsmen Club.
• To assist with the sponsoring Club’s projects; all with the view to the promotion and furtherance of the object of the Association.

The Kin Hall on Okanagan Ave SE was a popular venue for meetings. Geneva McLean, Jan Hunter and Shirley Meszaros were the phoning committee. The group met every other month and decided to pursue a charter.

A raffle was held to raise money and potluck meetings were the norm. Members visited Kin House to see if help was needed with activities there.

In 1991 the age for active membership in the Kinsmen and Kinette Clubs was raised to 45 and then eliminated altogether in 1999. This may have impacted the K-ette group which dissolved in in 2005.

Salmar Community Association
MS 144 · Corporate body · 1946-

The Salmon Arm Community Co-operative Sports Center Association met October 1st, 1946. The first order of business was the consideration of the name change to Salmon Arm Community Cooperative Association.

Directors elected were S.C. Elliot, F. Marshall, P.E. Pike, N.S. Minion, A.A. Robinson, F. Ibbotson, C.C. Barker, J.E. Campbell, and Ken Hunter. The directors were authorized to purchase the Rex Theatre at the same meeting.

The group was formed to consider the creation of a memorial to those who had served in the Second World War. The decision was made to build a memorial arena that also met the community’s needs for skating and ice hockey facilities.

The Association investigated sources of financing for this project and it was decided to purchase the existing Rex Theatre by the sale of debentures and non-interest bearing shares. It soon became apparent that the Rex Theatre building and equipment were outdated and it was decided that a new theatre should be built and officially opened for business.

In the meantime, a separate organization was formed to secure funds for the construction of the proposed arena. Construction was commenced in 1956 and the Salmon Arm Memorial Arena was ready for use on July 1, 1958. Surplus revenues from the operation of the Salmar were directed to the arena until responsibility for the operation of the arena was assumed by local government.

With the future of the arena assured, the objectives of the Association were expanded to include many other worthwhile community endeavors including sport and recreation, healthcare and the arts. Theatre revenues were also used to upgrade and enhance the Salmar. In the mid-1970s, the Salmar was renovated and new projection equipment purchased. In 1984, further renovations, including reconstruction of the lobby, enlargement of the stage and installation of special lighting to encourage live performances, were completed. In 1990 the Alexander Street façade of the Salmar, including signage, was upgraded. Technical improvements to projection and sound equipment continued to be made on an ongoing basis.

In 1978 the Association purchased the Starlite Drive-In Theatre and operated that facility in conjunction with the Salmar for many years. The Starlite was sold in September of 1990 to make way for the planned expansion of the junction of Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 97B.

In November of 1987, the name of the Association was changed to Salmar Community Association with the intent of making the community ownership of the Salmar more obvious to the many new residents of the Salmon Arm area.

By 1992 it became apparent that the operations of the Association needed to be expanded both to service the entertainment needs of a rapidly growing community and to ensure that the operations of the Association would remain commercially viable. After considerable discussion it was determined that the Association would build a new theatre complex.

Many issues, including the location and design of the new complex were considered and dealt with over the next several years. A suitable site was located on a portion of an undeveloped public parking lot on Hudson Avenue. It was then determined that a multiplex facility would be built, with four separate movie screens sharing a common projection room, lobby and other facilities. Financing was secured and construction commenced in October of 1996. The new complex was officially opened to the public as Salmar Grand Cinemas May 16, 1997.

The theatre capacity created by Salmar Grand Cinemas allows the Association to offer a wide variety of movies, often on the same date they are released in larger centres. The Association continues to operate the Salmar Theatre as a movie theatre and as a venue for live performances.

Salmar Community Association continues, in accordance with the vision of its founding members, to operate its community owned facilities for the benefit of the residents of Salmon Arm and Shuswap.

Salmon Arm 4-H Club
MS 71 · Corporate body · 1961-1991

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