Cheryl Thomas
Special to the surgeryitaly
The Friendly Club was formed in May of 1967, when Inez Collison and Sally Sallows invited everyone in the area that they thought was 60 or more to a gathering in The United Church. The 25 charter members had an enjoyable afternoon and soon it was decided that they would meet every Wednesday. The weeks’ activities would have music and singing one week, games the next, slides and movies the third week and short trips to local parks or gardens during the fourth week. In 1975 the Friendly Club joined the Old Age Pensioners Organization (OAPO) and the group took on projects like pushing for improved pensions, pharma care and dental assistance plus other benefits needed by the elderly.
READ MORE… https://www.clearwatertimes.com/community/how-the-friendly-club-came-to-be-5723390
By 1983 the group had grown to 65 people, and the lounge area of Evergreen Acres was too small, so they began meeting at the Elks Hall and were a major part of the planning and building of the Seniors Centre that is attached to the Evergreen Seniors original building.
The Friendly Club used ‘our hall’ until, like so many clubs, Covid ‘took us out.’ Oh my gosh we had so much fun when I first joined, we had everything from the students coming in to do ‘improv’ humour to dress up parties. There were craft days, educational days and it was so great to meet with everyone (I got to attend back then because the age was ‘lowered’ to 50).
We bought the indoor bowling equipment and that was such a hoot as we weren’t there to be good at carpet bowling, we were there to have fun. Sadly, some bossy folks sort of put a stop to that. The bowlers decided they wanted to have a bunch of the funds and all the equipment and formed their own group.
The Friendly Club decided that if people really needed to have their own way, we were after all, the Friendly Club, so let them use the equipment. I think this must be what is now used by the Wells Gray Seniors.
As so much was forgotten by the administration and then the bowlers, I reckon we got a little sad but managed to continue to meet and have pot lucks every month and followed this with music by groups like the Silver Tones and enjoyed the antics of Share’s service dog (Molly is a great dancing dog) and this entertained everyone. Then, suddenly we were not allowed to have the service dog, another blow to the club in recent years followed being locked out by Covid.
Since then, we met, and more than 50 percent voted that we needed to close our group as many seniors were now members of the Wells Grey Seniors which meant so much less work for the volunteers as the room is supplied by the district and they have funds to hire a coordinator now.
Over the last few months, most of the membership decided we might as well close out our bank account and disband the original group.
We are pleased to let the public know that we transferred $3,685.86 to the North Thompson Communities Foundation this fall. We are sad that after 56 years, the Friendly Club’s days are over. We wish everyone lots of love and camaraderie and just think - you may recognize us old members by our actions, after all, after 50 years being friendly it is simply a habit now.
Submitted by Cheryl Thomas, past treasurer of the Friendly Club
