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In Sadie Newall's account, below, it is revealed that the TLBC was established and registered in 1988,
following the determined efforts of a small
group of Tsawwassenites.
Bowling did not startstarted untilin the spring of 1989, however.which means Forthe thisseason of 2008-9 was actually the reason,20th. However, the Club Board of Directors decided
to recognize and celebrate the 2009oficical bowling20th seasonAnniversay asat ourthe start of the
20thnew season Anniversaryin Year2009
20thnew season Anniversaryin Year2009
********************************************************
Tsawwassen Lawn Bowling Club
The early history beginning July 21, 1988 to Opening Day in May 1989
***
by Sadie Newall
..................................
In the beginning, some of the land donated to the Corporation of Delta by Chris Winskill in what is now Winskill Park was designated to be used by seniors. The Kinsmen Club of Ladner/Tsawwassen took on the task of developing the property as a senior’s complex. For a payment of one dollar Delta turned the land [three acres] over to the Kinsmen for the construction of a Recreation Center and the Care Home facility which opened in June 1980. Kin Court South, an 85 unit apartment building for seniors was completed in February 1982.
............
The Kinsmen then approached Delta a second time with a proposal to purchase, on the same terms, additional land in Winskill Park for the construction of the Kin Court North Apartments. The Corporation agreed, with the proviso however that a recreational facility, open to the public, be provided as part of the complex. Accordingly, a Public Hearing was held on February 24, 1987 to propose the rezoning of the property from a Multiple Family Residential Zone to a Comprehensive Development Zone facilitating the development of another three story 88 unit senior citizens residence (Kin Court North) and a bowling green accessible to the public. After passing third reading, By-law Number 4118 to amend the Delta Zoning By-law Number 2750 was finally adopted on March 23, 1987. Schedule 128 – 2, a plan drawing of the property, showing the proposed bowling green was attached to form part of the By-law.
.....
The Kin Court North Apartments officially opened on July 30, 1988. Kin Court South, Kin Court North and Margaret Vidal Court (completed in March 1993) are all subsidized by the B.C. Housing Commission.
.....
On June 5, 1988, Kinsmen Recreation Association Director Nan Alexander invited persons interested in lawn bowling to a meeting at the Recreation Center. The Mascone Bros. had finished construction of the
new bowling green, including a shed housing the sprinkler system booster pump and controls, all enclosed within a chain link fence.
.....
A small group, including several members of the Ladner club living in Tsawwassen, showed up at the meeting. Nan told us that they were looking for people willing to organize and operate a bowling club on their property.
.....
Later, during a brief tour of the facilities, we pointed out to them that there had been no provision made for a clubroom. The Kinsmen then proposed to turn over the Lounge in Kin Court North for this purpose. This was accepted by Delta Parks and Recreation providing the Kinsmen Recreation Centre would be made available to us for bowling functions when large numbers of people were involved. The room was essentially empty except for a small refrigerator donated by the Kinsmen. It had two washrooms and was accessible from the hallway in the main building through a doorway in the north wall and through double sliding glass doors on the south side to the outside.
........
We knew from the outset that, because of its size, about 400 square feet, The Lounge as a clubroom would be totally inadequate within a very short time. According to the National Building Code the maximum occupancy a meeting room of this size is 39. Also the number of washrooms did not meet the Code. We should never forget however that these facilities provided by the Kinsmen were a real windfall for us. It would have taken us years* if ever, first to find an acceptable location in Tsawwassen, and raise the funds to acquire the land and build a new green and club house.
.....
On July 21, 1988 at our second meeting at the Recreation Center, we elected the first temporary officers and directors of the Tsawwassen Lawn Bowling Club. This year therefore marks our 20th anniversary. The officers were as follows: Lloyd Shea, President; David Francis, Vice President, Nan Alexander, Secretary and Harry Newall, Treasurer. Lloyd was a Past President of the Ladner club and was a natural for the job. Both David and Harry were bowling that year in Ladner and Harry had one prior year in Richmond. The four Directors were Marian Clark, Millie Griffiths, Joan Oakley and Ernie Crone. All except Millie had had previous bowling experience at the Ladner club. 17 members joined the club in 1988. Nan gave us a copy of the Kinsmen’s proposed lease agreement for our review and after some negotiation we signed our first 5 year lease at one dollar per year.
.....
We had understood that the Kinsmen would maintain the newly planted green until the spring of the following year when it was expected that it would be ready for bowling, however one week later Margaret Vidal, the Administrator of the Kinsmen Recreation Centre Association advised us that neither the Kinsmen nor Delta had the required funds to do this. At this point, neither did we. However on September 7, 1988, Lloyd, Dave and Harry met with the Kinsmen Board and reached an agreement on work to be completed on the green. We submitted our constitution and bylaws and on September 9,1988 we were incorporated under the Society Act as a charitable organization. One of the benefits claimed was that the perception of an organization’s enhanced stability may increase the chances of getting government grants. We fervently hoped this was so.
...
Obviously our first order of business was fund-raising and Lloyd immediately started the ball rolling by initiating a founding member drive. A founding membership cost $10.00 and by August we had signed up 109 of the 200 members who eventually contributed. In all we raised over $2000, most of it by Lloyd himself. You will find the names of all those members and more in our club room. Dave applied for and we received grants from a Federal Government program called New Horizons [$10,000], and the Seniors Lottery, [$7500). In August we opened a bank account at the Delta Credit Union. Our fee for that first year of operation was $50 for Active and $20 for Associate Members. Our primary task for the green was twofold, to care of the newly seeded grass through the winter and to purchase the necessary equipment and supplies to maintain it in future.
...
The Ladner club were kind enough to let us borrow a mower-a gas driven relic with which we somehow managed to keep in reasonable shape until we raised sufficient funds to purchase a $6000 electric Scott-Bonner mower from Australia. The Corporation of Delta gave us our first supplies of fertilizer. We purchased other equipment such as a verticutter, fertilizer spreader, etc. ourselves. Harry and I laid out the rinks and we purchased the rink and boundary markers from a machine shop in Ladner. Don Needes fabricated 16 rakes from PVC pipe. Ernie Crone purchased five new sets of bowls, 16 mats, eight jacks and a trailer for $250 to remove our grass clippings. Alex Fish built 8 scoreboards. Harry built 16 benches and Pat Francis and I painted them in our garage. The green survived that first winter reasonably well although we did have some patches of mold which Harry reseeded in the spring. We spent a lot of time learning on the job during those early years. Fortunately Lloyd obtained a copy of Dr. Edgar Haley’s manual on the construction and maintenance of a bowling green which helped a lot. **
.....
Much needed to be done to convert the Lounge into to a respectable clubroom. Dave and Vince Clarke installed a sink and some kitchen cabinets and we hired a plumber to connect the new supplies to the piping in the men’s washroom. In addition, Dave and Alex Fish built the first 40 lockers and placed them in the clubroom. These were later moved to the new storage shed we purchased. Marian Clark got us a bargain when she purchased 50 chairs from the Richmond club for a dollar each. In addition to the chairs we had to purchase tables and the typical utensils required in a kitchen
......
Our first Annual General Meeting was held on April 21, 1989. By then we had $11,698.07 in the bank and 26 members to begin this first year of bowling. Dave pointed out that three quarters of them had never bowled before. At our request, Ed Saunders from Richmond and Nancy Bednard from Kerrisdale volunteered to help with the coaching (Nancy coached our bowlers for two more years). Dave however soon qualified as our first coach (and later qualified again as our first umpire). Harry made a tag board and we set up the bowler ranking and draw procedures. Harry acted as Games Chairman. Understandably, we had no scheduled Calendar of Events but by the close of the season Harry had arranged a few competitions.
............
The Kinsmen then approached Delta a second time with a proposal to purchase, on the same terms, additional land in Winskill Park for the construction of the Kin Court North Apartments. The Corporation agreed, with the proviso however that a recreational facility, open to the public, be provided as part of the complex. Accordingly, a Public Hearing was held on February 24, 1987 to propose the rezoning of the property from a Multiple Family Residential Zone to a Comprehensive Development Zone facilitating the development of another three story 88 unit senior citizens residence (Kin Court North) and a bowling green accessible to the public. After passing third reading, By-law Number 4118 to amend the Delta Zoning By-law Number 2750 was finally adopted on March 23, 1987. Schedule 128 – 2, a plan drawing of the property, showing the proposed bowling green was attached to form part of the By-law.
.....
The Kin Court North Apartments officially opened on July 30, 1988. Kin Court South, Kin Court North and Margaret Vidal Court (completed in March 1993) are all subsidized by the B.C. Housing Commission.
.....
On June 5, 1988, Kinsmen Recreation Association Director Nan Alexander invited persons interested in lawn bowling to a meeting at the Recreation Center. The Mascone Bros. had finished construction of the
new bowling green, including a shed housing the sprinkler system booster pump and controls, all enclosed within a chain link fence.
.....
A small group, including several members of the Ladner club living in Tsawwassen, showed up at the meeting. Nan told us that they were looking for people willing to organize and operate a bowling club on their property.
.....
Later, during a brief tour of the facilities, we pointed out to them that there had been no provision made for a clubroom. The Kinsmen then proposed to turn over the Lounge in Kin Court North for this purpose. This was accepted by Delta Parks and Recreation providing the Kinsmen Recreation Centre would be made available to us for bowling functions when large numbers of people were involved. The room was essentially empty except for a small refrigerator donated by the Kinsmen. It had two washrooms and was accessible from the hallway in the main building through a doorway in the north wall and through double sliding glass doors on the south side to the outside.
........
We knew from the outset that, because of its size, about 400 square feet, The Lounge as a clubroom would be totally inadequate within a very short time. According to the National Building Code the maximum occupancy a meeting room of this size is 39. Also the number of washrooms did not meet the Code. We should never forget however that these facilities provided by the Kinsmen were a real windfall for us. It would have taken us years* if ever, first to find an acceptable location in Tsawwassen, and raise the funds to acquire the land and build a new green and club house.
.....
On July 21, 1988 at our second meeting at the Recreation Center, we elected the first temporary officers and directors of the Tsawwassen Lawn Bowling Club. This year therefore marks our 20th anniversary. The officers were as follows: Lloyd Shea, President; David Francis, Vice President, Nan Alexander, Secretary and Harry Newall, Treasurer. Lloyd was a Past President of the Ladner club and was a natural for the job. Both David and Harry were bowling that year in Ladner and Harry had one prior year in Richmond. The four Directors were Marian Clark, Millie Griffiths, Joan Oakley and Ernie Crone. All except Millie had had previous bowling experience at the Ladner club. 17 members joined the club in 1988. Nan gave us a copy of the Kinsmen’s proposed lease agreement for our review and after some negotiation we signed our first 5 year lease at one dollar per year.
.....
We had understood that the Kinsmen would maintain the newly planted green until the spring of the following year when it was expected that it would be ready for bowling, however one week later Margaret Vidal, the Administrator of the Kinsmen Recreation Centre Association advised us that neither the Kinsmen nor Delta had the required funds to do this. At this point, neither did we. However on September 7, 1988, Lloyd, Dave and Harry met with the Kinsmen Board and reached an agreement on work to be completed on the green. We submitted our constitution and bylaws and on September 9,1988 we were incorporated under the Society Act as a charitable organization. One of the benefits claimed was that the perception of an organization’s enhanced stability may increase the chances of getting government grants. We fervently hoped this was so.
...
Obviously our first order of business was fund-raising and Lloyd immediately started the ball rolling by initiating a founding member drive. A founding membership cost $10.00 and by August we had signed up 109 of the 200 members who eventually contributed. In all we raised over $2000, most of it by Lloyd himself. You will find the names of all those members and more in our club room. Dave applied for and we received grants from a Federal Government program called New Horizons [$10,000], and the Seniors Lottery, [$7500). In August we opened a bank account at the Delta Credit Union. Our fee for that first year of operation was $50 for Active and $20 for Associate Members. Our primary task for the green was twofold, to care of the newly seeded grass through the winter and to purchase the necessary equipment and supplies to maintain it in future.
...
The Ladner club were kind enough to let us borrow a mower-a gas driven relic with which we somehow managed to keep in reasonable shape until we raised sufficient funds to purchase a $6000 electric Scott-Bonner mower from Australia. The Corporation of Delta gave us our first supplies of fertilizer. We purchased other equipment such as a verticutter, fertilizer spreader, etc. ourselves. Harry and I laid out the rinks and we purchased the rink and boundary markers from a machine shop in Ladner. Don Needes fabricated 16 rakes from PVC pipe. Ernie Crone purchased five new sets of bowls, 16 mats, eight jacks and a trailer for $250 to remove our grass clippings. Alex Fish built 8 scoreboards. Harry built 16 benches and Pat Francis and I painted them in our garage. The green survived that first winter reasonably well although we did have some patches of mold which Harry reseeded in the spring. We spent a lot of time learning on the job during those early years. Fortunately Lloyd obtained a copy of Dr. Edgar Haley’s manual on the construction and maintenance of a bowling green which helped a lot. **
.....
Much needed to be done to convert the Lounge into to a respectable clubroom. Dave and Vince Clarke installed a sink and some kitchen cabinets and we hired a plumber to connect the new supplies to the piping in the men’s washroom. In addition, Dave and Alex Fish built the first 40 lockers and placed them in the clubroom. These were later moved to the new storage shed we purchased. Marian Clark got us a bargain when she purchased 50 chairs from the Richmond club for a dollar each. In addition to the chairs we had to purchase tables and the typical utensils required in a kitchen
......
Our first Annual General Meeting was held on April 21, 1989. By then we had $11,698.07 in the bank and 26 members to begin this first year of bowling. Dave pointed out that three quarters of them had never bowled before. At our request, Ed Saunders from Richmond and Nancy Bednard from Kerrisdale volunteered to help with the coaching (Nancy coached our bowlers for two more years). Dave however soon qualified as our first coach (and later qualified again as our first umpire). Harry made a tag board and we set up the bowler ranking and draw procedures. Harry acted as Games Chairman. Understandably, we had no scheduled Calendar of Events but by the close of the season Harry had arranged a few competitions.
.....
May 13, 1989 was our Opening Day. Invitations had been sent out to our M.P. Dr. Wilbee, Mayor Tom Goode, MLA John Savage, the Kinsmen Board members, and representatives from the Seniors Lottery, New Horizons, and the B.C.L.B.A. and the presidents of various other bowling clubs. President Shea welcomed members and invited guests. The guests were introduced and after the ribbon cutting ceremony John Savage delivered the first bowl of the season. An exhibition match followed skipped by two of our visiting presidents. The great refreshments that our club always provides on these occasions rounded out our first Opening Day.
.....
Not a bad year’s work for those 19 volunteers*** who joined the club as members in 1988. But we didn’t rest on our oars - this was only the beginning. We’re confident that new bowlers will appreciate all the subsequent additions, changes and improvements that have been made with help from many willing volunteers over the past 19 years and do likewise.
....... Sadie Newall, 08/08/08............................................................................................
.......
*Actually, it took five years of negotiation, initiated by Dave and carried on by Harry, with Delta Parks and Recreation and the Kinsmen to acquire the appropriate clubroom space. Three free-standing clubroom proposals were made, two on park property and one on Kinsmen property. All three were rejected for various reasons. Our fourth proposal, the clubroom addition we all now enjoy, was finally approved by the Kinsmen on March 4, 1993. Two years later, on Opening Day 1995, 140 members and their guests celebrated the completion of the 900 square foot addition. (An album in one of our file cabinets is available to any member interested in a photographic record of the construction.)
........
**I can’t leave the subject without mentioning Jock Davidson who, with Yvonne, joined the club in 1991. Jock and his team have made a tremendous contribution over the years in keeping our green in fantastic shape and the envy of many others).
.....
***The nineteen 1988 volunteers:
Ernie Crone, Vince and Marian Clark,
Stan Cushing, Alex and Lorna Davidson,
Doug Dougans, Dave and Pat Francis,
Fred and Betty Gingell,
Bill McComb, Harry and Sadie Newall,
Joan Phillips (now Oatley), Roy Roluffs,
Bob and Lee Simpson, and Al Wakarchuk.
*************************************************
