Garth Beddome of P.A. Kawanis hands the club's remaining funds to Jim McKnight, president of the P.A. and Area Community Foundation. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Passing the torch

P.A. Kiwanis shutting down after almost 100 years

Aug 21, 2019 | 2:27 PM

After nearly 100 years in the community, P.A.’s Kiwanis Club is winding down its activities and transferring its remaining funds to the P.A. and Area Community Foundation. Lack of volunteers has made it difficult for the club to continue its work.

Garth Beddome, Kiwanis treasurer, made the announcement on Wednesday at city hall and presented the foundation’s president Jim McKnight with a $20,000 cheque.

Another $8,000 is expected later.

“We wanted to have the funds we have remaining to live on in the city of Prince Albert,” Beddome said. “The funds were raised here and we felt they needed to be invested and spent here.”

The foundation will invest the money and has pledged to support the club’s cornerstone project, the Prince Albert Kiwanis Music Festival with a $2,500 annual donation as long as the event continues running. If it ceases, the money would be given to other projects in support of children in the community.

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“I think the foundation is an excellent organization to make use of the funds,” P.A. Kiwanis’s longest running member, Frank Moore said.

Moore joined the club as a young architect in 1957, and has been a member ever since, holding a variety of roles within the organization including president.

“I’ve been around,” he joked.

Moore’s decades of service with Kiwanis have seen him travel internationally to represent the club at conferences and contribute to many initiatives.

“I can recall a time when we were over 100 members, but now I think we’re down to eight members so it’s difficult to take on projects,” he said.

While Moore doesn’t plan to be personally involved with the foundation, he said he’s confident they will carry on the club’s legacy in P.A.

“I don’t know if I’m going to make the 62 years that Frank made with his organization,” Bryan Rindal, the foundation’s treasurer and one of its founding members said. “But this is exactly one of the reasons that the foundation exists, so that we can take the money and keep that money working in perpetuity to keep the music festival alive in our city.”

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom