Editor:
This is the second part of my letter form last week.
In the mean time a lot of the equipment being used was donated and wouldn’t happen today BC Hydro truck operated by hydro employees such as John Gelz and all of the other employees all after hours and at night no scaffolding are safety belts – we had a couple of dare devils, I forget who they all were but one I remember really well was Ron Ruff. He was at the top of the beam to bolt the two beams together what a challenge and in the dark most of the time.
The beams were ready for the 2×10 and the roof after this things went a lot easier for the Kinsmen club. The beams were arriving and we still didn’t have the money to pay for them so the president of the club as all of the club were being taken to court to pay for there laminated beams so besides working at the arena we had to try and raise money to pay for these beams. We finally got the village to help pay for there beams with a promissory note that the Kinsmen pay the village back – we did get the money and did pay the village back this was all being done during the winter George Hamp and his crew worked on this project being paid a small amount during the day and volunteering at night.
I don’t know how all of these people were able to work so hard and such long day this went on all winter and come spring the plywood was on the walls and had to be painted again hydro bucket truck was used to paint the building all summer again evening work all with local help or Kinsmen.
I can pretty well guarantee there was always a kinsmen on site so this is the reason I think this new addition should be called the Kin Centre or something to commemorate the Kinsmen of Burns Lake.
Most residents don’t know the history of the Burns Lake Kinsmen club one of the founding members of the Kinsmen club of Canada from Hamilton Ontario was also the founding member of the Burns Lake Kinsmen club and lived in Burns Lake his name is Trevor Thompson. He and Hal Rogers started the Kinsmen club in Hamilton, Ont. Did you know that the Burns Lake Kinsmen club also built the library from the ground up all again the Kinsmen spearheaded the building of the library I could go on and on with the history of the Burns Lake Kinsmen club that’s why I feel the new addition to the civic centre should be called the Kin Memorial Centre I don’t think you could go wrong.
Hope all the residents of the area have a chance to name the new addition and you choose smoothing along the line to commemorate the work that the Burns Lake Kinsmen club has done for the community thank you for taking the time to read this and make your wishes be known to the Village of Burns Lake.
Paul H. Jean
