CHATSWORTH COUNTRY CLUB HISTORY
Thirteen ladies met on July 16, 1947 at Myrtle Thompson's, with the idea
of starting a ladies club. At that time Helen Cameron was nominated as
President. At the next meeting roll call was to be answered with a suitable
name for the club. The suggested names were
- the Country Club
- the Chitter Chatter Club
the Happy Gang
- the Social Hour
-the Willing Workers
the Friendly Farmers
as quoted in the August 21, 1947 minutes "By a majority vote The Country
Club was chosen for our name and it was agreed we should be called the
Chatsworth Country Club or CCC". The story goes that Mrs. Burns had said
to her husband "I'm supposed to have a name for our club, What shall I
say?" he said, "Oh, call it the Country Club".
Starting with the frrst meeting, a yearly membership was established &
the nickel draw was started. The meetings were to be held in member's
homes by alphabetical order, with the meetings held the third Thursday of
the month. Lunch was served and a contest was played. Now ladies, does
any of these sound familiar? Why change something that is working well!
At the first meeting there were 13 women and 12 children. Perhaps that
is why they chose to have a lunch committee of 4. Two to bring sandwiches
and two to bring cakes. May 1949 at the home of Mrs. Morton Tovell the
record attendance was 27 adults and 19 children. I hope it had been a warm
day so atleast the children could play outside. In 1973 the hostess started
providing the lunch.
The yearly membership of$.25 lasted until1975 when it was raised to
$.50. In 1980 this membership became $1.00, in 1983 it was changed to
$2.00 and in 1997 it was raised to $5.00, which is our present membership.
The nickel draw was instituted at the first meeting. In those early years
the name drawn brought the prize for the next meeting. Today the hostess
provides the prize. The nickel draw became the dime draw in 1976 and the
quarter draw in 1985.
At the frrst December meeting there was a gift exchange and that practice
has carried on through the years. In 1999 our Secret Pal was started.
on different
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from our Secret
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Pal. At Christmas we find out who our Secret Pal is & then we chose
another Pal for the coming year.
In 1949 the club appointed a 'Sick Committee' oftwo to send cards, gifts
and flowers and to visit members of the club and the community who were
sick or bereaved. In the _early 1950's hospital visiting had to be stopped
because of the polio outbreak. We now have a 'Sunshine Committee' of
one. Birthday cards to members and sympathy cards to the community seem
to be the norm in recent years. For a few years we went to the birthday girls
home for cake on her birthday, in more recent years we celebrate members
birthday's at our regular meeting.
At the September 1957 meeting a discussion arose about how to insure
the meetings started on time. A motion followed "That a penalty of$.05 be
imposed upon any member who is ~ hour or more late."
After the children started being bussed to school in town the club
sponsored Christmas concerts in Chatsworth School from 1953 to 1959.
One year there was 77 children on the candy bag list. When the school was
sold, we continued to have Christmas parties in our homes, but these just for
our members and families.
In the 1950' s the club gathered old woolens and sent them to Fairfield's
or Adanac to be made into blankets. Ten shipments were sent. The
companies sent us one or two premium blankets with each shipment and
these were raffled off to help with club funds.
For a number of years members brought non-perishable food items to
each meeting. A name was drawn each meeting. The winner of the
overseas parcel draw then took the items home and sent the parcel to
someone over in Europe. The club decided to help pay for the postage on
these parcels. In April 1950 the motion read "That each member when her
birthday comes, pays 1 penny for each year of age, to help out with the
postage"
The club started early on with community efforts, becoming involved in
1948 with other local women's groups in trying to get the town to provide
decent restrooms. Letters were still being written on this subject in 1957.
Over the years the club has been very active in the concerns of the country.
In 195 7 a letter was sent to the AMA requesting that they recommend a

more rigid enforcement of the speed laws on our province's highways. In
1964 the club wrote the CAC (Canadian Association of Consumers)
suggesting large warning signs be put on chlorine bleach containers. In
1979 a letter was written to the MLA and Premier regarding raising the
drinking age. In 1980 we were each to send in a form saying we wanted
prices left on the cans and boxes in the grocery stores (I guess we weren't
too successful). Also in 1980 our club decided to boycott Nestles' products.
Nestle was giving free samples of baby milk to mothers in foreign countries,
thus discouraging the mothers to nurse their own babies in lieu of using
polluted drinking water to dilute their milk products. Another letter was sent
to both the Co-op & IGA protesting the sale of Sarasoda in their stores.
We have donated to the Cancer Society, Red Cross, Polio, Arthritic
Society, CNIB, Heart Fund and many others. We started looking after the
Multiple Sclerosis Tag Day in 1975 and continued until1980. We began
cancer canvassing in our area in 1977 and continued until 1996. We also
began sponsoring a child through the Canadian Save the Children Fund in
1977 and we continued with this program until April 1986. At this time we
chose to bring food each month for our local food bank. On a couple of
occasions we have sent items to the Interval Home in Lloydminster.
In 1960 we received a Chatelaine Award in recognition of our
community efforts and in 1984 we received a Multiple Sclerosis Award.
In order to finance our many activities, we have had bazaars, bake sales,
teas, bingo's, garden vegetable sales, and we have catered to farm sales,
weddings, funerals, anniversaries and also to St. Jeromes Graduation. I was
surprised to remember that for atleast a couple of years we worked some
shifts at the concession at the stadium in the winter. The Chatsworth
Country Club is well known for their fair entries, and this has been a good
source of income for our club. Reading over the minutes from different
years, the lack of funds in the bank had been a concern on more than one
occasion. At times instead of fund raising, members contributed money.
Over the past 55 years we have had many guest speakers, speaking on
many different topics. We have always enjoyed the variety of topics and at
times have become well informed on health issues, sewing techniques,
gardening tips and flower arranging and have also been enlightened on other
countries by exchange students and with our own members travels.

We have kept our fingers nimble and our hearts in the giving way. We
made Easter cards and gave them to the Valley Lodge residents; we made
lap robes and donated them to the residents of the Nursing Home. We made
a Sun Bonnet Sue quilt and gave it to the residents of the Lenore Clarke
school. We dressed dolls and donated them to Santa's Anonymous.
For many years the Ronald McDonald House has been the recipient of mitts
and slippers. The flowerbeds at the north entrance to Vermilion have been
blooming thanks to the Chatsworth Country Club in conjunction with
Communities in Bloom.
In recent years we have enjoyed going on our yearly greenhouse tour in
May and then in August touring our members gardens. Some years the
weather made our gardens look better than other years.
Since 1955 we have had a picnic each year for the community. In 1957 it
was a special10-year anniversary picnic at the park. July 1971 we held a
25th anniversary picnic. In 1980 we had a reunion picnic celebrating
Alberta's 75th birthday with an attendance of245. July 3rd & 4th 1987 found
us again celebrating. This time our 40th anniversary supper at the Brunswick
Hotel and picnic the next day at Tovell's for all past & present residents and
their families of the school districts of Bird Hill, Chatsworth, Indian Lake
and Ottawa. July 1997 again found us celebrating. 50 Years! WOW A
banquet at the Lakeland Restaurant with present & past members and
spouses in attendance. A picnic was again held the next day. To
commemorate our 50th anniversary, a cookbook of our member's favorite
recipes was made. Now we are celebrating our 55th anniversary and we are
still going strong. There was a time in 1973 when the ladies wondered if
they should continue as a club, as there were not many members.
Our membership this year totals 17 with three of these being charter
members. Mavis Tovell, Gladys Tovell and Anne Farkash,
In summing up, what has been written after the meetings were adjourned
says it all, the secretary would write something like
"A delicious lunch was served and our visiting continued on for some time".
Perhaps the reason the club has continued for so long is that we enjoy each
other's company.
Presented at the 55th anniversary on June 8th by Beryl Tovell at Jean & Dean
Jacula's residence.