Charlotte Fundy Kin Club

Upcoming Events

Who Are We?

In 1976/1977 The St George and Area Kinsmen was sponsored by the Saint John Kinsmen Club. The Charter Club President was Bruce Jackson.  Meetings were first held at Ruby Thorne’s Restaurant on the first floor. The room was rented from her and the Kinsmen sponsored AA Meetings from that same room.  Eventually they moved and rented the apartment above Al’s Red Lantern at Pennfield Corner. They went on to rent a basement room from what was known as MacKay’s Restaurant until roughly 1983.  The Kinettes were formed around 1978/79 and disbanded approximately in 1982. In 1982/83 the St George and Area Kinsmen leased the former Ranger Station on the Old #1 Highway to Lake Utopia. At this time the Charlotte Fundy Kinsmen Club was founded. The Charter President was Morris Harris.  A few years later the building was purchase for $1.00 by the Club. During those years many events and project had taken place. In 1989 The Tide Calendar Project was founded and chaired by Rodney Rideout. This project is still a large part of our fund raising done today. The first renovations were done in 1985/86 with Morris Harris and Jeff Irwin chairing the project.  Chaired by Morris Harris and Co-Chaired by Sterling Harris the Christmas Project was born. At that time one family from the area was taken care of.  The Charlotte Fundy Kinsmen held their first Spring Zone titled “Come to the Sea in 93”.  1995 became quite a year. The Kin Club approached Fundy Cable about a community channel. Morris Harris Chaired this project and Paul Hawkins was Co-Chair with the aid of Chris Thompson and Bryce McLaughlin. Realizing that this project would be far to big the Lions Club came on board. The Rotary Club also assisted for a two-year term. In 1996 the club was recharted as a Kin Club the second Kin club in the association. In 1997 TV Bingo was introduced on the channel. The two clubs then went in together to purchase and set up a place to house the bingo equipment. This investment landed them an $18,000.00 room. The Charlotte Fundy Kin Club own the bingo machine and board. The TV Bingo room is leased to the two clubs Bingo Team from the Lions Club. This proved to be a very successful ongoing project.  The Club had its second renovation done in 1996 where the upper level was added.  The Charlotte Fundy Kin Club have aided in many National Projects as well. In 1997 Morris Harris went to Manitoba to work for “ Kin ride to Low Tide” after the Red River flood.  In 1998 funds were received from the National Disaster Fund for the replacement of trees in St George and Black’s Harbour due to the Ice Storm that devastated many areas.  

2006 - It was an exciting year. Charlotte Fundy Kin Club hosted National Convention, "Jig East 2006". Held in Saint John at the Convention Centre, it proved how strong the Club really was. Chaired by Wayne MacQuarrie and Natalie Harris, they managed to keep the Committee Members in line and on target, and have a very successful convention. 

2007 - After much discussion by the membership about the decrease in funds from projects due to the downturn in the local economy and much of the population moving to other areas seeking work, a tough decision was made. The membership decided to place our center for sale with a local real estate company. The members felt that it was more important to continue our service work and give the dollars back to the community and not have the overhead of all the costs associated with owing a building. The Kinsmen members of the Club hosted the Zone 6 Kinsmen’s Spring Zone, “ You Kin drop anchor in Saint John”. Chaired by Kin Morris Harris and Kin Wayne MacQuarrie.

2008 - Kin Karin Avery only served half of the Kin year as President and had to step down due to personal reasons. Past President Morris Harris and Vice President Larry Cook chaired the meetings for the last half of the year.  The Kinettes of the Club hosted the Kinette Spring Zone A, “Kin Vegas” in Saint John in April. Chaired by Life Member Natalie Harris.

2009 - We held a new project in October bringing the “Harlem Rockets” to the area for a comedy Basketball game.  Due to the market downturn our building is still listed for sale on the real estate market.

2010 - We had a Hal Rogers Endowment Fund bursary winner this year. Brent Harris, son of LM Natalie Harris & LM Morris Harris. Brent is attending Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B.  - In December we had a flood that covered much of the Charlotte County Area. The Bonny River area saw 21 families left without homes. Our Club donated $1000 to the Eastern Charlotte Flood Relief and the Kin Canada National Disaster Fund donated $10,000. to the fund as well.