Groups and Organizations Formed Strong Social Fabric

The thread ‘News Article From 1954’ gives the names of a vast aray of social groups and organizations that were on the beach. These must have created a strong sence of community involvement and social responcibility.
Where the articles reported activities such as euchre parties that were held in private homes, not only were the names of the hostesses given, but also those of the peaple who won the various prizes. As well, the names of the leaders of the cub, brownies, guides, and sea scoutes are given, as well as those of church group leaders.This would seem to indicate that everybody on the beach knew the names of all of the residents.
I have coppied some of the names of the clubs and organizations here.

If anyone has memories of their participation in any of these organizations, please post them.

the Bell Cairn Memorial Home and School Association
the Beach War Veterans' Association
the Beach Yacht Club
The Burlington Beach Property Owners Association
The Good Neighbours Club
The Guide and Brownie Mothers Auxiliary
the Scout Mothers Auxiliary
the 25th Wolf Cub Pack and Sea Scout Group
the Women's Auxiliary of St. Andrew's-by-the-Lake Anglican Church

Community Groups Promote a Sence of Social Responcibility
” The emergency phone number stickers will be delivered by the 25th Sea Scout Troop”

I presume that this refers to the phone number of the beach residence who had the fire siren on his house and whose responcibility it was for activating it when a beach resident called to report a fire. And so it would seem that the beach Sea Scoute Troop was responsible for delivering these stickers to all the beach residents.

http://hamiltonbeachcommunity.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-2230.html

and from the thread ‘News Articles From 1956,
http://hamiltonbeachcommunity.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-1977.html

The Beach Drama Club
the Bell Cairn Boys Softball Team
the Girls' Auxiliary of St. Andrews'-by-the-Lake Anglican Church
the annual bridge and euchre social at the St. Andrews By-the-Lake Church parish hall
The Ladies' Auxiliary to the Beach Volunteer Fire Department

And This thread indicates that there was a Canadian Legion on the beach.
http://hamiltonbeachcommunity.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-408.html
did the legion have a building on the beach? Where was it located?

and this page refers to the Hamilton Beach Gardin Club.
http://hamiltonbeachcommunity.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-433.html

And This thread highlights how the beach community was strengthened by the events and organizations that were spearheaded by Bob Jaggard.

"Bob's first big campaign with the committee was against a 1980 proposal put forward by the City of Hamilton to make the Hamilton Beach Strip a "Green Belt". The city began a property acquisition program. Bob started to fight them. We got a petition together of the people who didn't want to sell. Bob was always going to City Hall. Every week there was a meeting to go to.
The idea of community was important to Bob. That was the most important thing to him. He just loved living down here. He wanted to see the community stick together.
The committee decided to hire a private consulting firm to draw up plans for the Beach as a revitalized residential and commercial community. We used to have everything down here. You name it, we had it Dynes Hotel, an amusement park, a bowling alley, a butcher, a grocery store. This plan envisioned bringing it all back again. We presented it to the city. At first they agreed to it, but then they changed their mind. But we kept pushing and eventually the city changed their mind.
After this Bob worked through the committee to do what he could to help promote neighbourhood togetherness. He started a paper recycling drive to raise money for the committee. Every third Saturday of the month Bob would bring his Ford Bronco over here with a trailer on the back and we'd go up and down the streets. The people would leave old newspapers outside the door and we'd pick it up and take it uptown to a recycling plant on Ferguson Avenue. We got to know everybody up and down the Beach, because everybody put their paper out.
We did a lot of things to help raise money; we had dances, Halloween parties. Bob was there for all of it. We also started the Annual Beach Community Garage Sale. One year we put up flyers saying that on every second Sunday in July there was going to be a garage sale. When we had it, Bob would go from one booth to another collecting donations that would go to the committee. It was great. I think at the first one we had over 20,000 people come down. You couldn't drive down Beach Boulevard, you had to walk.
A little later the city approached us and said they wanted to build a new playground. They said if the community would put in $5500, they would contribute $11,000. We collected so much money from these various events that we gave the city over $7000. Without this the park wouldn't have been built or have all the swings and new equipment in it. We worked hard for that.
Bob also started a Clean-Up Day down here. Once a year he would hand garbage bags out to a group of volunteers and they would go down to the beach or up and down the street and pick up garbage.
I think Bob brought this community a sense of togetherness. I think there was a strong sense of community as long as Bob was alive. If you had a complaint or something all you had to do was call him. He had a saying: "N-O P-R-O-B-L-E-M." It didn't matter what it was, he would always say, "No problem." You could call him in the middle of the night - "No problem, I'll be there".
He did a lot for the Beach. I remember during the Green Belt battle he would tell people "just clean up, paint your house, we're staying." He was an optimist. But it paid off. Just look around - we're still here."

http://hamiltonbeachcommunity.com/forum/showthread.php?510-Remember-Bob-Jaggard

the paper recycling drive the Beach Community Garage sale and the clean up day event would not only have provided a way for people to socialize, but for new beach residents to meet their neighbours.

That is quite a list, many of these clubs and associations are long gone and well before my time. I was a member of the 25th Cubs Pack but not the Sea Scouts, the building use was located behind the St Andrew's Church and we had a weekly get together there. The building was just a large rectangle wooden structure and from what I have read, it was at one time the old Bethel Church and was moved to that location from further down the Beach. The fire siren is still being used by the Beach Rescue Unit and is set off electronically and always has been in my memory and the Beach Fire Dept. is basically older than me. I have never seen any of the siren stickers.
The only Cub Master I seem to recall was a Mr. Cole who had two sons in the Pack and one went on to be a Hamilton Police officer, it was a long time ago.

Even though I posted the Spec article indicating that there was a Legion on the Beach, I don't recall ever seeing any more written on this. Could be that there wasn't one or here for a very short time, I can only assume that it wouldn't be that hard to find out but possibly one of the older residents would know. And there have been many garden clubs, the most recent was started by residents Ann Hanson, Mrs. Nebesny, Gwen Hall and others. The Garden Club hasn't operated for many years but I have still seen some residents working on the Beach entrance signs at each end.



Ann was a long time resident who worked with Mrs. Nebesny

scotto
01-27-2016, 01:33 PM
The thread 'News Article From 1954' gives the names of a vast aray of social groups and organizations that were on the beach. the 25th Wolf Cub Pack and Sea Scout Group
the Women's Auxiliary of St. Andrew's-by-the-Lake Anglican Church

Community Groups Promote a Sence of Social Responcibility
" The emergency phone number stickers will be delivered by the 25th Sea Scout Troop"

I presume that this refers to the phone number of the beach residence who had the fire siren on his house and whose responcibility it was for activating it when a beach resident called to report a fire. And so it would seem that the beach Sea Scoute Troop was responsible for delivering these stickers to all the beach residents.

And This thread indicates that there was a Canadian Legion on the beach.
http://hamiltonbeachcommunity.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-408.html
did the legion have a building on the beach? Where was it located?

and this page refers to the Hamilton Beach Garden Club.
http://hamiltonbeachcommunity.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-433.html

That is quite a list, many of these clubs and associations are long gone and well before my time. I was a member of the 25th Cubs Pack but not the Sea Scouts, the building use was located behind the St Andrew's Church and we had a weekly get together there. The building was just a large rectangle wooden structure and from what I have read, it was at one time the old Bethel Church and was moved to that location from further down the Beach. The fire siren is still being used by the Beach Rescue Unit and is set off electronically and always has been in my memory and the Beach Fire Dept. is basically older than me. I have never seen any of the siren stickers.
The only Cub Master I seem to recall was a Mr. Cole who had two sons in the Pack and one went on to be a Hamilton Police officer, it was a long time ago.

Even though I posted the Spec article indicating that there was a Legion on the Beach, I don't recall ever seeing any more written on this. Could be that there wasn't one or here for a very short time, I can only assume that it wouldn't be that hard to find out but possibly one of the older residents would know. And there have been many garden clubs, the most recent was started by residents Ann Hanson, Mrs. Nebesny, Gwen Hall and others. The Garden Club hasn't operated for many years but I have still seen some residents working on the Beach entrance signs at each end.




Scott, this is the snippitt from 'News Articles From 1954' that made me think the fire siran was situated on the house of one of the residents. If I'm wrong, can you explain this?

"Fire Report
Fire chief Dan Hazell and Robert Foster presented their report for February. W. Toll, 12 Wickham Avenue, who is in charge of the fire siren, requests the removal of the connection within his home. Chief Hazell stated he will interview any person who is capable of housing the siren. The requirement is 24-hour duty each day. Any interested party may call the commission office. LI 4-6102."

http://hamiltonbeachcommunity.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-2230.html

As far as I know there are two sirens and have never been moved in my lifetime, I remember both going off in my (much) younger days. One is on the Rescue Unit (old fire dept.) property and one is near the school across from the new store. The fire dept. was a volunteer organization and staff wouldn't be on hand 24 hours a day to answer the phone for emergencies therefore the emergency phone would be left in charge a local resident who would be home most of the time to answer and then would remotely set off the siren to alert department members to a call. I will have to check with one of the old members to see if the siren was actually housed at the residents home, Wickham Ave would of be central enough on the Beach for the siren.

I checked with an older Beach resident and apparently these sirens were placed all over the Beach Strip, many members of the Fire Dept. had them outside their homes.