For 40 years after being established in 1969 the Chapleau Lodge of the Loyal Order of Moose made an immense contribution to the community.
The Chapleau lodge was officially founded on July 13, 1969, and closed in 2009, according to Jim Apsey, to whom I extend my most sincere thanks for his research assistance.
Jim also pointed out that among the lodge's major accomplishments was that "We sent a family with children to live at Ontario house at Moose Haven and put them through college." Quite an accomplishment for a lodge in a relatively small community.
I have tried to catch a glimpse of the lodge in Chapleau made possible by the work of the late Doug Greig.
By 1971 the lodge was celebrating the opening of a new hall on Lorne Street and it being winter it included hockey games between Chapleau and two Moose sponsored teams from Timmins -- Peewee and Bantam.
Both Timmins teams won, the Peewees 6-2 and Bantams 4-1 according to an article in the Chapleau Sentinel in "exciting games". A return engagement was planned.
This reminded me of the many banquets that were catered to by the Women of the Moose and I thought about one in 1977 held in the Moose Hall where Mayor Mike Doody of Timmins was the special guest. There were many great banquets in the Moose Hall over the years,
Heres is an excerpt from a column I wrote some years ago: "Despite the intense rivalry between the Chapleau Huskies and Timmins Northstars of the Northland Intermediate Hockey League, it did not prevent Timmins Mayor Mike Doody from accepting an invitation to Chapleau to be the guest speaker at the local team's annual award night in June 1977.
"Also, before a packed house at the Moose Hall, Bill Scheer, in his first year with the Intermediate 'A' team, was the winner of four awards
Bill was named most valuable player in regular season, leading scorer, rookie of the year and most sportsmanlike player."
Master of Ceremonies was Dr. Frank Brromhead.
Mike Doody had been elected mayor in 1976, and was also sports director at CFCL television.
Back to the hall opening in 1971 the ribbon cutting was done by provincial membership director Art Cooper of Toronto.
In 1975 a new hall was opened also on Lorne Street with an $84,000 mortgage which had been retired within ten years.
By the 1980s it had 115 members.
A 1993 article about a celebration to mark its anniversary noted that "A superb meal was prepared by Toy Gregson and staff. As usual Toy outdid herself."
Certificates were also presented to the 1992-93 executive who included Joe Ladouceur, James Apsey, Armand Ruffo, Jean Guy Presse and Alfie Desbiens.
I was amazed at the support the lodge gave to good causes over a two year period ending in 1988. The total was $73,465 which included $11,885 to local charities, $11, 180 to associations and foundations, $15,000 to Chapleau extended care project, $4,400 to handicapped and seniors. The article adds the understatement: "A tidy sum for a 115 member organization."
At one point in its history the lodge received the Lodge Merit Award for four consecutive years. This is the the highest award a lodge can receive from Moose International.
This has just been a glimpse at the outstanding contribution that the Moose Lodge made to Chapleau over 40 years based on work started by the late Doug Greig with my thanks again to Jim Apsey. My email is mj.morris@live.ca