Williamson's Lake and Rotary

This coming Saturday, October 10, is the 80th Anniversary of the Revelstoke Rotary Club. The Brown Bag History topic this week will be on the connection between Rotary and Williamson's Lake. I will also be a guest speaker at their Anniversary Banquet this coming Saturday. They are having the banquet on the exact anniversary date, and they are recreating the original banquet menu! It should be a great evening!

Soon after the Rotary club formed in the fall of 1929, they looked for a community project that they could put their money and volunteer effort into. They decided to take on the upgrading of Williamson's Lake, the small lake just south of town that had been the local swimming hole since the 1890s. The lake was named after Mr. A. Williamson, who established his farm along the lake. It was well used, but had never been developed until the Rotary Club took it on. They held a big fundraising dance in March of 1930, then in May of that year began going out to the lake to begin their upgrading work. That first year, they installed two piers, one with a platform and spring board, built several rafts, brought in 200 loads of sand, cleared 250 feet of beach, built a combined boat house and girls' dressing room and made countless other improvements. They took over the running of the Annual Swimming and Diving Meet, and hired a lifeguard and swimming instructor. The Rotary Club continued this commitment to Williamson's Lake until after the Centennial Pool was built in 1971. Although the City of Revelstoke now maintains the lake, the Rotary continues to be involved, and this year they provided a new dock.

For close to 40 years, the Rotary held a Carnival to raise funds for the Williamson's Lake project. Their first carnival, held on Labour Day in 1930, raised the astounding amount of $1,396.26. $823.54 of that amount was earned from ticket sales for the raffle of an Oldsmobile Sport Sedan.

A newspaper article in June of 1937 poked good-natured fun at the Rotary members who headed out to Williamson's Lake to rake in truckloads of gravel and sand which were hauled out by truck. The Rotary Club members were all local businessmen, and the newspaper made sure to point this out: "Visitors at Williamson's Lake on Wednesday were amazed to see a bank manager, a druggist, a dentist, a lawyer, the theatre proprietor, the jeweller, CPR officials and local merchants and professional men in shirt sleeves and overalls trying manfully to swing shovels and rakes in the approved manner...It would have gladdened the heart of anyone accustomed to this kind of work to see the businessmen trying to keep their brows mopped between shovelfuls...Citizens who hear their banker groan as he sits down or find the theatre manager too stiff to walk up to the balcony, or the dentist unable to bend over, will understand that these things are suffered for the sake of improving Williamson's Lake."

Congratulations to the Revelstoke Rotary Club on their 80th Anniversary, and thanks to all of the members who have provided such outstanding service to this community!