Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion

A group of citizens has come together to start a new Royal Purple Society lodge in Kindersley.

Darlene May, president of the Kindersley Royal Purple Lodge, said the club was instituted on Sept. 19 and the club’s first meeting was held on Sept. 26. Only five members are needed to start a Royal Purple lodge and the club has nine members.

She said seven of the members are local and the other two come from Beechy and Kyle. There were not enough members to form a club, so the Royal Purple members from Beechy and Kyle agreed to join the Kindersley lodge to have enough members to establish the club.

The Kindersley Royal Purple is a non-profit organization made up of volunteers from the community. The club meets on the third Tuesday of each month at Brothers Restaurant starting at 7 p.m.

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According to May, the club’s purpose is to promote and support community service with special emphasis on children, to create national leadership opportunities for members, to promote the principles of justice, charity, love and service, to provide general direction and governance to members and to develop partnerships with like-minded organizations. She noted that the purposes are “within our constitution.”

She noted that similar to other service clubs, members plan ways to support the community and the club’s causes. The members discuss and plan ways to raise money to support the club’s causes and initiatives. Kindersley Royal Purple has already held a small fundraiser.

May said the club held what is referred to as a pearl party. Participants paid $40 for a chain, a pendant and a chance to pick an oyster. The oyster is guaranteed to have at least one pearl and people get to keep their pearls.

The club raised $400 from the pearl party and the money was donated to the Health Snack Program at Westberry Elementary School. As a new club, the Saskatchewan Royal Purple Association is giving the Kindersley lodge $2,000 to donate to an organization or charity in the community of its choosing, May explained.

People have to be at least 14 years of age to join the club. Kindersley Royal Purple is a unisex club and members must support the democratic and lawful government and the purposes and objectives of the Canadian Royal Purple Society.

May said people only have to be willing to help make a difference in the community while having fun doing it in order to be a Royal Purple member. She said the club is looking for more members and people could attend one of the club’s meetings if they are interested to join.

“Come to our meeting and see what we’re about,” she said, recognizing that attending one of the club’s meetings would be the best way for people to join or to get information about the Royal Purple Society.

Local members were joined by visiting Royal Purple members such as the president of the Canadian Royal Purple Society when the club was instituted in September. The national president was in Saskatchewan visiting other lodges at the time, May said.

The province’s Royal Purple association has a partnership with the Saskatchewan Brain Injury Association (SBIA), she explained. As part of a commitment to the SBIA, lodge members will visit schools to help educate youth about the importance of wearing a bicycle helmet to prevent brain injuries.

May said local members went into Westberry, Elizabeth Middle School and Rossville School in Coleville last summer to speak to students about brain injuries. The school visits occurred before the lodge was established.

The club has also started to help the Kindersley Community Service Group by selling tickets for its Chase the Ace draw, May said. Quilting bees, charity walks, meat pie sales, country music nights and casino adventures are other fundraising projects that could take place. Clubs support a wide range of causes in the community.

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