Times are changing. Service club membership decline has changed the face of volunteerism at the community level, but the Royal Purple in North Battleford carries on.
Most recently, North Battleford Royal Purple is asking the public to remove the tabs from their pop and beverage cans before recycling, as well as clean, used aluminum foil, and donate them to the lodge for their programs for children.
The Royal Purple has been collecting aluminum to raise money for the programs for some time now, however the group now exists on a different level than previously.
While the Royal Purple in Canada was founded as a female auxiliary of the Elks of Canada, it is now its own separate entity, federally incorporated May 15, 2014 as the Canadian Royal Purple Society. Membership is open to both males and females, as young as 14.
Joan Harrison, Honoured Royal Lady of the North Battleford Royal Purple, and Audrey Griffith, past district deputy, say Royal Purple lodges were each allowed to choose how they wanted to proceed once the Royal Purple charter, held by Elks of Canada, was revoked.
Some lodges folded and their members joined the local Elks lodge. Others preferred to proceed as lodges within the new society. That is the decision North Battleford Royal Purple made.
The North Battleford lodge is exactly what the new national society describes, say Harrison and Griffith: A fun-loving, dynamic, dedicated group of volunteers helping children in our communities.
The mission statement of the society is to be a national, fraternal and charitable organization identifying and addressing community needs through the volunteer efforts of its membership.
Its vision statement is to be the leading national organization helping children and communities and offering personal development.
The North Battleford Royal Purple, established in 1954, has a long history of contributions to its community through such activities as contributing: an award at the Battlefords Kiwanis Music Festival; a wreath for Remembrance Day; a Royal Purple Day lunch and funds to Villa Pascal; sheepskin boots for River Heights Lodge; cakes and cookies for Royal Purple Day at Saskatchewan Hospital; hotdogs and phone cards for Battlefords Interval House; and cookies and drinks to the Battlefords branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association dance.
The lodge has also made donations of funds to causes such as: Scouts; young hockey players; the Nico Hawryliw Fund; families with babies require medical treatment or needs; the Elks and Royal Purple Fund for Children; Sparc Speech and Heaing centre; Camp Tamarack; Early Children Intervention Program; the Festival of Trees; Saskatchewan's children's hospital; local residential homes; 4-H; youth curling programs; and Bowl for a Kid's Sake.
The lodge also supported local volunteer Lyndsey Martel in a trip to a Third World country to volunteer at a community level.
To continue with their contributions, the Royal Purple continues to undertake fundraising efforts, such as recycling aluminum.
To make arrangements to drop donations off, call Sally Savoie at 306-445-9760.
