Lions hall handover official
Lions Club turns keys to community hall over to city officials
A new chapter in the history of the almost 90-year-old Westbank Lions Community Hall began Saturday morning as the Westbank Lions Club passed a ceremonial key to the hall to the City of West Kelowna.
After Westbank Lion Wayne Atkinson, in his town crier regalia, invited guests to enter the hall for the ceremony, piper Kris Watt played while people filed into the hall, which has seen countless weddings, dances, banquets, fundraisers and political meetings.
Guests included representatives of municipal, provincial and federal governments as well as Stan Taneda, a 50-year member of the Westbank Lions.
The hall, described as the heartbeat of West Kelowna, was originally built in 1929 by area residents, in large part with volunteer labour.
In the ’80s, the Westbank Lions took over the hall, promising to move it back from the highway, enlarge it, renovate it and keep it for the community.
In September 2013, an arsonist who wanted to ruin a wedding used an accelerant to start a fire that destroyed 40 per cent of the hall and caused more than $1.5 million in damage.
The Westbank Lions decided to fundraise to not only rebuild the hall, but improve it.
With insurance money, provincial and federal aid and fundraising money, the hall was reopened in February 2015. It had a new main floor washroom, new windows, flooring and an improved kitchen.
The Westbank Lions Club, the first service club on the Westside, is celebrating 50 years in 2017. Their directive is to serve, and the club chose to serve the community through running and maintaining the Westbank Community Hall.
That had become increasingly difficult for the aging club members.
Tony Badior, a Westbank Lion, had been advocating for the club to transfer the hall to the city since 1998.
“Because Lions serve, they don’t manage,” he said.
In a two-year negotiation process to transfer the hall to the City of West Kelowna for $1, the Westbank Lions insured their legacy to the community with a charitable trust agreement that would see the hall serve the community for the next 50 years.
Mayor Doug Findlater confirmed the building would remain a community centre and keep the Westbank Lions name.
“This is where we get together in West Kelowna,” he said.
He added that transferring the hall to the city would guarantee its future for many more years.
“It will be maintained at a professional, high-quality standard and will always be available to the public, hopefully for another century,” said Findlater.
Saturday’s key-passing was ceremonial only as the city took over the hall April 1.
Transferring the hall to West Kelowna sees the city gain an asset, keeps the hall available for public use and frees up the Lions to serve the community in other ways.