A once-thriving social club is no more.
After 52 years, the German Canadian Club, Gemuetlichtkeit 70, saw members vote late last year to dissolve it and donate the proceeds from the sale of its clubhouse and land to various local charities.
And while the club was once a going concern and at times counted up to 250 members, interest has waned in recent years, according to club president Helmut Paddags.
“We’re losing membership and we didn’t have volunteers to take care of the club,” says Helmut Paddags, who himself inherited the club’s lead role as older members left.
Fellow club member Sigi Krause says the club was initially created for workers of Leitz (now Raytheon ELCAN) since a lot of young German families were moving to the area for work.
“It was really family focussed,” she says. “They wanted to have a place they could get together socially.”
The club’s origins can be traced back to July 1969 during the annual German Canadian pilgrimage at the Martyrs’ Shrine. At the time, several participants thought that creating a local German Canadian club made sense given the huge influx of German immigrants who started calling the area home following World War II.
The first membership meeting occurred the following May at the Panorama Inn in Midland.
The group continued to meet and expand and in early 1979 purchased a 19-½ acre property on Triple Bay Road. Club members built a clubhouse on the property before and it officially opened on September 11, 1989.
The club sold the property in 2021, but members continued to have board meetings and luncheons until voting to close the club at its most recent annual general meeting.
And as a registered not-for-profit organization, the club is required under the articles of dissolution to donate any remaining assets to charities.
At the AGM, the membership decided to donate to the following charities: Georgian Bay Cancer Support Centre, Georgian Bay General Hospital Foundation, Georgian Shores Swinging Seniors, Hospice Huronia/Tomkins House, Askennonia Senior Centre, La Maison Rosewood Shelter, Unity United Church and Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre.
Over its 52-year history, the club hosted a wide range of popular events including carnival parties, Christmas socials, canasta card tournaments, family picnics, children’s events and Oktoberfest.
Adds Paddags: “The members of the German Canadian Club were fortunate to experience 52 years of events, friendships and adventures and now as we say Auf Wiedersehen, we have a feeling of goodwill as the club gives back to eight organizations in our community.”
