History of the Club

First Some History: Burnaby was not always the vibrant urban city that it is now. It has an interesting history (which is detailed in the History of Burnaby Resource Guide.pdf available online and from which much of the following was generously borrowed.)

In a nutshell: The municipality of Burnaby was established in 1891. Originally a sparsely populated rural district – with a population of 400 in 1900 – Burnaby developed into a residential community for workers in Vancouver and New Westminster. During the depression, towns and cities were responsible for welfare payments and Burnaby’s relief fund dwindled as homeowners defaulted on their property taxes and little of the federal emergency relief money made it to Burnaby. As Burnaby’s unemployed grew desperate, council illegally used reserve funds to pay relief. Council began to issue credit notes instead of cash, hoping to prevent a crisis. Then, in the autumn of 1932, council purposely defaulted on a loan payment to protest inaction by other levels of government. Burnaby’s affairs were taken over by the Province of BC, who ran the municipality through an appointed commissioner until 1943.

Following World War 2, thousands of working people moved to the suburbs for the “good life.” Burnaby’s population tripled from 30,328 in 1941 to 100,157 in 1961. The baby boom was “on”. These families needed schools, parks, playgrounds and a hospital.

Enter SBMC: Against this historical backdrop, a group of volunteers came together from the local United Church in 1952. While initially, a club was formed to carpool seniors to church, it became apparent that there was a need for more youth activities in South Burnaby. In October, 1953 those members wanting the club to be a church club formed the original A.O.T.S. at the United Church and those members wanting the club
to be a community organization adopted the name “South Burnaby Men’s Club”. In 1953 SBMC became affiliated with Little League.
Over the years SBMC took a leading role in the affairs of the community with a focus on helping the children of the community (as indicated by its motto: “Dedicated to Youth”)
Some examples:

• Helped with the development of Suncrest Park and Ron McLean Park;
• Participated in the forming of Cub packs were formed;
• Introduced the sport of soccer in 1955;
• A youth centre established at Bonsor in 1957 when a building was
  donated to the club Dominion Stores and moved to the Bonsor site – the land was which was leased from the City and eventually the centre was turned over to the City in 1962;
  • Girls’ programs in Soccer and field hockey were established;
  • The club built the heritage church located at Burnaby Village Museum;
  • A boxing program was established; and
  • Field lights were installed at the Bonsor fields.

SBMC played a key role in helping the City of Burnaby acquire the lands for Bonsor Park. The club would acquire properties as they became available (because the City, still affected by its financial setbacks in the 30’s, did not have the funds available), hold them and then later sell the properties to the City at cost. [This close connection with the
development of Bonsor both through the youth centre and the assembly of lands resulted in SBMC receiving and enjoying the privileges which it still has at Bonsor Recreation Centre.