January
30, 2007
Presenting: The Balmy Beach Club –
Legend by the Lake
No neighbourhood portrait of Toronto’s
Beach community could ever be complete without one of the true
institutions in the area: the Balmy
Beach Club, a private social and athletics club founded in 1905,
has been a real anchor of the local sports and recreational scene,
and continues to thrive today as a favourite gathering place for
many of its members. During a recent interview with Glenn
Cochrane, he took me briefly into the Balmy Beach Club and stated
that “this is the best patio on Toronto’s waterfront
– bar none”. When I headed out on the patio and saw
the sweeping 180 degree panorama of Lake Ontario with a view towards
Toronto’s skyline, I simply had to agree. Combined with a
beautiful setting inside a historic neighbourhood, surrounded by
gorgeous mature trees, one would be hard-pressed to find a more
perfect urban oasis in Toronto than the Balmy Beach Club.
Logol at the Balmy Beach Club, part of the mural painted by Ralph
Noble
To find out more about this revered institution I set up an interview
with Ken Bingham, long-time member of the Balmy Beach Club, and
the official historian of this institution. The Balmy Beach Club,
a non-profit organization, is a social and athletic club that came
into existence in 1905. It has about 1400 members in two membership
categories: the social membership provides access to upstairs facilities,
including the bar, lounge, patio and banquet hall. Social members
are able to attend a wide variety of functions, for example the
Superbowl Party, a Glen Miller Dance, Rock Star Karaoke, a Martini
Night and many more. Members in the social category also participate
at no extra cost in lawn bowling, volleyball and most social functions
run through the club. In addition, members are eligible to rent
the banquet facility for private functions such as birthday parties,
anniversaries and weddings. Many local community organizations also
use the club to hold special events or fundraisers.
Opening day, 1905
The fitness membership includes the privileges of the social membership
and additionally provides access to the fitness room, the squash
courts, sauna and change rooms on the lower level of the building.
With this level of membership it is feasible to join the canoe,
hockey or rugby sections of the club. Sports such as curling, tennis,
football and lawnbowling are offered as well through the club.
The fitness facilities downstairs
For more than a century the Balmy Beach Club has been noted for
its athletic teams which started out with canoeing and lawn bowling,
and were later expanded to add other activities such as curling,
hockey, squash and volleyball. Ken explained that the land for the
Club was donated by Sir Adam Wilson, an Ontario Chief Justice in
the second half of the 19th century. The land for the Balmy Beach
Park was incorporated in 1903.
The first club house, a beautiful two level structure with large
wooden verandas, opened in 1905, but it unfortunately burnt to the
ground in 1936. Another club house was built, but again fire struck
in 1963. The current club house dates back to 1965.
Looking east on the Boardwalk from the Balmy Beach Club
While Ken was grabbing me some extra papers with historic information
I took the opportunity to talk with Chris Buckley, the current president
of the club, now serving his second term. Chris works full time
in sales, and in his spare time he oversees the club and chairs
the board. He informed me that this is a volunteer position, and
that a Board of Directors is responsible for the main athletic sections
(canoeing, lawn bowling, volleyball, hockey, rugby and squash).
Chris further explained that membership is actually rather reasonable
for a private club: the social membership is $260 a year while the
fitness or athletic membership costs $420 per year. An initiation
fee of $300 applies to first-time members, but that fee is sometimes
waived during special promotions.
Historical pictures galore
Chris Buckley indicated that he is very interested in increasing
the membership of the Club since a larger roster of members also
helps to defray the costs of running the club. Sometimes the Balmy
Beach Club holds open houses and invites the community at large
to get to know the club, its facilities and recreational opportunities.
He indicated that the club is very open and welcoming, and has members
from as far away as Brampton and Mississauga, but there are also
a number of international members who reside in the United Kingdom,
in the United States, in Australia and New Zealand.
The sports teams themselves run various fundraising events to cover
the costs of insurance and other necessary funds for their sports
activities. A very popular fundraising event is a volleyball tournament,
and participants often show up outfitted in funny costumes. One
time a team was dressed up as gladiators, another time they were
pretending to be waiters with bowties from the “Goof”
, the affectionately nicknamed historic Garden Foods Chinese restaurant
just up the street.
Chris Buckley and Ken Bingham
The club itself also gets involved in charitable activities on
behalf of the Beach community. The club sponsors local high school
baseball, lacrosse and hockey teams, and club members also provide
a scholarship to one male and one female student at Malvern Collegiate.
During the summer the club runs a canoe/kayak day camp for about
300 children. The linkages to the community are strong.
I inquired into general information about the club, and Chris informed
me that the opening hours are Monday to Sunday from 6 am to 1 am.
He chuckled and said “the bar closes when the president goes
home”. New developments are also in the works: the city wants
to build additional volleyball courts on the sandy beach right in
front of the club. Toronto has actually become known as the beach
volleyball Mecca in Canada with a variety of leagues and tournaments
encompassing hundreds of teams that are run out of Ashbridges Bay.
The Balmy Beach Club was actually were it all started, and Canadian
beach volleyball celebrities Mark Heese and John Child both used
to play at the Balmy Beach Club. Heese and Child participated in
three Olympic Games: the team won the bronze medal in Atlanta (1996),
came in 5th in Sydney (2000) and 5th again in Athens (2004).
World caliber athletes have been coming out of the Balmy Beach
Club for a long time. International rugby players have been developed
at the Balmy Beach Club, and Chris adds that there are eight senior
players that played on the Canadian national rugby team, while six
Balmy Beach junior players are currently playing for Canada. Several
paddlers from the Balmy Beach Club have won Olympic medals in kayaking
and canoeing as well.
A little bit of socializing in front of the chimney on Monday morning
What Chris really enjoys about being a member at the Balmy Beach
Club is that the club is very inclusive and includes members of
all backgrounds and age groups. He enjoys being friends with 18-year
old youngsters while he also appreciates the older members, many
of whom have been part of this club for several decades. He said
it is very sad when some of the older members pass away, and the
entire club mourns the departure of long-term club members. He adds
that he has football pictures from high school that depict three
generations of Balmy Beach Club members.
Chris had to go and handed me back to Ken, and we set off on a
tour of the building. Ken first took me into a large multi-purpose
room on the Western side of the building which houses a variety
of plaques and sports jerseys. This is where most of the social
functions are held, and occasionally the room is also used for indoor
lawn bowling. Ken indicated that the Balmy Beach Football team won
the Grey Cup twice in 1927 and 1930. Several wooden plaques highlight
the Canadian champions in canoeing / kayaking, lawn bowling and
football/rugby that came out of the Balmy Beach Club. The long lists
are impressive.
The multi-purpose room
One plaque in particular honours the Olympians that emerged from
this club. One person that appears four times on this plaque is
a gentleman by the name of Jim Mossmann, who, as Ken explained,
was the Canadian Olympic Canoe Coach in four different Olympic games.
In addition to paddling sports, curling is another sport offered
by the Balmy
Beach Club. The club fields twelve teams that all play in their
own league at the East York Curling Club.
Lifetime club members also get honoured here, and some active members
have been with the club for 60 or more years. The Balmy Beach Club
truly provides social and recreational opportunities for an entire
lifetime, and its members have a deeply felt loyalty to this institution.
Many a courtship was started at the Balmy Beach Club, and I bet
that scores of Beachers were born as a result of a romantic connection
that started at the Balmy Beach Club.
Honouring the Champions
Just outside the multi-purpose room is an area full of plaques,
the Balmy Beach Club Hall of Fame, honouring some of the distinguished
athletes from the club. In a hallway just to the left of the entrance
hall there are a number of certificates, including original certificates
from the 1920 Olympic Games in Paris, the 1936 Olympic Games in
Berlin, the 1952 Games in Helsinki as well as the 1960 Olympic Games
in London, all donated by Balmy Beach Club members who were actual
participants in these historic competitions.
Olympic certificates from the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin
Ken pointed out a picture on the opposite side of the wall showing
a group of lawn bowlers on opening day in 1905. A picture of hockey
players dating back to 1913 also illustrates the long history of
this institution. Ken explains that the original sports at the Balmy
Beach Club were lawn bowling and canoeing, and all the other sports
were added gradually over the years. We then headed downstairs where
Ken showed me two squash courts as well as the well-equipped fitness
room that is available to the fitness members. Wherever you look,
walls are adorned with historical pictures, certificates, medals
and plaques; there simply is not enough wall space at the Balmy
Beach Club to display all the significant mementos that have accumulated
over the years.
Certificate from the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki
Our official tour had concluded and Ken took me back upstairs.
In addition to the club’s history I was also interested in
some of the individuals that make this club run. I had already talked
to the president, Chris Buckley, and I thought I’d find out
a bit more about the historian himself. Ken Bingham was born right
in the area and spent 25 years of his life living on Fernwood Park.
He joined the Balmy Beach Club in 1950 and is also one of the lifetime
members. Prior to his retirement he used to work at Inco’s
head office, a company that also generously sponsored some of the
trophy cases, a big TV screen and several filing cabinets for the
club.
Rugby jerseys
Ken introduced me to two long-term Balmy Beach Club members and
handed me over to his colleagues as he had to go. The famous Jim
Mossmann, four-time Canadian Olympic coach, has been a member for
an unbelievable 72 years. Naturally he was also inducted into the
Sports Hall of Fame for his athletic achievements. Today he says
he lives in a condo close by and mainly comes down here to socialize.
Jim Mossmann, four time Olympian and life-time member
Another long-term member, John McCullough, was just inducted as
a lifetime member last night. He has been a member since 1943. His
friends were joking and referred to him as a walking encyclopedia.
John says that today he spends much of his time golfing, lawn-bowling
and curling. He has been retired for 23 years, and the Balmy
Beach Club has become an important anchor for his social life.
John McCullough, recently inducted as a lifetime member
The friendly face behind the bar is Jamie Reynolds, also a Balmy
Beach Club member and the maintenance manager. Jamie is also responsible
for ordering the supplies, the drinks and snacks for the bar. The
Balmy Beach Club is a licensed establishment and serves quick snacks
and pre-made sandwiches. Jamie has been a member since 1964, started
off paddling, then played rugby from 1967 to 1987. Today Jamie is
a talented lawn bowler. He explains that the natural sequence of
sports at the Balmy Beach Club starts with paddling, then moves
on to rugby and hockey, and finally ends with lawn bowling in people’s
later years. An entire lifetime of sports and social activities
is available at the Balmy Beach Club.
Jamie Reynolds
Another true fixture at the Balmy Beach Club is Barb Kelly, who
works part-time in the club’s administration since she retired
from her long-term job with a paper mill. Barb Kelly is also a life-time
member and joined the club in the mid 1970s. She has been on the
Board of Directors for the last 12 years and was the first female
on the board. Originally the Balmy Beach Club was closed to women
as there were no lockers or showers for females, and finally opened
its doors to females in the 1970s.
Barb has been paddling since she was a child, and on May 4, 2007
she will be inducted in the Balmy Beach Sports Hall of Fame as an
athlete (she is an outstanding lawn bowler) and a major contributor
of the club. Barb explained that eight times a year she runs a “Euchre
Meat Roll” which is basically a fundraiser for her lawn-bowling
team that involves a vacuum-packed piece of meat as a prize giveaway.
Barb has participated in many dances and social events at the Balmy
Beach Club since she was a young girl.
Barb Kelly, soon to be in the Sports Hall of Fame
Last but not least I got a chance to meet the person who really
runs the Balmy Beach Club: Charlene Provan is the General Manager
of the club and is in charge of all operational matters which include
staffing issues, facility rentals, administration, maintenance,
volunteer coordination, security and well as set-ups and tear-downs
for special events. Charlene mentioned that insurance costs in particular
have risen incredibly over the last few years. Insurance now adds
up to about $130.00 per player on the competitive rugby team. Canoeing/kayaking,
on the other hand, requires expensive marine insurance. Charlene
has worked here for eight years, and since she started insurance
costs have actually tripled.
Charlene Provan, the heart and soul of the Balmy Beach Club
Charlene adds that the club is financially self-sufficient and
has never asked for any funds from the city, who officially owns
the land that the club is built on. She adds that the Balmy Beach
Club is an important focal point for the community, a beautiful
place to get away from it all, right here in the city. Charlene
herself grew up in the Beach, attended local schools such as Williamson
Road, Glen Ames and Malvern Collegiate Institute. She has raised
her daughters here and for a number of years she worked at “Lido’s
in the Beach”, a restaurant formerly owned by Lido
Chilelli, founder of the Beaches Jazz Festival.
One of the things that Charlene has instituted at the club is a
more inclusive policy. More than 30 years ago, the club was open
to men only. After shower and locker facilities were installed for
women, the club opened its doors to both genders. Things have changed
substantially, and since Charlene arrived on the scene, she has
introduced many family-friendly events such as Christmas parties,
Easter egg hunts and Halloween events. Charlene has actively been
working on broadening the appeal of the Balmy
Beach Club and on making it accessible to a wider range of people.
She has even added a wireless Internet connection to the club so
members can come in and use their laptops from the comfort of their
social club.
View of the lake from the patio on a cold January day
Considering all this history and the people behind it, the club
is definitely the ‘Legend by the Lake”, and in Charlene’s
words it is the “best kept secret in Toronto”.
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