9/20/2023 0 Comments The royal order of the moose![]() “Social isolation is a huge problem … losing these groups is a loss, it’s a true loss,” she said. “For the senior community members, it can be pretty devastating,” she said. The shuttering of buildings across the country that house service organizations - from Moose lodges to legions - is a big blow to club members and the community, said researcher and strategist Trina Isakson. “We used to go bowling, curling, all those things, but we can’t get anybody interested anymore.” “We have pool, crib, that’s about it,” Picketts said. In 2009 those numbers dwindled to 120 and today there are just 79 members - only a small fraction of who regularly attend a decreasing number of meetings and events. Picketts said renting the Forest Lawn space costs the chapter thousands of dollars a month and its money the club can simply no longer afford as membership declines.Ĭalgary’s Moose Lodge No. Selling off their own space in the 1990s was a move that allowed the Forest Lawn lodge to outlast Calgary’s other two Moose facilities, which closed more than five years ago amid struggles with decreasing membership and rising costs. Two decades later, the club sold the lodge to an auction business and since then, they’ve leased space in the building’s upstairs from its new owners, a church, said Picketts. The two-storey Forest Lawn lodge was built in the late 1970s. Members are still working to determine what will happen to the lodge’s contents, which include merchandise, shuffle board equipment, pool tables and a taxidermied moose head. We’ll still have our meetings and we’ll look at prospects of where we can go,” said 79-year-old Picketts. “Right now we’ll operate out of someone’s house. While the club’s physical space will be closed effective Sunday, members want to continue to meet and the Moose chapter will work to survive. ![]() “It got to the point where something had to be done because we just couldn’t afford it anymore,” said Les Picketts, a trustee with the Forest Lawn lodge. In the club’s heyday, Calgary’s Loyal Order of the Moose boasted three lodges and thousands of members, who raised money for charity and packed the three facilities for dances, bingo, and social events.īut only one lodge remains in Calgary - the Forest Lawn Moose Lodge No. The Moose is facing extinction in Calgary.Īs membership dwindles and the club struggles to pay rent, Calgary’s only remaining Loyal Order of the Moose lodge is closing.įounded in the 1880s and reinvented a century later, the Loyal Order of the Moose is a service organization that has chapters in every American state, four Canadian provinces, Great Britain and even Bermuda. ![]()
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