Picture Don Fraser landscaping a new garden in Madeira Park with enough trailing clematis and stone work to make Jesus covetous. Now picture him working on the site where the Madeira Park Community Hall used to stand.
This probably seems sensationalized to you but just may be a possibility. (The Don Fraser part isn’t… apparently the paperwork’s gone through and he’ll soon be too busy with plans to build an asbestos mine behind the shopping centre to be concerned about town aesthetics anymore.)
Our community hall, like those in other small towns, used to be the focal point for town gatherings and celebrations. I can remember raucous Fishermen’s Homecomings, May Day dances and Firemen’s Balls where people partied with abandon. The Madeira Park Community Hall has hosted countless New Year’s dances, Halloween Howlers, Christmas parties, weddings and funerals.
It’s an understatement that many of us wouldn’t even be here without the hall. It was the mixing bowl for that time tested recipe for romance: the right slow song with a critical measure of Canadian Club. Last year’s May Day dance was the first successful event of its kind in recent memory. (Note to future dance committees: It was also the first dance at the Hall I’ve been to where the band didn’t play Mustang Sally even once). The Saturday Madeira Markets used to be packed with people selling goods of every description. I remember one kid my age who rarely missed a Swap Meet after discovering people would come and give him money for his sister’s old cassettes and toys.
The hall has served its purpose of helping to unite a community spread out over long distances for over 60 years but these kinds of events just aren’t happening anymore. We no longer drink and drive; fine but it leaves a major transportation problem in a town with a culture of over-indulgence but no taxi or bus service. We also have far more TV channels than we used to but these are not the reasons our community hall is in jeopardy. The building itself has always relied on dedicated volunteers to look after it.
At one time the Community Club was just that. A club that took it upon itself to plan and promote social events and to encourage user groups to hold functions there. Now it seems the hall suffers from apathy and it desperately needs help in the form of new volunteers with some creative vision.
It needs people with an interest in saving the building and managing its use. People who realize that a community is strengthened by people getting to know each other, enjoying their company and building trust. It also needs people to get off their asses and take part in community events.There’s a reverse domino effect that occurs when people decide not to take part in local events like dances.
The numbers drop and the events stop.
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