District 26 -- History

.......(Compiled by Dorothy McLay) Kenora District 26 had its roots established on June 3, 1970, only two years after the Provincial Head Office. On that date a small group of superannuated teachers from Kenora and Dryden met in Kenora with Mr. and Mrs.T. McKee from Thunder Bay, and formed an STO group to represent Kenora, Sioux Lookout and Dryden. Plans at that time were made to meet in September and May of each year. Although the group was allowed to send a representative to the STO annual meeting in Toronto, lack of funds made it impractical. The main purpose in organizing was to add strength to STO and 'to protect and improve the lot of the members'. Members of the first executive were: Chairman............Sybil Willard, Dryden Vice-chair..........Marie Lacombe, Kenora Secretary...........Myrtle Heard, Dryden The second annual meeting was held in Dryden on May 1, 1971, with three Kenora STO members attending. Included were incoming president,Miss Lilly Kron and secretary-treasurer, Mrs. Marie Lacombe. It is interesting that at this stage of growth, the group was endeavouring to discover exactly what activities units were pursuing in order to fulfill their mandate. ---September 11, 1973 The annual meeting was held at King George School and the members were informed that Northwest Ontario was divided into two district-1.Kenora and Fort Frances 2.Dryden and Thunder Bay. Elections took place. President.............Dave Locking Past President.........Lilly Kron Vice-President........Len Hunt Secretary-Treasurer...Marie Lacombe Serving on committees were Shirley Forsyth, Mayme Moore, Marion Morden, Corinne Young Len Hunt and Charlie Hayes ---June 28,1974 At a meeting held in Kenora, it was stated that the Fort Frances Executive was to represent the District for two years and the Kenora Executive was to represent the Unit. The combined executives were to meet once a year in Fort Frances. ---October 9, 1974 The first complimentary dinner was held at the Kenricia Hotel. Twenty members attended and presentations were made by Len Hunt and Dave Locking. ---December 17,1974 Requested Head Office that with the difficulties in holding meetings which would be representative of both Kenora and Rainy River, it would be better to have two districts and to have two or three units in each district.Kenora asked Dryden to share the grant money. ---June 26,1975 Mrs. Edith Crawford suggested that Dryden be invited to the annual Meetings. ---September 29,1975 President Len Hunt presented this information..'at the May Senate meeting in Toronto, a resolution was considered regarding the formation of two districts (Rainy River and Kenora) where District 1 now exists. This resolution was referred to the Organization Committee for report in November and the parties concerned were to be notified to have representatives at the Senate meeting so that both District 1 and District 26 could be seated at the appropriate table'. ---January 25, 1981 A meeting was held about adding a Dryden unit to District 26-Kenora. Muriel Tansley was asked to write to Provincial STO to inform them of the new organization. ---May 7,1981 President James Forbes reported that President Sybil Willard and Secretary Glen Hamilton of the newly formed Dryden unit proposed that Kenora Unit 1 would include teachers west of Vermilion Bay and that Dryden Unit 2 would include teachers east of Vermilion Bay and north to Red Lake. ---September 29, 1981 President James Forbes was the editor of the first Newsletter for our district. ---May 1986 Action was taken at the Senate meeting in Toronto to divide Kenora District into two districts and so Kenora became District 26 and Dryden became District 35 ---June 2006 We celebrate our 35th anniversary. We now have 218 great members!