Lunar New Year wasn’t the only thing to go from old to new during the early days of February. The old Boyle Street Community Hall is no more, demolished to make way for the new Boyle Renaissance Phase I development. Digging began for the foundations of the new community centre even as the old hall was going down.

It’s with mixed feelings that Thim Choy, long time Boyle Street Community League volunteer (currently president) watched the hall go down. Choy was among the Boyle Street community residents who raised the money for the hall, which opened in 1984.

“All through the 1970s and early 1980s, the community group raised $400,000 for the new hall,” Choy says. “We had bingos, all sorts of things—by nickels and dimes we raised the money. Anita Lawrence was a very active fundraiser. This lady went and collected newspapers, and recycled them. There was the Collins family, Nellie I think, Joe, Stephanie, and Madeline – they all worked hard – Maria Kennedy too. Victor Hicks – he’s gone now, and so is Anita. It was a huge fundraising effort.”

Choy knows he can’t possibly name all the people who helped with the fundraising—it really was a community effort. (An interesting note: Maria Kennedy was the mother of Calvin Kennedy, who served on the BSCL board from 2009 until early 2011.) The $400,000 raised by the community league was matched by the City, and construction of the hall was begun in 1983. The new hall opened in 1984.

“The first hall was a wooden building to the east, right on 95 street. We sold it, I think to McKay Avenue, and it was moved over there. We always had the bingos in that old hall, every Saturday. All the old people used to come and play bingo. In the new hall we kept on with the Saturday bingos, and we had badminton and volleyball. Outside we had baseball. Those days, when we had teams we’d play against the police teams. It was good fun.”

In 2009, a new community board was constituted and the Boyle Street Community League revitalised again. This board has provided the leadership during the transition from the old community hall to the upcoming $6 million community centre, which will open in spring or summer 2012.

Over the ten years after the hall opened, the community and the bingo licensing process both changed. Bingo moved to “bigger and better” halls and became more controlled, and the small community bingos “didn’t work any more”, Choy says. Many of the older people in the community were gone and community needs changed. In 1993 the Inner City High School moved into the hall, and gradually became the sole tenant. The school took over the community league and kept it going as a school project for many years. The Inner City High School moved out of the community hall in 2010. With the help of the Oilers Community Foundation they have converted the old Native Friendship Centre on 101 Street to a new, larger school with increased enrollment.

In 2009, a new community board was constituted and the Boyle Street Community League revitalised again. This board has provided the leadership during the transition from the old community hall to the upcoming $6 million community centre, which will open in spring or summer 2012.

But as he watched the demolition of the hall he helped build, Thim Choy still had a tear in his eye, remembering the dedication of those who brought the hall into being and gave its programs life.

Important community news: Our Annual General Meeting will be held March 15, 2011, at the Chinese Multicultural Centre, 9540 – 102 Avenue, at 7 p.m. Please come, join the league (membership will be free until the end of 2012!), and get involved in program planning for the new community centre.

We will feature an exciting presentation by landscape architect David E. Brown of the preliminary drawings for the new gardens. A contest will be opened for naming the new gardens, and new members will be invited. If you are interested in having a plot in the new community garden in 2012, join now to have a say in the new garden design and organization.