Summary information
| Repository: | South Peace Regional Archives |
| Title: | Busy Bee Lodge # 79 Rebekah Assembly of Alberta fonds |
| Reference code: | 0523 |
| Date: | 1966-1974 (date of creation) |
| Physical description: | 2 cm textual records |
| Language: | English |
| Dates of creation, revision and deletion: | Processed by Karen Burgess January 2013 Added to new database January 2026 – TD |
Administrative history / Biographical sketch
The Busy Bee Lodge #79 Rebekah Assembly was chartered in Spirit River June 14, 1921, with 18 members including Sisters Alta Thompson, Alama Gallagher, Goldie Oke, Irena Rappel, Elsie Moravec, Dorothy Moravec, G.B. Mathews, Maude Oke, and Brothers J.F. Rappel, Agre Shaw, Mike Maloney, and Alex Innes. Later members included Helen Stoner, Erma Grimm, Gladys Moravec, Edyth Lowes, and Hattie Rappel, and still later Gertrude Durkin, Bertha Stoner, Gladys Durkin, Frances Levins, Claribel Levins, Frances Moravec, Elsie Porterfield, Rosina Giles, Dalphine Debolt, Helen Pickering, Olga Eide, Florence Kosowan, Olga Batke, Ruth Kosabeck, Darlene Walsh, Nancy Skaley, Pearl Jarvis, Mary Hoover, Helen Lindsay, Edith Jarvis, and Leona Levins.
In the 1960s the lodge kept growing in memberships. The group worked in support of student bursaries, eye screening for amblyopia, and United Nations Pilgrimage for Youth which was a speaking contest for students 16-18 which allowed the winners to go see the United Nations in action.
For over fifty years there was a Rebekah Lodge active in Spirit River. Their activities included sending gifts and visiting members in hospital, raising money through raffles, bake sales, and baby shows, and catering banquets and lunches. Through these efforts they established student bursaries, supported families in need, supported the Cancer Society, Salvation Army, Muscular Dystrophy, the Community Hall Kitchen fund, and canvassed for the CNIB and the Arthritis Society. For entertainment, the group held card parties and curling games.
By the 1970s, the lodge was having difficulty recruiting new members. In the minutes of April 3, 1974, the group made motions to dispense with their assets including dishes and silverware, card tables, chairs, and the piano. A disbursement of funds went as follows: $225 to Central Peace Hospital, $200 to Spirit River Arena, a $50 plaque to the Spirit River High School, $100 to the Peace School of Hope, and $50 to the W.W. Cross Cancer Institute. A supper meeting was held June 1, 1974 and in November of the same year, their charter was lifted.
Custodial history
The records were donated to the South Peace Regional Archives by Rebekah Assembly of Alberta I.O.O.F. representatives, Dorothy O’Donnell, President, and Darlene Clemmer, Assembly Secretary, in 2012.
Scope and content
The fonds consists of one minute books which records the members and activities of the organization from March 7, 1966 to June 1, 1974.
Notes
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Title of fonds based on contents.
Access points
- Textual record (documentary form)
- Women (subject)
- Organizations (subject)