Achievements since the 1970s

      In the modern era, the people of St. Andrews have continued to build this community with a solid base of cooperation and volunteerism. During the last 30 years softball fields were built on land donated by a community member, the church and six cemeteries were upgraded, and a fire hall was established. In the last decade and a half, a curling rink and a community centre were built and money was raised to dig nine wells for villages in India and Haiti. In 2006, St. Andrews opened the first phase of a community-owned and community-managed housing project for seniors and the second phase opened in 2008. Community spirit continues in fourteen strong community organizations.

The Fire Hall 

       When a local home in St. Andrews was destroyed by fire in the seventies, an intensive lobbying effort was made to build a local fire hall. When a meeting was called to determine community interest and feasibility, over 60 community members attended and immediately created investigative and finance committees. In the “can do” spirit of St Andrews, the fire hall was incorporated just 13 months later. Unlike other fire departments in the province, a volunteer board of directors was formed.  According to long-time fire fighters in St. Andrews, this system is a good model for accountability due to a tradition of careful monitoring and fiscal responsibility. Well before acquiring a building permit and beginning construction, members of the investigative committee purchased a used tanker truck for $1,960 and installed a pumping system. A functional fire fighting system was in place shortly thereafter, despite the fact that there was no permanent “home” for it. Thirty community members initially volunteered to become fire fighters.

      At a time before “911,” the fire department created an emergency number for community members to dial in case of fire. When this number was dialled, five separate homes in St. Andrews received the call and a rotating calling system continued until a fire crew was assembled. The issue of access to land for a building was solved when the local parish and Department of Highways collectively agreed to donate land. The question of access to a water supply was resolved when the nearby community centre donated land, which was dammed and converted from a swamp to a pond.

      Initial funds were raised through bingos, dances, auctions, raffles and bottle collections were organized. When enough start-up funds were finally in place, construction of the building was underway.  Three decades later St. Andrews has developed an innovative means of securing sustainable resources for the fire hall. While its system still relies on volunteer fire fighters and board members, the community now funds the provision of fire fighting services through a property taxation system. A small municipal grant of $5,000 per year (compared with a structure now valued at an estimated $750,000) remains the only source of external funding for this community-driven and managed service. In the summer of 2008 the fire-hall was expanded to make it 50% larger with funding from a combination of the proceeds from the annual Big Top dance and the property taxation system. 

The St. Andrews District Community Centre (SADCC)

      In 1989 it was time for a new community centre. The old parish hall, built by the community in 1912, was too structurally deficient to be worth repairing. The volunteer church members, who made up the parish council, debated whether the new structure should be a “parish” or “community” centre and agreed that a hall built and managed by and for the broader community was preferable. A committee was created that included representatives from every geographic area of the community and several important local associations.  The committee members polled the various associations in the community (i.e., the Seniors’ Association, the 4-H Club, the St. Andrews Parish Council, the Volunteer Fire Department) and travelled to see other community centres in the province asking questions about the advantages and disadvantages of each structure.

      Once the land (donated by the Diocese) and building design issues were settled, the committee set about raising money, beginning with the organization of public dances and concerts. These fundraising efforts are a clear illustration of the talents of this community and the leadership that pulls it together. The first big event was an open-air concert in a local farmer’s field featuring the Rankin Family.  Local carpenters and electricians donated their time in setting up the stage. Other community members donated materials and several “baby barns” (small storage sheds) to be used as places to sell food and goods at the concert. A car dealership in a nearby town was approached and the owners agreed to donate the use of a travel trailer for the band. A second open-air concert featuring Rita MacNeil and The Men of the Deeps was held one month later, during “St. Andrews Come Home Days” and the proceeds were split between three local organizations, including the community centre. One of the more unique fundraising ideas was to produce and sell a calendar featuring the historical buildings of St. Andrews. A local artist donated her time to sketch pen and ink drawings from old photographs. So many local area businesses wanted to advertise in the calendar that there wasn’t enough space to accommodate them all.

      The two most successful fundraising schemes were lottery and pledge campaigns. The lottery involved selling tickets for cash prizes that would be awarded each week. Over a one-year period, 930 tickets were sold for $100 each, which amounted to a profit of $60,000 for the building project. Representatives from each part of the community sold tickets to their neighbours and former community members were solicited through the mail. Some did not want to support a form of gambling, so gave donations instead. The lottery was followed up with a very successful pledge campaign that raised $55,000 from the 300 families targeted. If families could not afford a cash pledge, they offered their labour or food for volunteers during the building phase of the centre. In total, the committee raised $260,000 in cash through all of its fundraising activities.

      When the old parish hall was closed for safety reasons, the committee decided to start construction of the new building in the spring of 1993, even though their fundraising targets had not yet been reached. One of the committee members was hired to supervise the construction effort. Thirty-five volunteers, mostly local firemen, cleared the land. Borrowed equipment – a bulldozer and an excavator – was used to level the ground and dig the base for the foundation. More than 15 local truckers hauled donated gravel from three private pits, accepting no payment except money for fuel. A local contractor donated the use of a boom truck to help the men who were installing and welding steel beams for the floor. A local union plumber and two helpers voluntarily installed the underground plumbing. Several local volunteers installed the floor joists and more than 20 community members helped assemble the walls and put in the roof trusses. The roof was shingled in one day, with as many as 54 people on the roof at one time. Local businesses and households donated food each day for the workers.

      Two-thirds of the way through the construction phase, the committee began to run out of funds and decided to take a loan from the local credit union for $100,000 in order to finish the building. The continued use of community volunteers and local materials kept down costs enough to ensure that the building could be completed with the additional loan. Local volunteers carried out the electrical work. Community members cut ash trees on their land and delivered them to a local sawmill owner, who cut, planed and dried the wood for the interior lower walls. The firemen volunteered to do all the drywall work and offered to build new tables for the centre. The head of the local plumbers and pipe fitters’ union designed the hot water heating system and 22 union members donated their time to install it. Several union bricklayers donated their time to complete the masonry work. 26 community members laid the hardwood floors. 4-H leaders and youth members who donated hundreds of hours to the task did most of the landscaping work. An insurance estimate after construction placed the building’s value at over $800,000. The cash cost to the community was only one third of this amount, which gives an idea of the value of all the volunteer labour and donated materials.

      St. Andrews District Community Centre opened its doors in September 1994. The new 7,800 square foot centre is a multi-purpose building that is used for weddings, funeral teas, dances, concerts, meetings and fundraising events for a variety of community organizations. Five years after the building opened, a mortgage-burning party was held to celebrate the fact that the Community Centre was debt-free. A cornerstone was engraved with the words “Community Spirit”.

      This centre was completely financed and entirely built by the people of St. Andrews. The commitment of volunteers to operate and maintain the centre has not flagged, demonstrating that the spirit of cooperation that was drawn on so heavily in the building of the centre continues through the pride that the community centre has generated. St. Andrews provided inspiration to other communities. Shortly after the centre was completed, a delegation from Judique came to St. Andrews to learn how to plan and build a community centre. In 1995, the St. Andrews District Community Centre won a provincial achievement award.^[4] The Community Centre is now an Emergency Measures Organization “Community Comfort Center”, due to the installation of a $20,000 generator. $5000 of the cost came from the Municipality of the County of Antigonish and the rest was paid for by the SADCC through various fundraising efforts.

The Curling Rink

      In the early 1990s, when volunteers were busy planning, designing and raising money for the community centre, the idea for a curling club in St. Andrews came about as the result of several factors. The only curling rink in the area (in nearby Antigonish) had burned down many years earlier and a replacement had not been built. A group of more than 20 people from St. Andrews organized several social outings to a curling rink in a neighbouring county and this generated discussion about St. Andrews having its own curling rink. In September 1990, a group of five people met at the fire hall and agreed to recruit one community member each and start meeting each Sunday night to develop a business plan. By early January group members began going door-to-door to talk about the idea with neighbours. At the end of the month, a community meeting was called and the plan unveiled. 

      The part of the business plan that impressed everyone was an innovative scheme to raise the capital needed to build the rink.  The group in St. Andrews designed a system of preferred and common shares. For every $500 unit of investment, an investor member would receive a $400 preferred share and a $100 common share. The preferred shares would be treated as loans from the investor members to the curling club. If and when the curling rink became a financial success, the preferred shares would be paid back to the bearer at the curling club’s discretion with no tax implications, since the investor would be reimbursed with his or her own money. The scheme was a huge success. Within four months the curling club had raised $232,000 in pledges to purchase shares. By the time the rink was built the group had raised $302,000. To date the curling club has paid back two thirds of the preferred shares to members and has still been able to finance improvements to the building. One member proudly stated, “We have done this without grants or loans from the government or financial institutions – all the money was borrowed from our members”.

      As with the community centre, the curling rink was largely built by volunteers. The land, donated by a local resident, was cleared and levelled by volunteers with borrowed equipment. Volunteers under the direction of two paid carpenters carried out the framing, wiring, plumbing, and roofing of the building. Other than the work of these two carpenters, the only other contracted tasks were those of pouring the concrete floor and hooking up the ice plant to the pipes that were laid by volunteers. When the curling rink was finished most of the volunteers then helped build the community centre using skills they had developed while working on the rink. A common saying in St. Andrews is that one built the other.

The Seniors’ Apartments (SASHA)

      In the year 2000 the question came up of how to create affordable housing for seniors. The Parish Council set up a seniors’ housing committee and this later become the St. Andrews Seniors’ Housing Association (SASHA).

      The committee members felt it was critical for the seniors’ apartments to be self-financing once they were built. Even though land was donated (by Bergengren Credit Union), building materials discounted (by 2 local businesses), and labour volunteered (by community members), it was not possible to reduce the monthly rent to an affordable amount for a senior citizen. A newly established government affordable housing program was investigated. The Regional Director for Housing Services for the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services initially had doubts about the capacity of a small non-profit group being able to build, manage and sustain a multi-unit housing project. “And then,” he recalls, “we got the tour…we saw the curling rink [that had been] funded by selling of shares, [and] the community centre. We were amazed at how well maintained everything was”. The $25,000 per unit subsidy for an eight-unit building was testament to the confidence that St. Andrews’ community spirit had inspired, and this was soon followed by a grant from the Municipality of the County of Antigonish. 

      A local engineering firm agreed to do the initial drawings that were needed for the application to government without charge. As with both the Community Centre and curling rink, the construction of the seniors’ building depended heavily on community volunteers. Two local contractors voluntarily did the preparation of the ground along with the work on the foundation. Following the example of the building of the curling rink, two skilled carpenters were hired to provide the expertise and to direct the work of volunteers. Seven farmers agreed to give a day of their labour to put in the roof trusses but stayed an entire week to finish the roof. 

Wishing Wells Society

      The community spirit of St. Andrews extends beyond caring for its own members. It is well known for its outreach to others. In the mid-1970s, St. Andrews resident Mary van den Heuvel and her family hosted a Catholic priest from India who had come to Canada as a participant in the Coady Institute’s five-month community development diploma program. During his short stay Father Boniface Mendes became a loved and trusted friend to many in St. Andrews. Following Fr. Bonnie’s death several community members organized a “Wishing Wells” concert in the St. Andrew’s Catholic Church to raise money for a village well in India. Although donations were never solicited, news of the event began to spread, and Mary began to receive spontaneous offers of support from across the province. As an unexpected bonus, several well-known artists and musicians, such as Men of the Deeps and Mary Jane Lamond agreed to participate in the concert. Their participation was significant, given that they are highly regarded in the region for their efforts to revitalize and promote respect for traditional ways of life, culture, and language through music.  

      Nearly 300 people attended the first concert and raised over $4,000 prompting a community commitment to support a second well in India and another concert the following year. Nine years later nine wells have been completed; eight in India, and one in Haiti.

      In 2006 Wishing Wells partnered with St.F.X. Service Learning to build a website which has been very helpful www.wishingwellssociety.ca

The Softball Fields

      In the mid 1970s the late Judge Hugh MacPherson donated some land in the center of the community of St. Andrews for softball fields. One regulation size field and another smaller field were built. In June 2008 a player was seriously injured when he went backwards over the 4’ fence while attempting to catch a fly ball. It was time for improvements to the ball fields. 

      Work has begun to fill and level the fields, increase the height of the outfield and sideline fences, improve the drainage of the area and construct new grandstands, backstops and the canteen/storage facility.  The total cost of the project is $77, 771. The Municipality of the County of Antigonish contributed $20,998 and $17,950 will be in-kind contributions. The St. Andrews Softball Association is well on the way to raising the remaining amount. These upgrades will greatly benefit future generations of ball players.

Summary

    Residents of St. Andrews have a history of collaboration and cooperation, many strong and active leaders, as well as individuals with wide-ranging skills. As is evident from the examples already given, these unique strengths and skills keep improving our community for the future. When there is a community event, people show up in good numbers.

• 675 St. Andrews voters cast their ballots in the 2008 federal election.
• 900 people attended the 2008 annual Fire Department dance
• 78 youth (8-21 years of age) are members of the St. Andrews and Lower South River 4-H Clubs
• 15,000+ recreational hours were enjoyed at the Highlander Curling Club in 2008
• Ball teams include 6 adult teams and numerous minor softball teams

   St. Andrews recognizes its history, tradition and cultural heritage in a myriad of ways. The site of the first mass celebrated in St. Andrews is marked with an altar even though it is in the middle of a hayfield. St. Andrews church is decorated with tartan cloth on its balconies and beams. St. Andrews Day is celebrated with a Scottish concert and many entertainers are young, showing an appreciation for their Scottish heritage.

   Youth are included in the community in other ways as well. For example, one of the 4-H Clubs does an annual village clean up and there are both children and youth choirs at weekend masses. St. Andrews 4-H Club sing Christmas carols for the seniors at SASHA, and Lower South River 4-H members annually make and distribute wreaths to seniors.

   Most people are willing to join in a community effort if they are personally invited to do so. This is how people, who might not otherwise get involved, become included in various community projects. This participation ensures they get to know their neighbours and gives them a sense of belonging. There are 3 new sub-divisions in St. Andrews and many young couples are choosing to live here because it is a great place to raise a family. 

   Several new projects and study groups show a willingness to foster a respect for the environment such as learning about organic gardening and alternative energy sources. Projects such as these will lead the community into the future. St. Andrews will endure as the community and the people that live within it continue to grow and develop.  

   In 1987, St. Andrews hosted its first Homecoming weekend and the theme was “St. Andrews Pride, Keep It Alive!” The sense of pride in community accomplishments was evident before the curling rink, community centre and senior’s apartments were even built! 
 

    

^[1] Mathie, A. and Cunningham, G.  (Eds.) From Clients to Citizens: Communities Changing the Course of their Own Development. Rugby, UK: Practical Action. (Distributed in Canada by Fernwood Press)

^[2] Decades before universal Medicare was introduced in Canada, the St. Andrew’s Co-op was one of a number of organizations (several mining organizations in Cape Breton and Pictou county were others) to pioneer an early medical insurance scheme, whereby members would make regular contributions to a fund that could be drawn upon in medical emergencies

^[3] In 1960, a school credit union was established to introduce the credit union concept to young people. In 1987, the St. Andrews Credit Union amalgamated with the Bergengren Credit Union in Antigonish, leading to the building of a new full-service branch in St. Andrews in 1992. 

^[4] Bluenose Achievement Award from the Recreation Association of Nova Scotia.