The Story of Sperling Page 34

 

gatherings.

In 1914 a Boy Scouts troop was formed under the
direction of George Millichamp. In 1916 a
Freemasons Lodge received its charter. In 1929 a
local of the United Farm Women of Manitoba came
into being. A United Church Women’s group (UCW)
was inaugurated, and Canadian Girls in Training
(CGIT) and Explorers were started.

Later, in the forties, a branch of the Royal Cana-
dian Legion received its charter, and during the fifties
and part of the sixties a 4H beef calf club flourished.
Most such organizations fell by the wayside as popula—
tion and interest declined, but some, such as the Free-
masons and the Legion are at least moderately active.

Of greater endurance and the source of more
widespread glory was the community’s attachment to
sports, particularly hockey. The town’s skating facili—
ties burned down in 1918 and were rebuilt with rural
Manitoba’s first all-enclosed arena in 1921 at a cost of
$23,000. In addition to a skating rink and change
area, the arena had two sheets of curling ice. Hockey
was an enormously popular pastime in Sperling, as it
was in other rural centres, and their teams often did
quite well against outside competition.

Two Intermediate championships were won by
Sperling teams during the twenties, and in 1952 a
junior B team won the provincial trophy and went on
to beat the Saskatchewan champions, Yorkton, in a
sudden-death final at the Amphitheatre in Winnipeg.

Sperling and Yorkton won their respective
provincials again in 1953, but this time when they