CLUB OFFERS FUN ON THE GREEN

by Carol Volkart, DRA Newsletter Editor

As the Dunbar Lawn Bowling Club heads into its 2024 season, its leaders want you to know that rolling a bowl or tapping a croquet ball down a perfect green is a grand way to spend a summer evening or afternoon.
     “It’s relaxing outdoors in a beautiful setting and it’s lots of fun,” says Carol Guilbaut, president of the picturesque club nestled in the heart of Dunbar’s Memorial Park West. “Friendly is the key here.”
While the club has recovered well from the pandemic, with last year’s membership above pre-COVID levels, membership chair Claudia Campbell says attracting and maintaining members is a constant challenge, especially in an aging community like Dunbar.
     And so Campbell and Guilbaut are working hard to build the club into the go-to spot for young and old alike in Dunbar.
     Anyone older than 18 is welcome. Lawn bowling and croquet are both on offer. Lessons and mentorship are available. Flexibility is key, with afternoon, evening and weekend games. There’s no requirement to commit to regular play or sign up for a team – teams are created out of whoever drops in that day. Social events such as barbecues and picnics are frequent. And it’s easy for newcomers to give the games a try; drop by the club any Saturday between May and October for a quick introduction to lawn bowls in the morning and croquet in the afternoon.
     Lawn bowling is a competition to roll bowls (rounded on one side, elliptical on the other, causing them to swerve) as close as possible to a small white ball called a jack.  As with curling or bocce, much of the fun is knocking the other team’s pieces out of the way. Because it’s gentle on the joints and muscles, lawn bowling suits all age groups.

     Which has led to one of the stereotypes that Campbell and Guilbaut are eager to eliminate. “We want to end the idea that we’re old-fogey retirees dressed in white,” says Guilbaut. Regular clothes are fine, she says, and more and more young people are discovering the sport. Youth bowling leagues exist all over Canada, and are well established in New Zealand and Australia, “where they have very popular evening beers-and-barefoot games that draw boisterous crowds.”
     Campbell says she’s been pleased to see members of Dunbar’s large Asian community joining the club and bringing others with them. “We’d be more than pleased to have other groups like that,” she says.
     There’s a reason for the emphasis on recruitment. The club is a not-for-profit society that depends on membership fees and rentals for most of its income. Membership is $125 for the first year, and $225 annually after that, with $2 green fees each game day to offset the cost of maintaining the green. Rentals – whether to families celebrating a special event, companies doing team-building exercises, or local groups needing a place to meet  –  are also important to its survival.
     The club leases the facility from the park board for $1 a year, and recently got a New Horizons grant to help upgrade the field, but a thriving membership list and enthusiastic volunteers are what keeps it going.
     While Guilbaut and Campbell’s focus now is the 2024 season, they’re also excited about celebrating the club’s centennial in 2028. In preparation, they’re asking longtime Dunbar residents to check their attics and basements for photo albums or memorabilia related to the club, the older, the better. “We plan to talk with people who had associations with the club in the past and even record interviews,” says Guilbaut. “We will probably have public events about this history.”  The club also hopes to publish a history of lawn bowling – both in Dunbar and in Vancouver as a whole – by longtime club member Gary Parkinson.

Contacts
General information – dunbar lawn bowling dot com
Membership inquiries: Claudia Campbell 604-263-7317
Centennial 2028: Carol Guilbaut or Gary Parkinson