It was decided by the Hospitals Committee on Thursday, December 19, 1918, that candy and smokes should be sent to Kentville for the 200 patients. Four hundred boxes were prepared containing three packages of cigarettes and a half-pound of candy for each patient. This work was done by a voluntary committee of three little girls and one little boy (the Misses O’Connor and Master O’Connor, daughters and son of Mr. J. D. O’Connor), and by little Miss Elliott. Provision was made for Rock Head and Cogswell Hospitals.
December 18, 1918, 328 stockings were made and filled by a committee of ladies at the Knights of Columbus Club Rooms, Hollis Street. The stockings were all of different shades, and each contained fourteen articles, consisting of the following: One box of notepaper, one lead pencil, one cube of tooth paste, one tooth brush, three packages cigarettes, two boxes of matches, one small comb, one pocket handkerchief, one ash-tray, two chocolate bars, collar buttons, one pipe, one package tobacco and one tobacco pouch.
Two hundred and three of these were sent to Camp Hill and one hundred and twenty-five to Pine Hill. As there were a number of very sick patients at Cogswell Street Station Hospital, it was requested that fruit be sent, and three cases of oranges, four cases of grape fruit and one keg of grapes were supplied. To the Nova Scotia Hospital, Dartmouth, one hundred and forty parcels were sent containing three packages of cigarettes and a half-pound of candy. Stockings were sent to four soldiers in the County Jail, and nine stockings to soldiers in the Victoria General Hospital. To the N.S. Naval Air Station were sent two cases of oranges, two hundred packages cigarettes, two hundred cigars and two hundred chocolate bars.
CHRISTMAS, 1919.
Christmas boxes were sent from the Head Office in Montreal, specially made for the Knights of Columbus Catholic Army Huts for distribution on this day to all Military Hospitals in the Dominion. Each box contained one package gum, one Durham Duplex Safety Razor, one package razor blades, one shaving stick, one shaving brush, one package cigarettes, one box matches, one chocolate bar, one tooth brush, one tube tooth paste, one handkerchief, and short stories. In addition twenty-six quarts of ice cream were distributed, also five hundred apples, fifty pounds of assorted kisses and fifty pounds of frosted cake.
Many picnics were given patients who were convalescing during the summer of 1919, and entertainments given to special wards in Camp Hill and Cogswell Street Hospitals.
From January 1, 1919, to April 30, 1919, no fewer than 125,466 personal requests for comforts were granted by the Knights of Columbus Hospital Comfort Bureau.
CHAPTER LIV.
THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.
For years previous to the Declaration of War, the Y.M.C.A. carried on its work in the summer Militia Camps; consequently the War did not find the Association without some idea of the requirements of troops, and from the early days of the first big concentration at Valcartier, the “Y” tried hard to measure up to each new phase of war activity.
In 1914 about 5,000 men were served in the camps of the Maritime Provinces. During the succeeding winter Y.M.C.A. work was established in the various barracks, and in 1915 the work on the piers at the points of embarkation was started. All this work was carried on continually from this time with increasing efficiency, not only in camps, barracks, and hospitals, but also on board transports and on troop trains carrying returning men. It consisted of the erection of large recreation buildings, giving assistance with the equipping of recreation rooms in barracks; the provision of free writing and reading materials, games, athletic goods, music, pianos, gramophones and records, moving picture machines and films; the organizing of concerts on land and on board ships; social evenings in homes, churches, barracks, hospitals and otherwise; athletics, religious services; supplying free hot drinks and doughnuts or biscuits at the disembarkation points and demobilization centres.