Clubhouse

Pranks put club in fowl mood

Members of the Oliver Kiwanis club don’t ponder whether the egg came first, but rather, who stole the chicken.

Organized in 1962, the club has a long history of serving its British Columbia community, supporting the Kiwanis Housing Society for seniors, financing construction of Kiwanis Park, and raising money for local causes including the BC Professional Fire Fighter’s Burn Camp.

Despite the club’s active nature, though, Wayne Kreut felt the need to liven up weekly meetings when he was elected 2003-04 president. Thus was hatched the “screaming chicken exchange,” a tradition in which a rubber chicken would be passed among members, with a different member taking it under his or her wing each week. The chicken was dressed—in clothes—and fines imposed for failure to conduct a proper chicken exchange.

The new tradition was flying along smoothly, but ran into turbulence when Brian Pawluk became leader of the flock a year later. The chicken flew the coop—it was either misplaced or rustled by persons unknown, according to club sources—so a search was launched to find a replacement. Wayne and fellow Kiwanian Peter Morrow “scoured the world” and were successful in herding Miss Buc (Back-Up-Chicken) into the fold.

“The club welcomed her with open arms and wild imaginations,” says one unidentified club member. “Miss Buc took on a life of her own. She wore gaily attired frocks and became a Red Hat lady. We loved her piercing screech, and each meeting became a (much-anticipated) ‘who gets her now?’ time.”

Sadly, the club’s exuberance was short-lived. Miss Buc was “chicknapped,” plucked “in a most fowl way,” allegedly by members of the Twisp, Washington, Kiwanis club who had come to a meeting of the Oliver club. During the several months she was missing, Miss Buc reportedly was forced to attend Kiwanis meetings in which fried chicken was served.

Miss Buc returned to the Oliver club in reasonably well condition, though she had grown eyelashes, was outfitted with a badly fitting bikini, and bore the brand, “Hot Chick.”

Since then, Peter notes, the club has had inter-clubs with Kiwanis clubs in Reno, Nevada; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Omak, Washington, in which it has given out screaming rubber chickens as a joke.

“These clubs may not have continued with our practice,” he admits. “I just hope we didn’t ruffle any feathers.”