Rural Crime Watch has been an institution in the area that has helped to keep the community safe, and from the very beginning, Howard McKee has been as big part of the organization.
This year Howard decided to step down after more than five decades of dutifully volunteering to serve the community.
“I really haven’t counted it up. The earliest I can remember is we went to Delia and had a meeting, around 1955. We started out small and we built it up. People were interested but did not really want to get involved because of crime.”
Nonetheless, they saw the need and some momentum grew. Because of the sporadic unpredictability of crime, people were skeptical that it would make a difference.
“The RCMP started to go in small groups. We met in Delia, Hussar and the Rumsey Rowley area and we picked places where we thought people were interested. It did work.”
He chuckles sometimes people would be hesitant to volunteer to be on the executive, and invariably he would end up becoming treasurer.
“I was the treasurer. No one seemed to like doing the treasury and I kind of liked it because when you complete your report, you’re done,” he said.
He shares, once people bought into the philosophy of a crime watch organization, being the eyes and ears of the community and looking out for their neighbours, it became effective. He says Chris Lowen was president for years and he was a driving force to make it successful.
“You have to protect yourself and your neighbour, too. If you are not going to be in it to help the next-door neighbour then you might not have any help when you need help,” said McKee.
This is not McKee’s only volunteer experience. He also spent in the area of four decades with the Drumheller and District Ag Society–you guessed it, as treasurer. This led to being involved with horse shows in Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton.
“It seems like a long time, but I enjoyed it and you meet a lot of people. Things were evolving then. At that time we were doing rodeos and all kinds of that stuff,” he said. “You’ve got to like what you do if you are going to last long.”
He found getting involved in these organizations rewarding. You meet interesting people and feel like you were a part of building something. When asked what he would tell people is a benefit of getting involved, he says fellowship.
