Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Milltown Soldiers' Comfort Association (Milltown, N.B.)
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
Organized in 1917
History
The Milltown Soldiers' Comfort Association held its first meeting on 7 May 1917 at the Post Office in Milltown, New Brunswick. The association's primary purpose was to support Canadian soldiers overseas by supplying them with "comforts" -- treats, supplies and small gifts from home. Mrs. Curran was chosen the group's first president. Members of the association sent comfort bags containing such items as socks, mittens, combs, toothbrushes, chocolates, cigarettes, cookies, and coffee, to soldiers serving in France and England during the Great War (World War I). Members also distributed comfort bags and boxes prepared by local school children, and they wrote letters to soldiers in the trenches. To raise funds, the Comfort Association sponsored dances, fairs, basket socials, and ice-cream socials. They also made and sold quilts and held knitting parties where they made socks and mittens.
Following the outbreak of the Second World War, the Milltown Soldiers' Comfort Association reformed on 23 April 1940 with Anna Curran as president and 19 members on the rolls. As they had done before, members raised funds, by holding various events, and knitted, baked, and sewed in order to provide soldiers serving overseas with treats, supplies, and homemade socks and mittens. They received additional financial support from local residents, school children, businesses, and mill workers. In May 1940, 32 comfort boxes were shipped overseas; in October 1944, 160 were sent. The association was active in 1944 and probably after that date.