Farra N Hyte

 

Farra N Hyte is representing Canada in the Ms. Continental Pageant being held in Chicago. She requires our deepest support to raise funds for the competition.

 

Club 717 is a "Gold" sponsor for her and will be donating all the door cover charges on Saturday March 7th. In addition, some generous members of the Club 717 staff will be donating there pay for the night to.

 

As a special treat for Club 717's patrons, Farra N Hyte is bringing her own special guests for the evening, Ms. Trinity Ross and Candice from Toronto. Also, our very own Club 717 favorite, Tommi will be performing for your enjoyment. 

 

 

 

There will be raffles and prizes through out the evening.  

 

 

Last time Farra N Hyte performed at the Club, we were nearly at capacity by 10:00 p.m. Come early and tip generously!!

Mix into a shot glass and down it.

 

Tastes just like a shamrock shake from McDonalds

 

Please visit our Newsletter Contributors website.

 

Lawrence Grecco is a professional astrologer in New York City and a member of the board of directors of the National Council of Geocosmic Research, NYC chapter.

 

He is available for personal or telephone readings and can be reached at 212-255-5337. Email lawrence.grecco@gmail.com

 

Visit his web site at www.zenrising.com

 

Gay men's Outreach Worker

The Aids Committe of Durham Region

22 King Street West, Suite # 202

Oshawa, Ontario L1H 1A3

905-576-1445 ext. 15

 

Greetings to all Members
 
This is just a quick note this month. I want to thank all of you for supporting the Club. It has been an eventful month and there has been lots going on.
 
In February, we saw the new talent show, Any Once Upon a Time, we had our first, and a successful Super Bowl party,  Valentines Day and the Oscar Party which also was a success. ?Thanks to all who participated and made these events work.
 
March has a lot in store as well starting with the, Switch Show where the Drag Queens will perform as boys and the Drag Kings will perform as girls. Then we have The Farra N Hyte fundraiser on March 7th, including lots of raffles and prizes up to and including a LCD HDTV, Mardis Gras (Mama Mia Show), Mardis Gras Party, and then we will be having some out of town visitors at the next couple of shows, ending the month with Heavenly Hytes from Toronto.
 
We are going to start doing a little more in the Club redecorating end of things this month as well.  We are trying to improve the Club and make it a better place for everyone to enjoy, and we hope you like the improvements so far and hope you will enjoy what is about to come even more.
 
Just a note to everyone. The Board has decided for everyone's privacy that Cameras are not allowed in the Club, too many people have complained about being posted on facebook and ending up in pictures that they do not want to be in. Only Eydie is allowed to take pictures,so if you would like a photo, ask her and see if she will send it to you.
 
Also the Club has introduced a new rule in keeping with the liquor license, if you leave after 2:00 a.m. there is no re- entry, this means if you want a cigarette you have to be prepared to leave at that time.
 
The license requires that there is no re-entry or admittance after 2:00 a.m. We are enforcing this rule.
 
That's it for me this Month, have a great March and you will be hearing from me soon.
 
Regards
And all the Best
Danny

 

LARRY a.k.a Edna

Please come out and help support the current Miss Canada Continental Plus Farra N Hyte, as she prepares to head to Chicago for the Miss Continental Plus Pageant.
 
Farra N Hyte has qualified to represent Canada, and is the only Canadian delegate in the upcoming pageant, being held in Chicago April 12-13th, 2009.
 
We have a very exciting night planned.  There will be 3 performers, Farra N Hyte, Candice, Trinity Ross and Club 717's Tommi.
 
There will be a 50/50 draw and raffle prizes.  The Grand Prize for the night will be an LCD TV (size TBA) donated by Club 717.
 
Please consider supporting Farra N Hyte in her quest to become Miss Continental Plus, and at the same time help to foster strong values, community involvement and moral support for our local entertainers.
 
I personally would like to THANK the club for allowing myself to plan this event on behalf of Farra N Hyte.  I would like to thank all those that donated a raffle prize, and helped me to plan this special night.
 
Special Thanks to the Board of Directors of Club 717, as well as, Tim Beaven, Donny Potts, Jay Ingram, Cathy Gallant and Ed Foley for your assistance in helping to make this a successful night not only for Farra N Hyte, but for Club 717 as well.

 

If you have any donations or prizes to raffle, please email me.

See you on Saturday,

Kelly

hummer1975@hotmail.com 

 

           

What a month it has been!  Rehearsals, rehearsals, planning, planning and more planning.  I would like to express my  most sincere thanks and appreciation to all of those involved in making two of my events this month a success.

Firstly, our production of "Any Once Upon A Time."   This project has been dear to my heart for a long time from its conception a year and a half ago to getting it on stage this past month.  All of the performers gave relentless hours for rehearsals and took a major chance in putting this show together for you.  It was out of most of our comfort zone and definitely something unique for the club.   I would like to personally thank all of the performers, and behind the scenes people for giving me the creative freedom and in trusting in me.  I was extremely pleased with the performance.  Finally, I would like to thank everyone who came out to support the play.  The response was overwhelmingly positive.

 

Secondly, our first annual Oscar show and party.  The Friday show themed on movie music was a smash - thanks to Ruby and Benn Dover for rehearsing and showing such professionalism.  I worked both of them very hard!  Thanks to John for organizing the food for Sunday's party and a special thanks to Rob and Movie Experts for donating the posters and prizes.  The weekend was a huge success and I look forward to putting together a bigger and better Oscar party for next year.

 

Well no rest for the wicked.... Hmmmm.... "wicked" - I'm feeling another play coming on!  
       
There ya have it....

Savanaugh had something to say!

 

Hi All
 
Well, I am finally back with the continuing story of the Durham Alliance Association Social Club.  Sorry for the delay but my father passed away on November 1st and I was very busy with his affairs.  I then went on two weeks' vacation to the Dominican Republic (needed the break) and on the return it was Christmas decorating, shopping, family and New Year's.  The New Year started off very busy and I am now in a position to continue the story.
 
In my last publication I mentioned there were ten founding members when in fact there were twelve.  I have since corrected that at the Club and had the other two members names added as founders and assured the two members that it was an oversight on my part.
 
After getting our financial situation back on track we continued with business as usual and our monthly meetings and dances.  This went on for a number of years and we even started participating in the Pride Day celebrations in Toronto.  I remember the first year we had a booth set-up in Cawthra Park behind the 519 Church Street as Pride then was not as big as today and wouldn't you know it we had a light rain that day.  That was ok because we came prepared with wood and plastic to make a cover to keep the rain off!  In coming years we had a table on Church Street and would put a schedule together for volunteers to work no more than an hour shift on the table to promote our Association and dances.  One year we had a Jimmy vehicle as our float provided by Larry Verrall who went as our King and Cathy Crawford as our Queen (before the Drag days) and a large contingent of followers behind us in the parade.
 
I can't remember what year it was but a certain group of our membership wanted to hold a dance to invite their straight friends, family, etc.  Don't forget that in those days not everyone was out with their family, work or whatever, this was Oshawa a blue collar town.  We had to do allot of convincing to get certain people to start attending dances reassuring them that it was for gays only!  The board gave in and we held a dance for other than gay members and gay friends and needless to say it was a failure and we lost money.  Many gay members did not attend the dance and we decided this wasn't for the Durham Alliance Association Social Club.  This is my opinion and my opinion only; back then why weren't the members happy to have one night a month out with their gay friends since they could see their straight friends and family for the rest of the month.  I could never figure that one out, believe me!  At the next Annual General Membership meeting this group of members wanted to have a referendum to change our "gay only" policy and it lost by one vote.  The following year at Pride in Toronto only five of the "old boys" carried the banner and marched in the parade to represent the Durham Alliance Association.  All the enthusiasm from the previous year was gone and they boycotted marching and stood in the crowd just watching.
 
Because of our policy these members pulled away and formed the now defunct "Proud And Out" and held dances for a number of years at the Masonic Temple before it was taken over by the Aids Committee of Durham.  We got the reputation of being the "Old Boys Club" but believe me if it wasn't for us old boys there may not be a gay club here in Oshawa.  It always seemed funny to me that nobody from the private sector ever opened a gay bar in Oshawa when other smaller towns in Ontario have had them over the years.  In 1988 my then partner use to have lunch on occasion at the Baron's Landing in the Bond Towers downtown.  He noticed that they had a nice bar and spoke to the female bartender that we had a group of guys that like to get together on a Friday night for drinks and would it be alright if we came there.  The bar agreed but it didn't take them long to figure out what we were all about. This went on for some time every Friday night.  As time went on the clientele, I guess, figured out what was happening and business was dropping.  The owner was approached and low and behold he decided to turn it into a gay bar, Oshawa's first!  WOW!  This went on until the summer of 1990 when a bomb was set off in the men's washroom but fortunately nobody was injured or killed.  Seems like the owner was putting all the profits up his nose and had some enemies, nothing to do with it being a gay bar.  The owner then directed us to a friend of his that owned the Big Orange on Simcoe Street North. We held a few functions there where I was the DJ on a couple of occasions.  It wasn't  until I read in the paper that this owner went to jail for 15 years for drug trafficking that we decided to pull out of there.  What do we do now?
 
As time went on two of our female board members got involved with a Karaoke Bar in Whitby and wanted us to check it out.  Some of the board members went and were not impressed neither by the bar nor the clientele but the two board members pursued it and started working with Lorna, the owner, and her husband.  The bar was eventually completely renovated and turned into a gay bar and thus "The Bar" was born.  Later on it became known as Diva's.  Lorna was very persistent and tried very hard to have DAASC move all our functions to "The Bar" but we were very hesitant about doing this.
 
In 1994 the board of directors decided it was time to have our own place rather than running monthly dances and all the work involved for just one night.  Everyone was getting tired and we thought it would be nice to have a place where we could just shut the lights off after the dance instead of having to take everything down, clean-up and all the work.  It also made for a very late night for those working.
 
Stay tuned next month, folks, for the continuing story of the Durham Alliance Association Social Club and the  opening of Club 717.
 
Submitted By: Mike Childerhose