In the '50s, children played in the streets and on the sidewalks. Of course, there may have been an occasional stray hockey puck hitting the windshield of a car or knees might be grazed by a bicycle fall. That was the way of life. Church parishes were the first to give a more supervised option to these young people by organizing safer (morally and physically) activities in the basement of a church.
Gradually, the parish activities grew to include sports such as hockey and baseball, as well as social dances on Saturday and a Sunday afternoon movie. It was in this spirit that in 1959, a group of residents got together to establish the Loisirs Saints-Martyrs-Canadiens with the aim of organizing activities for young and old.
