P.E.O.’s origins in Manitoba can be traced to a visit between childhood friends May Blackert and Mary Cory in Selkirk, Manitoba.
May Blackert was a former Iowa resident who had moved to Selkirk, Manitoba. Mary Cory, who was visiting from Iowa, happened to be a member of Chapter AT in Spencer, Iowa. The two talked about P.E.O., and Chapter AT granted consent for May to select a charter list, resulting in the formation of Chapter A, Selkirk.
Supreme (now International) Organizer Zora Knight organized Chapter A, the first Canadian chapter outside of British Columbia, on September 21, 1926, with May as president.
After steady chapter growth, Manitoba Provincial Chapter was organized in Selkirk on June 22 and 23, 1951; the first provincial president was Evelyn Simpson.
Manitoba proudly hosted the Convention of International Chapter in 1985, and as was said at Convention, “Never before was an International Convention hosted by so few.”
In 2008, our Provincial Chapter territory was enlarged to include Northwest Ontario, and thus Manitoba-Northwest Ontario P.E.O. was born.
Source: P.E.O.: The Canadian History published in the P.E.O. Record, May – June 2011
Manitoba-Northwest Ontario Provincial Chapter
As of March 1, 2022:
- 14 chapters
- 381 members