The Friends of the Mounted Police Heritage Centre is a non-profit organization committed to supporting the RCMP Heritage Centre through volunteer and monetary support. Over the past 20 years, the Friends have donated thousands of volunteer hours and more than $2,000,000 towards the upkeep of the former RCMP Centennial Museum and the current RCMP HERITAGE CENTRE.
Originally known as the Friends of the Mounted Police Museum, the Friends formed in 1988 after Malcolm Wake, then Curator of the RCMP Centennial Museum, addressed a meeting of the RCMP Veterans Association and suggested that they form a “Friends” group. S/Sgt. Ivan Thue (Rtd), and Sgt. Kenneth E Campbell (Rtd) immediately responded by gathering the necessary information to create a nationally registered charitable organization 1989.
The RCMP Heritage Centre would not be where it is today without the generous support of the Friends of the Mounted Police Heritage Centre, beginning with the passion and drive of these three Founding Fathers.
At the same time, an agreement with the RCMP allowed the Friends to operate the Scarlet and Gold gift shop in the Centennial Museum. This gift shop improved services to visitors, who up until that time could only purchase baseball caps and some small souvenirs from the Commissionaire on duty. Net profits from Scarlet and Gold gift shop sales were wholly committed to supporting improvements to the RCMP Centennial Museum in the early years, and to supporting work to develop the new Heritage Centre since 1999. In addition to these sale proceeds, many Friends have made generous personal donations over the years, and memberships have also provided much needed revenue.
We are very proud of the fact that over the past 20 years the Friends have donated over $1,000,000 to the RCMP Centennial Museum, and that more recently over $1,000,000 has been committed to the capital development of the new Heritage Centre. The success of the Friends is a testament to the power of community and individual commitment. Volunteers have long since been a critical element in our success.
From 1990-2006 the gift shop operated with only two volunteer employees, one full-time and one part-time, with the rest of the work being done by volunteers. Most of these volunteers were members of the RCMP Veterans Association (Regina Division) and their spouses, although many others were interested supporters from the broader community.
While the Heritage Centre gift shop, the Central Trading Post, is now owned and operated by the RCMP Heritage Centre, Friends volunteers continue to play a critical role in providing services, ensuring increased proceeds from sales will continue to support the operations of the Heritage Centre for years to come.
All of the Friends are extremely proud to see the dream we first imagined back in 1988 become a reality with the opening of the RCMP Heritage Centre in 2007. While we are excited about the realization of our dream, we understand all too well that this brings with it tremendous responsibilities to continue our work; we remain as committed as ever to ensuring that the RCMP story is shared around the world.
We also understand that we could not have succeeded in helping make the RCMP Heritage Centre a reality without the tremendous support of our members and supporters. We are proud of the fact that we have over 1,300 members in every Canadian province, in almost every U.S. state, as well as in England, Scotland, Germany, Spain, Australia, Ireland and Austria. Memberships are $50.00 annually and include benefits such as our quarterly newsletter – The Friendly Notes – that keeps Friends up to date on what’s going on at the Heritage Centre as well as provides fascinating insights into the history of the RCMP.
