We have come a long way since our inception in 1959 with 27 members in the first year.

Our longest serving member is Bill Hutchinson who joined in 1962.

Jeff Purvey, our Club Founder, moved to Peterborough and opened a small Fish & Chips restaurant in 1956.  He had previously worked in his fathers Fish & Chip restaurant located on the Danforth, in Toronto.

After several  years here and because of his previous involvement in the Leeside Gyro Club, he formed the club based upon a meeting of friends who liked to hunt and share their good times.

This common ground of sharing fresh game amongst Club members, led to the Club hosting Peterborough’s first “Wildlife Night”.  Huge amounts of moose (and later buffalo from a local ranch), pickerel and frog legs along with lots of beer and gambling tables, proved to be a huge success.  This eventually evolved into an annual gathering (essentially a larger stag event) for as many as 200-300 men.

From this night we raised several thousands of dollars every year for local charities.  This fell to the wayside as other Clubs like the Lions and Optimists copied this event for fund-raising and therefore,  too many hands in the pie led to declining attendance.

For quite a few years during the late 70's and 80's, our Club used to put a float in the Peterborough Xmas parade.  Members, spouses and the kids would get together on weekends for months prior to the parade to work on some very fantastic floats.  These involved weekend workdays along with family barbeques and dinners.

An annual event which has become popular enough for Gyros from other Clubs to attend, is our Ice fishing trip.  This involves lots of food (with our on ice barbeque), lots of liquid refreshments, and the occasional catching of fish.

Our club has produced quite a few Governors and stepped up to the plate to run conventions when needed.  Many of our conventions have been highly regarded, leading to our official nickname  “ Partyborough “.

Even though our Club suspends Gyro activities over the summer ( June to August), we are still active with house parties and summer “family” picnics.  We are going to introduce a get together once a month during the summer suspension in the future.

We have the usual formal Club events like Installation night in June of each year and Xmas dances.