Our Provincial Chiropody Association celebrates 24 years of progress (1985-2009)

Information collected by Elisabeth Hibbert

The year, 2005 marked the 20^th Anniversary of our professional provincial Chiropody Association. 

We are looking forward to next year’s (2010) Silver Anniversary celebration.

The groundwork for the association actually began in 1983, as the first class of chiropodists graduated. “The Chiropody Club” as it was referred to was comprised of a group of chiropodists and students that would gather and discuss issues at various social events, says Bob Lee (1985 graduate). Mark Childs was president prior to an official association.  This club later became the association in 1985.  Roger Newell wrote the first newsletter for the graduating class in which the 12 graduates were congratulated on their achievements by Queen Elizabeth of England herself; they were very pleased says Roger Newell.  In 1985 Roger Newell, a British trained chiropodist and teacher at the TIMT chiropody school was appointed the first president of the association under its original name “The Ontario Association of Chiropodists”. The original board members comprised of two members of each of the two graduating classes (1983, 1984) and teachers from TIMT: Andrew Springer, Mark Childs, Susan McGuire, James Maczko, Margaret Carey, Carol Edmonds, then two members of the 1985 class joined upon graduation, Bob Lee and Peter Stavropoulos.  Unfortunately the Podiatry Association had protection on this name and later it had to be changed. A general meeting was held January 12^th, 1985 at the Scadding Community Centre in Toronto, to discuss proposed bylaws and a code of ethics. Another meeting was held on May 25^th at the Don Mills Library. 

The Instep took on a regular monthly newsletter format in January 1987 (Volume 1 Issue 1). Bob Lee was acclaimed the interim president in 1986 until Peter Guy was elected and became the first voted President of the association. The association temporarily changed its name the “Ontario Academy of Chiropodists” as it applied for incorporation until the name was discovered to be invalid and the current name “Ontario Society of Chiropodists” was agreed upon and accepted for incorporation in September of 1987.

I would like to thank Brian Brodie for bringing this special anniversary to our attention, and Mark Childs, Bob Lee and Roger Newell founding association board members for providing us with information on the birth of our association. There is limited documentation on the association prior to 1987, if we have omitted anyone that was involved in the association we apologize.  

The OSC celebrated its 20^th anniversary with a Wine and Cheese at the Old Mill Inn, on February 18^th, 2005. We invite all of you to attend next year, details to follow.