The Meraloma Club is an amateur athletic organization
founded in 1923 by Bill Edwards and 11 other swimmers from
the local Kitsilano area of Vancouver, Canada. They
initially called their club the Mermaids. Canadian
Football, Rugby Football and various sports soon followed
and as the club grew to include sports other than swimming,
the members developed a new name, suggested by Douglas
Hand. He took
"Mer"
from the original Mermaids, added
"al"
from alpha,
"om"
from omega (the first and last letters of the the Greek
alphabet) and "a"
from "always" that was interpreted to mean "Mermaids,
first, last and always". Later, the permanent Club
motto found favour: "Once a Meraloma Always a
Meraloma". Thus, the Mermaid Athletic Club became the
Meraloma Club.
The club even developed their own songs. For several
years in the late 1920's and early '30's a women's swim
team was part of the club. Women's sports returned to
the club in 1973 after a 45 year absence, at first in the
form of field-hockey and eventually, soccer, basketball,
volleyball and touch football. The club currently has
350 active male and female members and 100 associates in 8
sport sections.
The Meraloma Club is housed in a 1923 Parks &
Recreation vintage structure, on Connaught Park which it
continues to renovate and maintain. A Heritage Award
from the City of Vancouver was earned in 1979 for
preserving architectural integrity during renovations.
