GLIMPSES of how Canada worked: a writer's memoir.

31. Suddenly, overwhelming challenges

WHEN THE CHALLENGE PASSED THE TWO-YEAR 'sink or swim' mark as 1965 began, I was amazed to learn that it had a board of directors. The paper's founding masthead had half a dozen names, all volunteers. Suddenly there were almost 30 names, including a few paid full-timers.

That wasn't the only surprise.

The Junior Staff still met twice a month, but in Vol. 3 – No. 2 February 1965, the upper half of the front page contained a photo of 17 "smart looking teenagers", captioned with names and their 15 high schools. On January 29 they had attended "the founding meeting of The Challenge's Teen Press Club". I knew nothing about that.

Figures in the caption did not match those in an accompanying article by John R. Fitzgerald's; he wrote that "representatives of 21 high schools" attended.

In 1958 the Tely had messed up a front page about Emmanuel Jacks and his front teeth, accompanied by a story with my byline but which I hadn't written. In 1965 I was similarly jolted seeing John's name on a story about his group having an evening meeting "planned and sponsored by the Board of Directors of The Challenge in conjunction with the paper's giant subscription campaign".

John said his invitation was telephoned, then "someone at the meeting" asked him to write the article, but he thought I must know about it and hadn't told him. Hugh MacLeod had heard about it but neither he nor Leo MacGillivray was invited.

We smelled a planned failure of communications. The center spread of that February '65 issue covered another meeting we hadn't heard about.

Below a two-page headline reading "Clergy, Educators, Laity Swing Support Behind Challenge Drive" were eight photos taken "at Loyola College when English-speaking clergy of the Montreal area met with officers of The Challenge to hear the story of the paper's progress and hopes for the future." They show a total of 55 senior and middle-aged men, priests as well as laymen who were "parish chairmen who are to try to get The Challenge into every English-speaking Catholic home". Only two women appear, both high school principals, one a nun.

In the only vertical photo, standing comfortably beside a podium, smiling and holding a long wooden pointer, was the president of the board. He was "the well known" CEO of an international company headquartered in Montreal. (I'd never heard of him nor had Charlie; Leo had met him, Hugh had not.) He was "the key spokesman for The Challenge at campaign gatherings".

Volunteer work has a large escape hatch labelled "loss of interest". In 1965 I had as much work as I could handle and no time to trace details of what was happening with The Challenge. The Archdiocese had seeded it for two years, after which Monsignor moved on to other projects. Leo had eight children involved with summer camps or jobs. Hugh still enjoyed putting the paper to bed, had never cared what happened in other departments.

Only the teens interested me but after slowing down for exams in spring we didn't meet for a few months. There was no paper in July. We were all losing interest.

A long rambling item on page 4 of the August 1965 issue surprised us all.

"The Inside Story

"We know that you readers are very much interested in us. Every day someone asks, 'How is The Challenge coming along?' ... We will drop you this personal note from time to time to keep you up-to-date....

"The first issue came out in February 1963. For the next two years paid subscribers hovered around 2,500. This past February, due to the Challenge Sunday Campaign and the 'Layman in the Pulpit,' the number of our paid subscribers rose to 13,000. We also sell about 6,000 at church doors. The first issue was eight pages. Now our issues are up to 16 pages in spite of determined efforts to keep the paper tight by cutting the writing with very sharp scissors. We try to avoid tiring our readers with long articles.