Last night, the Royal Canadian Legion Estevan Branch #60 celebrated a successful 2024 with its annual general meeting. From fundraisers to the Poppy Campaign and various events throughout the year, the organization revelled in the community's generosity.
"We've got our halls more active, a lot of people coming in and renting our building. We were able to donate a fair amount of money this year to veterans programs and to our local community. There's a whole list of [the] $75,000 we donated this year, so we're proud and happy to be able to do that. Overall, I think the year went pretty well," branch president Jim 'Frosty' Forrest said.
A new capital expense
While their success was abundant throughout the year, there is one capital expense the organization will need to tackle in the new year. Earlier in June, the southeast was battered with a hailstorm that caused damage to many properties in the area, even causing one building to be condemned. One of the buildings affected was the Legion Hall and its roof. "It's terrible on the roof. The roof blew off this thing in 2008. They replaced it with a membrane roof, which I'm pretty sure was what they could afford at the time. But, it did not stand up well under the hail."
"We started to get leaks in here. The whole roof was full of holes. We did some patching and so on to get us by. The insurance company, basically, would look after some patching, but that's not a fix. We need to put a better roof on there. We've got an engineering firm [that] has looked at it. It's always difficult to put a new roof on an old building, but we're actually kind of waiting on them now. We know we're looking at many thousands of dollars to make this happen and to put something on that will last for us, so we're not up against this another 10 years from now," Forrest added.
He noted that he's confident the group would be able to make it happen with some help from the community. However, by his own admission, it would take some creative fundraising to pay for the replacement.
Community support remains strong
"Estevan is a community-minded community," Frosty shared. Monetary-wise, he said the support has always been there for the Legion branch. He's seen involvement from all walks of life, whether it be businesses or individuals. For 2025, Forrest noted he'd like to see more volunteers donate their time to the organization. "We need volunteers all the time. We do have a good group of volunteers, but it would always be nice to have a few more. We've found whenever we've needed the community or whatever, they've been available to help us and vice versa. I think we've played a part in helping our community out."
$75,000 in combined donations to the community - a new peak
For as much as everyone gives to the local Legion branch, the organization also returns the favour to various charities that need a lift in and around Estevan.
"Our primary goal is to help veterans and their families, and we always try to keep that in mind [when] we're making donations in the community. You know, we have veterans and widows in some of these places that we support," the branch president said.
According to their balance sheet, their total donations to the community from 2024 reached just shy of $75,000, their largest contribution in the last five years. Their previous peak was in 2022 when the organization provided about $69,000 to initiatives around the southeast. Their biggest donation this year was $10,000 towards the St. Joseph Hospital Foundation and their pursuit of MRI services in the area.
"I'm so looking forward to it myself. I've been waiting over a year for an MRI, so it's a personal issue to me. They keep telling me I'm going to get in before the end of the year, but I haven't seen that yet. That's absolutely something that probably should have happened years ago. Thanks to, you know, a local lady that's kicked this thing off with a large donation."
"Every day, I see there's donations coming in. That's what this community is about -- it's about helping each other," Frosty added.
He recalled some examples of the charities the local Legion branch has supported that benefit veterans and the general public alike. "We support STARS Ambulance because we know our veterans are going to need an ambulance at some point in time. Of course, we support the long-term care facility and we support the addiction centre. There are numerous modern vets have come home with problems with addictions and so on. That's part of our deal is to make sure that the people who need it, particularly veterans, get what they need."
'Onward and upward' for the Legion in 2025
The big project they'll be tackling will be the aforementioned replacement roof for the Hall. Frosty noted that he would also like to see the clubroom get busier with more patrons. A common misconception he's seen is that people need to be members of the Legion to have access to the clubroom - one that Frosty would like to correct the record on. "You do not necessarily have to be a Legion member to come in the Legion, you know."
"[The Legion is] a great facility. We've got the four best pool tables in town. We do karaoke on Saturday nights when we can and we'd invite people to come down. We're continually trying to upgrade our facilities to make it attractive to people. We've got probably the best kitchen staff you've ever seen. So, we're just onward and upward," he shared.
Last night's general meeting also saw a few new appointments to their executive team. Mel Murray was voted in as the new 2nd vice president, Quentin Dosch was appointed as the new assistant sergeant of arms, and Pastor John Mohan of the Estevan Church of God was sworn in to be the new Legion Chaplin.