After standing for 100 years and assisting in supporting veterans and seniors across Wheatland County, the Strathmore Royal Canadian Legion will celebrate the Great War Memorial Hall with a charity golf tournament.
The Centennial Celebrations Committee will be hosting this unique event on July 10th at 10 am at the Ox-Bow Golf Course. 95 dollars will get you 9 holes, a golf cart, a steak dinner and the chance to win a Million Dollar Hole-in-One sponsored by our local GMC.
Sergeant at Arms at the Legion Dave Haines says the funds earned will go a long way towards helping the Legion achieve their goals.
“Covid has hit different organizations quite hard and we’ve had no money coming into the branch for basically two years and all the bills kept on coming in. It's important so that we can raise the funds that we would hope to help us achieve our goals of making the Legion more inviting for the general public. We are not a private club where you have to have a member sign you in any longer. That changed number of years ago, so we'd like to get more people coming into the branch and if it looks more inviting, we're happy to have more people come in.”
Haines and the Legion also have a wish-list of features that the Great War Memorial Hall needs to improve or maintain. These include but aren't limited to: new flooring, beautification of the exterior, putting up a divider and basic repairs and maintenance.
The Legion and the Great War Memorial Hall have been a staple of community engagement since their founding in 1925. It offers a place where veterans and locals can engage with each other and find help and support within their town and from people like them.
Haines says the Legion's primary job is to support all veterans, whether they're from World War II or currently serving. A big part of this is reaching out to the community to see where they can help out.
“We've got a service officer, a branch service officer who goes around talking to our veterans in Strathmore and Wheatland County about what the Legion can do to help them. If the branch itself can't help them, he puts them in contact with the command service officers in Calgary and Veterans Affairs.”
Haines wants locals to know about the great amenities that the Legion offers at their Strathmore location. In addition to being open to the public, it can also be rented to host everything from weddings to graduations.
“It's a friendly environment. We do have some historical displays, so the public can come in and take a look at those. During different times of the year we do have pool tables upstairs. we've got our monstrous hall main hall and It can hold 300 people if I'm not mistaken and we just had a brand new audio-visual system put in.”
Space is going fast and pre-registration ends on Sunday. Drop by the Legion in-person or e-transfer to RCL10@shaw.ca with the password "legion" to register yourself or a team.
If you are looking to help the Legion outside of attending the tournament this Sunday, the Strathmore Legion is always accepting volunteers to assist with their contributions to the community.
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Fri, Apr 26, 4:30 PM
