February President’s Report

I am happy to report that Holly. Judy and I can now sleep as we finally have insurance on the building. For 2 months we had no insurance and I can honestly say I called every insurance company we could think of and then decided to try TSG or the new Brokerlink. Their agent Lisa DesRoche has worked diligently and found us insurance with Intact Insurance. Our Legion building is old but it is valuable in so many ways to our Veterans and our community so getting insurance was very important. We extend a big thank you to Lisa for her perseverance and success. I would like to thank Holly and Jack and those who visited the building or drove around it in the middle of the night. Thank goodness we have an awesome alarm system and cameras inside and out. You should also know that every nook and cranny in the building has been cleaned and organized. The clutter is no more.

During the months of January and February your Executive and office staff have been very busy. For example, they could be found cleaning the kitchen, defrosting freezers, painting, organizing pictures, clearing out broken furniture, organizing files as well as getting Shaw to upgrade our Internet capabilities and phone system. Many thanks to Roger for dealing with Shaw. Shaw was awesome to deal with and we appreciate their assistance in addressing this much needed improvement.

A big thank you to Gerry and Roger Beebe and Lorraine Lozo for calling our members to update emails. We believe it is important to be able to communicate with our members and keep you up to date with what is happening, especially during these unusual times.

We have also had Trevor Mossing and Amanda Ward doing much needed repairs throughout the Legion. The Lancaster Room, after the Cypress College moved out, could not be rented out until it was repaired. All the ceiling tiles were painted and the broken tiles replaced and the walls were repaired and painted. It looks great now and is available for rental when we open.

Our plumbing system, including toilets and urinals, has caused us problems over the years. We believe this problem has been fixed as some of the pipes have been replaced throughout the building. Trevor actually used a camera down the pipes to find the problem. If you can believe it, the toilet in the Handicapped bathroom in the Ortona room was blocked with rolls of toilet tissue and stir sticks. This blockage has been fixed and the problem solved.

As you probably are aware, we have organized, through Rafflebox, a 50/50 draw. Thank you to all for supporting this fund raiser for our Legion. If you haven’t purchased your tickets either on-line or in the office, you have until March 8th. The draw will be held March 15th.

Judy and I have been busy applying regularly for the Wage subsidy and we have also applied for the Provincial Government Re-Launch grant. We have been receiving the wage subsidy but no word yet on the grant.

We have been open for coffee from 9-12 every morning and we have been happy to see some of our members dropping in. We are still not open for cards, darts or pool. Hopefully once stage 3 arrives and the VLT’s are turned on we can aim for some semblance of normalcy.

As you are aware Hell’s Basement, Medicine Hat Brewing Company and Chris Hellman had a fund raiser during our Poppy Campaign. Many thanks to them for the $1000.00 we were able to deposit in our Poppy Fund to assist Veterans and their families in need. We also have had members and anonymous donors contributing to helping the Legion assist our veterans and to helping us pay the bills.

We have been asked to look for volunteers from District 6 for individuals who would be interested in partaking in either of the following Working Groups.

Poppy Campaign Working Group – Last year Command spent many hours trying to figure out how to organize the Poppy Campaign to everyone’s satisfaction during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was not perfect therefore Command would like some input from our members as to how we could improve the system for the foreseeable future.

Military Service Recognition Book Working Group – This book is published by Fenety Marketing Services Ltd. and Fenety solicits donations from the general public and businesses in Alberta and the NWT. A significant portion of the funds are given to Alberta-NWT Command for the Branch Assistance Fund. The books are provided to all Branches, in the Command, to be given to schools, libraries and other public areas, free of charge. If anyone in our branch is interested in the history of our veterans and the Canadian Armed Forces, we would like to hear from you.

If you are interested either of these working groups, you can send an e-mail to Wayne Shaw, our District Commander at district6@abnwtlegion.com and he will forward you the Terms of Reference.

The Branch has judged the Literary Poster entries at the local level but have not yet received the results from District or from Provincial or Dominion Command. We will be getting the local certificates and cheques ready for distribution to the schools for next month.

If you would like to be involved in the Legion Executive, we will be offering Information sessions on the Royal Canadian Legion in Stage 3. That will probably be in April. Please call the office and give us your name. We sure could use more volunteers.

Most importantly, if you are in need of assistance or know someone who is, the Legion Office is open and we are here to help. Helping Veterans is our mandate.

Keep safe and follow the Alberta Health Guidelines,

Sheila Donner,

President