Jim Woodward, president of the Kamsack branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, was re-elected zone commander at the Legion’s zone rally held in Kamsack on April 11.
The rally, which was called to order by Sharon Rudy of Kamsack, was attended by 44 Legion members from six branches: five came from Canora; six, Gen. Alex Ross of Yorkton; 26, Kamsack; four, Kelvington; two, Sheho, and one, Springside. No representatives attended from Foam Lake, Lintlaw, Wadena, Norquay, Preeceville, Rose Valley or Theodore.
As the guest speaker, Wendy Shabatoski of Kamsack made “an amazing presentation” talking about her trip to France and visits to the battlegrounds of Juno Beach and Vimy Ridge and she discussed how she uses her experiences as a teacher of high school students.
Also speaking were Woodward, who delivered the zone commander’s report; Carol Peterson, the district commander, and Ken Box, the president of the Provincial Command.
Thanking members for their support over the past year, Woodward said that he had left each branch he visited having learned something.
“Zone one has 13 branches of which four are struggling to survive,” he said. All the branches have the same problems: aging memberships and lack of funds.
“I have also noted that any branch that meets once a month is struggling,” he said. “I don’t want to compare one branch to another other than the similar problems. Rose Valley, for example, has a very limited membership but it has a Legion barbershop group where members get together almost once a week to entertain someone in the community. This makes the branch unique but it is surviving.
“One of my first visits last year was to Sheho, where they talked of their 65th anniversary and I left with the feeling that it had been quite an undertaking for a smaller branch, and in August I had the opportunity to be part of that event. Words cannot express how impressed I was with their accomplishments.
“In my visits it became apparent that several branches were holding onto buildings that were now a liability and many believed if they gave up their buildings they had to give up their charter. This is far from the truth and no organization should be working for only its building. These monies could definitely be used elsewhere and be a benefit to (a branch’s) existence. I commend Yorkton for continually supplying an honour guard or flag party to the smaller branches for its Legion funerals.
“This is the 90th anniversary of the Legion and it would be fantastic if in 10 years we could get together and celebrate our 100th but that’s only a pipe dream,” Woodward said. “Reality is that we as an organization need to correct our membership deficiencies by adapting to mandates within our reach.
“I believe the Legion needs to be commended for identifying military-related issues but we also have to make sure (those issues) get back into the proper jurisdiction where they belong,” he said. “Where dollars are tight and all community groups struggle for a piece of that dollar it is very unfair to assume the local businesses can support many of these needs.
“Social media has done more to identify these problems than we have been able to address. The reality is that even our branch’s sports programs have lost their luster.
“I thank my branch for hosting this year’s rally. We are proud to say we have made many changes to our heritage building and have started some creative ventures that may entice a younger age group to become members.”
Woodward said that at the last zone rally he had been tasked to acquire additional information on graveyard maintenance.
He said that this being the 90th anniversary of the Legion, his concerns over the subject of graveyard maintenance began when he had started compiling a database on Legion and military headstones.
Once the magnitude got so great this database was made into a “virtual cemetery” where it was shared on social media, Woodward said. “The results have been astronomical and I know it is just the tip of the iceberg.”
He said that last fall he had contacted the Legion’s provincial office to ask what the old perimeter of Zone 1 was because he had wanted to identify the many branches that no longer exist.
“To date this question remains unanswered but I moved ahead identifying the various closed branches within the current boundaries,” he said. “My database on “Find a Grave” currently sits at over 500 names and I know this is not correct because there are some I have no pictures for.
“On my branch visit to Kelvington last fall I arrived there a little early so I went to the cemetery to see how many service headstones were present. I saw about nine but there was too much snow to take proper pictures. I will be back.”
He said that when he was cataloging the First Nations cemetery near Kamsack at least a half dozen headstones were photographed and sent to Veterans Affairs for repairs. Conversations have identified that there are several graves that don’t have headstones and he found one in the Riverview Cemetery in Kamsack that is unidentified.
“Kamsack, for example, has had over 800 members pass through the branch in 90 years and I would say many of the larger branches will have the same numbers if researched. I was very pleased when Provincial came out with the request for input into a special edition of the Recognition Book where I submitted over 371 pages and could already add another 50 pages without much effort.
“It is very worthy to note a person from Belgium contacted me and has sent me several pictures from the Adegem Canadian War Cemetery plus pictures of a Grade 4 class project where students had placed a candle at every headstone and carried out a special service.
“The magnitude of this project will take some time to be felt, let alone identified, but the end result is that we will at least know where they are. One thing for sure is that the Canadian War Memorial site doesn’t compliment the Saskatchewan Virtual War Memorial. I have started to add the many geographic lakes and rivers to the “Find A Grave” database and conversations with the Last Post Fund at the provincial convention in Prince Albert basically were too premature to be worthwhile.”
Woodward reminded everyone that the HMCS Kamsack Monument is to be dedicated during a ceremony on May 15 and extended an invitation for everyone to attend.
Ashley Hollett of Kamsack won the door prize that had been donated by Petro-Can and pieces of the Legion’s 90th anniversary cake, prepared by the Kamsack Co-op food store, were served.
Chinese auction prizes were won by Diane Larson of Kamsack, Fay Bennett of Kamsack and Gina Rakochy of Canora.
