The Humboldt legion is getting a new president.
Current president Larry Cameron is stepping down after serving two consecutive two-year terms, the maximum length allowed.
Cameron has been a legion member for about 25 years. He started as a member in Alberta before moving to British Columbia and finally to Humboldt about 20 years ago.
After moving to Humboldt, Cameron began to take on a greater responsibility starting first as sports chairman before moving on to vice-president and four years ago agreed to become president.
Cameron first became involved with the legion out of respect for his grandfather and uncles who served for Canada.
“It was something I believed in,” he said.
As mental health among returning veterans continues to become a bigger issue, Cameron says the legion is trying to find ways to give all the assistance they can.
“They’re working with Wounded Warriors and they’re getting service dogs for people with PTSD. We’re working on raising money for those. It’s getting more responsibility all the time on the legion itself to help the veterans more and sometimes they don’t know which way to go until they can get a legion to help them.”
Being president hasn’t been particularly difficult for Cameron because of the support he receives from the legion.
The legion is broken down into smaller committees with a chairperson on each committee.
Cameron says it’s the committees that run the legion, his job as president is to oversee the meetings and to guide the committees if they need guidance.
Cameron enjoyed it nonetheless.
“It’s been good, you get to meet a lot of fantastic people and looking after the legion, it’s for a good cause with the veterans in the area it’s something to respect.”
The legion is always looking for new members, especially with the average age of members steadily climbing.
“You can’t force them to be a member but you’d like to have them in there because as I say, with ours, I’m a youngster in our legion almost and I’m over 60 years old.”
Cameron says he feels young among the few older veterans that are left.
“There are not a lot of old second world wars veterans left anywhere they’re getting few and far between.”
Applying to be a member of the legion is easy; all prospective member would need is the service numbers of a veteran relative.
Finding service numbers is easy, too. Veteran Affairs will have a record of their service numbers.
There are different types of memberships, which include associates and affiliates.
There are a variety of different events and activities to be involved in including bowling, golf and cribbage.
For golfers, there’s the opportunity to play provincially and cribbage players can travel across Canada playing legion members from legions across the country.
There is also a bi-annual convention where members can travel to a legion branch in another city in Canada where members get to meet each other and learn about how the main legion is run.
Cameron’s final meeting as president occurs Dec. 9.
Nominations will be taken that night with the plan to name a new president who will begin succeeding Cameron soon after.
Cameron’s final act as president will be to help guide the new president through the first couple weeks, after which point Cameron will decide whether he wants to join a committee right away or take a little while off.
The meeting takes place at 7:30 pm in the legion for anyone who wants to say goodbye to outgoing president Cameron or welcome in the new president.
