The Royal Canadian Legion, Alexander Ross Branch #77, has been a valued part of the community for almost ninety years, and one that has seen a great deal of community support in the poppy campaign and the well attended Remembrance Day service.
The one thing the Legion needs is time, and it recently held an open house to tell people what it's all about and try to recruit new members.
Legion President Peter Wyatt says that it's time to get a younger generation involved, as the veterans get older there needs to be someone to continue to remember them and their contributions.
"It's time to pass the torch. If nobody's there to catch the torch, it'll burn out, and that's it," Wyatt says.
The need for members is something which limits what the Legion can actually do, Wyatt says, which is one of the problems they face. For example, they would like to do more with Legion Track and Field, but there simply isn't enough people to properly promote it. Social events also suffer, he says, as they need people to put them on and attend, but if they can get people out they have a good time and they raise a bit of money. With people, the Legion can do more and be increasingly active.
The top priority is the veterans, of course, and the Legion's main goal is to keep their memory alive. One of the ways the Legion does this is through the Poppy campaign, and Wyatt says that this program has been used to support veterans of all ages. It has been used to fund services often used by older veterans, but the fund is also supports programs to help soldiers coming back from Afghanistan as they need help in different areas of their lives.
Legion members do not have to be veterans, Wyatt emphasizes, and he also notes that members only need to contribute what they can and ease in to being part of the organization overall. The legion is designed to help people ease into it, and their hope is to see new members gradually take on more responsibilities as they become more familiar with the organization and have a greater ability to participate.
He says that a lot of people doing a little work can accomplish a great deal of things, and points to the poppy campaign as an example. One person delivering wreaths, for example, might only be doing things for a day, but enough people doing that means it's possible to do it.
"All that adds up. Picture the Legion as a chain, and you're a link in it. If that link is missing, it falls apart. You need that, get those links together and you've got a long chain."
Declining membership has caused other Legion branches to close, especially in smaller communities, and Wyatt says that means supporting the Yorkton Legion is becoming increasingly important.
"Without the Legion, who is going to do the Remembrance Day? A good example is small communities that are pretty viable, like Langenburg and Saltcoats. Years back they had their own little branch, they had 40-50 or maybe 100 veterans. But they passed on and there was nobody to pick up the torch, so they look to us just to keep the remembrance alive. We have a bigger responsibility and fewer members."
The Legion remains relevant, and Wyatt says that while it's unfortunate that deaths in Ottawa and Quebec are serving as reminders of the sacrifice of the Canadian armed forces, it's also a reminder of why what the Legion does is so valuable, and why it needs to survive and people need to support it anew.
"The freedom we have is because of the veterans, even in the present day with the people going to Afghanistan. It has a bearing on the changing world situation. You can't compare it to a World War, but it's still a war. And now we're facing a different type of threat and a different type of war... We have to support those men and women who are facing the new threats that we are facing."
While the open house was in late November, the Legion is always looking for new members, and Wyatt says anyone interested should come down or call the Legion at 306-783-9789 and talk to someone about it. He recommends stopping by at the Friday Beef on a Bun, as they can have an enjoyable evening and then learn about the Legion itself.
