Roberts Creek Legion 219 – The Little Legion – is celebrating 70 years in the community this Saturday.
The all-ages celebration will have activities for the kids, live entertainment, a barbecue by donation and a cake cutting ceremony at 1 p.m. at the Legion, located at 3064 Lower Road.
The Little Legion has a lot to celebrate, from its meagre beginnings as a fishing cabin to overcoming a near-death experience just four years ago.
While a group of veterans started meeting in a Roberts Creek basement in 1946, ultimately receiving a Legion charter in 1947, it was the fundraising effort and vision of veterans Jack Hamon and Jack Eldred that made a freestanding Legion possible in 1958.
“After hosting fishing derbies, they purchased a small fishing cabin in 1958 which became home to Royal Canadian Legion Branch 219 Roberts Creek,” said current president Diane McIntosh.
“The original building was just a quarter of the size of what it is now, but the original cabin is still there. It’s just been added onto.”
The cabin structure is still visible on the front right hand side of the Legion when facing it from Lower Road.
“We can actually see where there is an old bulkhead in the building and that’s where the original Legion ended,”
The small space served veterans well in the area until the early ’70s when it was expanded. The Little Legion was again expanded in the ’80s when Ron Oram and a crew of dedicated diggers spent a year burrowing out a basement.
“That’s where the snooker room is now,” McIntosh said.
A smoking room was added in 2003 to comply with new laws, but that room is now used for meetings, as smoking has been moved outside.
The Little Legion now has room for a small dance floor and stage, kitchen and bar, a pool table, dart boards and seating for over 100 guests. The building also can be rented out to groups for private events.
While the Legion space has expanded over the years, the Legion membership has dropped as veterans have passed away and it’s been hard to attract new members, despite the change several years ago that made it possible for any adult to join.
Due to the decline in members and patrons at the Legion, it was in dire straits about four years ago.
“The executive at that time announced that the Legion was in serious financial debt and needed to fundraise about $7,000 in three months, and as they felt that was not able to happen they were letting the community know they felt there was nothing that could be done,” McIntosh said.
“But a group of members calling themselves Team 219 were willing to jump in, so we struck a fundraising committee and in three months raised nearly $10,000 from the community and members. Everybody just threw themselves into it.”
One of the more popular fundraisers the committee put on was called A Close Shave for the Legion and it saw three members shave their heads on the mandala at Creek Daze at 2:19 p.m. for the cause.
“We made about $3,000 from that alone,” McIntosh said. “It was our cook and our bartender and one of our members.”
While the money raised was enough to save the Legion that year, members realized it would take more to keep the doors open in the long run so they changed up some programing and tried to attract a new crowd.
“We tried to address everybody’s critique or concern, what they wanted to see at the Legion,” McIntosh said.
The changes led to a wider variety of entertainment, as well as Friday night dinner music and trivia nights.
“We just kept trying to answer everybody’s needs and also tried to attract the younger members, which are the next generation.”
She said the biggest barrier to increasing membership at the Legion is the misconception about it. “People don’t understand that anybody can join. They don’t understand that it’s a community service organization and people don’t understand that it is not a government-run organization and that it is not a supporting war organization,” she said.
The Legion does support veterans and it also gives back to the community through bursaries and grants.
While the Legion isn’t on the verge of closure any more, securing new members is imperative to its health and longevity in the community that it has served for seven decades.
Half-price memberships for the rest of 2017 will be sold at the anniversary event this Saturday. Membership comes with privileges like discounts on events and the ability to bring guests to the Legion.
McIntosh hopes the community will come out between noon and 6 p.m. on Aug. 12 to tour the Legion, learn more about it and celebrate its history in the Creek.
Learn more at www.robertscreeklegion.ca
