The Sunshine Coast’s Legions are taking their first steps toward reopening, but for now the atmosphere will be a lot different than members and guests are used to.
Branch 109 in Gibsons was the first on the Coast to reopen and it’s also the most in need of making up the revenue lost during more than 12 weeks of being closed.
“Financially our situation has become a major concern,” president Wilma Jones and the Branch 109 executive said in a letter to members and staff just before reopening on May 28. The letter said the expenses that have piled up while they had no revenue coming in include a $4,400 water and sewer bill from the Town covering the past six months, $1,200 in taxes each month and $2,250 for BC Hydro charges.
“We absolutely need all your help if we want to make sure this Legion becomes the social hub it has been in the past and remains so.”
Jones told Coast Reporter the Gibsons Legion has been holding a lot of fundraising events since reopening, including a bottle drive and a modified version of the traditional meat draw – using gift cards instead of meat.
They’re also planning a tailgate sale on June 20, taking advantage of their large parking lot to ensure lots of distance between participants.
Jones said there was “quite a response” to the bottle drive and they’ve been getting donations from both members and non-members. “That’s still ongoing if anyone who wants to donate – however small, we welcome anything. That’s going into our general fund, which covers our running costs.”
As well as restricting the seating capacity and spreading out the tables, the Gibsons Legion has set up one door as an entry and one as an exit with a hand sanitizer station available on the way in and sanitizer at all the tables.
While the bar and kitchen are operating on reduced hours with the help of volunteers, events like live bands are going to have to wait.
Jones said a lot of the regulars have been returning, but overall people still seem wary about going out to any sort of public venue.
“I hope, given time, that they will get more confident and come out,” Jones said. “I know it’s not particular to us.”
Larry Hamblin, a member of the executive at Legion Branch 140 in Sechelt, said the Sechelt Legion has been able to weather the financial impact of the shutdown thanks to reserves, and plans to reopen its doors to members and guests on July 2, with limited hours for food and beverage service.
Hamblin said they’re hoping for a good response, and have already been getting questions from Legion regulars about when they’ll reopen.
“Our lounge is set up to handle 184 seats, which means we can have 92 seats under the 50 per cent policy, but we’ve chosen to set it at 50 seats,” Hamblin said.
Hamblin said they won’t be hosting events, including meat draws, and for the time being no pool, darts or bands and dances.
Sechelt Legion staff and volunteers will have masks, which Hamblin said someone is making for them in exchange for donated material.
“We’ve also ordered all of our sanitization and disinfectant supplies, and so on,” he said.
The Sechelt Legion has also been working on a move to a new location in a former auto shop in the 5500 block of Inlet Avenue, but Hamblin said the pandemic hasn’t upset those plans at all and the Legion has been meeting with its architects and the District of Sechelt to finalize the design for the site.
The Pender Harbour Legion Branch 112 is taking the reopening more slowly.
The Legion’s commercial kitchen has remained open for the use of the Pender Harbour Seniors Housing Society’s Healthy Meals program, but branch president Ted Taylor told Coast Reporter they could hold off as long as September for a general opening. He also said their financial situation hasn’t been badly impacted.
“We’ve already set up the building for social distancing as far as the tables and chairs go and we’ve started to assemble a plan,” Taylor said. “We haven’t gone and got Plexiglas yet but we will, and N95 masks and shields are on order... So, all the preparations are going to be in place before we open.”
Taylor said the need to use volunteers to reopen has also been a factor in their planning, especially since many of the branch’s members are older.
The Pender Harbour Legion relies heavily on events for revenue and a lot of those are not scheduled to resume for months, he said. “As an example, the Blues Festival, which normally happens in June, has been postponed now.”
Roberts Creek’s “Little Legion” Branch 219, hasn’t announced any details about reopening, but the executive told Coast Reporter that they are working through planning and applications and in a Facebook post for members last week they said they hoped to have an announcement “in the next little while.”
“At this point it looks like the plan is to have a series of fundraisers over the summer, with an eye to having regular bar service by the fall,” the post said.
