SUNDRE – Members of the local Royal Canadian Legion plan to once again gather at the River Valley School gymnasium to host the community Remembrance Day ceremony.
While the annual service was once held at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #223 in Sundre, the hall would tend to fill up beyond capacity with many people who came out to pay their respects finding themselves standing at or even outside the building’s main entrance.
Since the community service had outgrown the hall and the membership wanted to more comfortably accommodate everyone who made the effort to come out, the decision was made in 2018 to move the ceremony to the elementary school, which ultimately proved more suitable in terms of available space to stretch out.
“It’s way better when it’s not as crowded,” said Comrade Art Dickson, Sundre legion president.
Doors will be open by 10 a.m. on Saturday with the service due to get started at around 10:30 a.m. followed by a traditional program format including performances by the Sundre Community Choir and the laying of wreaths with participation from the RCMP, the Sundre Fire Department, cadets, and elected officials.
After the official ceremony concludes, the legion will also host a luncheon. The last couple of years, the luncheon had been held at Sundre High School following the service at River Valley, but will this time around be returning to the legion’s hall, said Dickson.
And in the lead-up to the community ceremony on Remembrance Day, members of the legion will on Nov. 8 also be conducting services for students at both River Valley School and Sundre High School in the morning as well as early that afternoon at the Myron Thompson Health Centre, he said.
“We were (also) supposed to go to the (Sundre Seniors’ Supportive Living) lodge, but they have a COVID situation there now, so that’s been cancelled,” he told the Albertan on Nov. 1 during a phone interview.
Poppy campaign in full swing
The local legion’s membership has also been busy with the annual poppy campaign.
“We’re full steam ahead right now,” said Dickson.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the legion’s volunteers would place poppy donation boxes on the counters of local businesses throughout the community. But as a result of the public health mandates that were active at the time, the legion had to adapt and eventually decided to instead set up a table at Freson Bros., where volunteers will until Nov. 10 be manning the station in two shifts throughout the morning and afternoon, he said.
“That’s the place to go” if someone in the Sundre area wants to physically purchase a poppy in-person to support the campaign, he said.
“Plus, we’ve given out envelopes to businesses in town and area,” he said, adding members go door-to-door dropping off self-addressed and stamped envelopes for anyone interested in making a donation.
“We kind of started that when COVID was going strong. So, we’re staying with that format,” he said. “It worked really well these last few years, so we’re going to continue doing that.”
