For nearly a century, the Thorold Legion has stood by its community.
To celebrate Legion Week, all veterans and seniors are welcome to attend a Seniors and Veterans Appreciation Day, with luncheon served from 2 to 4 p.m. this Thursday, Sept. 19.
Awards will be given out to Thorold Legion supporters in the upstairs hall, with wine and cheese to follow in the downstairs lounge, this Friday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m.
Like all Legions, Thorold's volunteer executive members constantly struggle to reinvent the facility, since there’s only a handful of surviving veterans who remain at Branch 17.
Last year, Legion president Eric Cuthbert said that with fewer and fewer surviving veterans to support the aging Ormond Street Legion, and no government funding, the club’s executive has been striving to overcome the stigma that you have to be a member to drop in there.
“We’re open to the public,” said Cuthbert, from noon until midnight Monday through Thursday, and from noon until 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. We need people (coming in) every day.”
Reasonably priced drinks, cribbage, euchre, pool and darts are all available to both members and non-members, and draws to win meat are held weekly, along with live bands playing popular music each Friday night.
The spacious hall is also available to rent; for more information contact Donna Hale at 905-227-5862.
“I do what I do because my father served,” Cuthbert explained. “So it’s important to keep it going so they are not forgotten, or the ones that survive today. Everyone looks at veterans as World War II or older. We tend to forget about the ones who survived the Gulf War, Vietnam, and so on. We’re still one of the most highly-thought-of peacekeeping countries and we have soldiers all over the world who are putting their lives on the line.”
New tables and chairs have modernized the seating area, though there's a great deal of history in the 110-plus year-old building. It was formerly called the British Empire Service League before it became the Thorold Legion after receiving its charter in 1926.
The bell that hangs behind the bar is from the HMCS Thorlock war ship that was named for Thorold and served in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War.
It was called Branch 17, according to Dave Handley, because it was the 17th branch to open in Ontario.
Handley has the distinction of being the Legion’s longest surviving member, having joined in 1968.
An annual Thorold Legion membership costs $50. However, about $32 of each $50 the branch takes in is earmarked for Veterans Affairs Canada.
A representative from the Department of Veterans Affairs visits the Legion once every two or three months to help veterans and their families navigate pensions and answer questions. The next scheduled visit is on Tuesday, Oct. 22 from noon to 2 p.m.
