Medicine Hat's Legion: 100 Years of Service

Host Brian Konrad sits down with Wes Krause to explore the history and significance of the Royal Canadian Legion, its role in supporting veterans, and the ongoing traditions that honour service members. Join us for a deep dive into veteran advocacy, community involvement, and the preservation of military history.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview
01:09 The Formation of the Royal Canadian Legion in 1926
02:35 Support Networks for Veterans Post-WWI
04:46 Veterans' Experiences with PTSD and Social Support
06:59 Legion's Advocacy for Veterans' Benefits
08:57 The Poppy Campaign and Remembrance Day
10:48 Growth of the Legion and Its Contributions
12:56 Royal Patronage and the Legion's Royal Designation
15:31 Memorials and Honoring Fallen Soldiers
17:37 Membership Expansion and Auxiliary Members
19:23 Ladies Auxiliary and Community Support
21:58 The Legion Building and Preservation Efforts
23:26 Personal Stories and Military Artifacts
27:28 The Significance of Military Artifacts and Preservation
30:46 Upcoming Celebrations and Events at the Legion
35:00 How to Join the Legion and Membership Details
36:45 Legion Facilities and Community Activities
38:43 Closing Remarks and Future of the Legion

On July 17, 1926, the Royal Canadian Legion was officially formed, marking a significant milestone in Canadian history. Bring Back The Porch explores its origins, evolution, and the crucial role it plays in providing support to veterans today. Whether you're a history buff or simply interested in understanding how veteran support systems have developed, this podcast offers valuable insights into the legacy of the Legion and its ongoing mission.

The Legion originated from a meeting known as the Unity Conference, where representatives from various veterans' organizations came together to address common concerns and goals. This collaboration laid the foundation for the Canadian Legion of the Branch of the British Empire Service League, which quickly expanded to include numerous branches across the country.

Initially, families often struggled to support veterans who had faced the horrors of war, as they could not fully comprehend what their loved ones had endured. The Legion created a community where veterans could share their struggles and find solace among peers who had shared similar experiences. This sense of camaraderie helped many veterans to process their trauma and find a path toward healing.

One of the Legion's significant contributions has been its advocacy for veterans' rights and needs. The organization played a crucial role in establishing Veterans Affairs Canada, ensuring that veterans received the support and services they deserved. Through its efforts, the Legion has successfully campaigned for various initiatives, including the recognition of November 11th as Remembrance Day, a day dedicated to honoring those who served.

Civilians, especially family members of veterans, have stepped up to support the Legion's efforts. Many volunteers dedicate their time to assist with initiatives like the poppy campaign, demonstrating that the legacy of service extends beyond those who have served. This sense of community involvement is essential for the Legion's sustainability and success.

As the Royal Canadian Legion looks to the future, it continues to adapt to the changing needs of veterans and their families. With the passage of time, the demographics of veterans have shifted, with newer generations from conflicts such as Afghanistan and the Balkans now seeking support. The Legion is committed to ensuring that all veterans, regardless of when they served, receive the care and recognition they deserve.

Today, the Royal Canadian Legion remains a pillar of support for veterans, providing a space for them to connect, share, and heal. Its commitment to advocacy, community involvement, and remembrance ensures that the sacrifices of those who served are never forgotten.


Resources

Royal Canadian Legion Official Website - https://www.legion.ca/
Remembrance Day - Government of Canada - https://www.canada.ca/en/services/defence/caf/militaryhistory/remembrance/remembrance-day.html
High Flight Poem by John Gillespie McGee - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Flight
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/p/Legion-Robertson-Memorial-Branch-No17-100064843265061/

Tickets available at: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/medicine-hat-celtic-festival-tickets-1991493275998?aff=ebdssbcategorybrowse

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Transcript

0:00

Hey, this is Brian again, and I'd like to ask you to do a favor. We can't do this work without people like you. So if you can, please like, share, subscribe, tell your friends about bring back the porch. a lot of times back in the day, it was, you know, Bill, he was in the service. So, you know, he might have some problems. So just stay away from him. Well, now they had a social network that they could get out, even if it was just a case of going and having a beer, having a talk, having a cigarette with a guy, a buddy meant the world and helped them help them get past that. And then they were able to open up more after that This episode of bring back the porch. Brought to you by medicine at Monumental Crafting Quality Memorials of Distinction since 1970. So the 17th is an important day in Canadian history. And we're in the Royal Canadian Legion. Robertson Memorial Branch, number 17 with Wesley Krause who is the archives officer here at the Legion. What is so special about July the 17th, Wes? It's a very special day for the Royal Canadian Legion, because in 1926, that's when the Legion was officially formed. It came out of a meeting called the Unity Conference. And what that was was a group of about 60 delegates from different veterans organizations across the country. They got together and and talked about their common goals, their common concerns. So what they did, they formed what was called the Canadian Legion of the branch of of the British Empire Service League that was started in in 19 or 1926. And from that point it grew and kept on going. Now. There's actually a genesis before that as well too. And it was shortly after after Vimy Ridge in 1917, 1918, actually, that the Great War Veterans Association was formed. So when you think about this. Why did they form these associations? What was the reason behind it? Well, it was a support network, and that's what the Legion does today. They still do that today. It's gives veterans a venue and an opportunity to sit down with other veterans that the either served with or had served in the military so they could talk about things, get things off their chest. Back in the day, there's the thought of this. The PTSD wasn't really a thing, but there were guys that were having having some problems. So they're able to talk this out and in an atmosphere that they felt comfortable with. And that was a key thing and that was the genesis of it. So it developed and it kept on developing after that. Back in those days, at the end of the First World War, veterans would come home and nothing. That was it. That was it. You're back from the war. Thanks for your service. That's right. Carry on. Yeah, but there was lots. Like you say. There was things that they had to deal with and there was no support. None whatsoever. And families were not the support network. Families couldn't understand in many cases, couldn't understand what they went through. And that was a key thing. Like, how could you relate to your son or your daughter or even your wife or girlfriend or whatever? That what you experienced over there? In some cases it was horrific. Other in some cases it may not have been as bad, but the experience in itself, you just couldn't couldn't give it to them. And and also to a lot of these guys who tried to protect their families from those horrors that they experienced. So that was another thing that they found it a great, great difficulty trying to relate. But then again, to how can you relate to someone that didn't serve? That was the other thing. By sitting among your friends and fellow servicemen, they they they did the same thing you did in the service. They experienced many times the same things that you experienced. So they're able to talk this out and get it off their chest and relieve some of the distress and the anxiety of whatever it is. But it also was social, see? And a lot of times back in the day, it was, you know, Bill, he was in the service. So, you know, he might have some problems. So just stay away from him. Well, now they had a social network that they could get out, even if it was just a case of going and having a beer, having a talk, having a cigarette with a guy, a buddy meant the world and helped them help them get past that. And then they were able to open up more after that PTSD, I think they used to refer to it as shell shock. Yeah, there's yeah, it was pretty bad stuff. Different levels of it, of course. I've seen videos of guys that were suffering from shell shock and they just were shaking, completely uncontrollable shaking. You know, we can't fathom that as civilians. We can't get our heads around that. You know, civilians. We watch a movie. Yeah. We'll watch. Saving Private Ryan or The Longest Day and some of the other ones that are that are pretty good movies are really good movies. Accurate. We can't experience that in any way, shape or form because we don't we don't. We can't grasp that. We can talk, sit down and talk with a veteran, see a fellow that served someone that served in Afghanistan. We can sit down and have a chat with him, but we still can't explain. We can't grasp that. Yeah, they served in a country that was all sand and was hot. Hot as Hades. Well, yeah, we get hot here. We got 35 above. Yeah, but it's not the same. No, not even close. So it's hard for veterans to kind of have a discussion, a logical discussion with a civilian, for lack of a better phrase, because they don't know. One of the roles, I believe, of the early veterans association was to advocate for help, for veterans, to government, that that was a key thing at the time. Again, the government really didn't have an idea or a plan how to deal with that. So the Legion was quite instrumental in the formation of Veterans Affairs in the government, and it was through their advocacy that they got this department within the government to start becoming more aware and then also petitioning the government and other funding sources to provide some, some money to help these help these guys with different programs. So the Legion has programs that that they work with Veterans Affairs. If someone comes in and says, yeah, I've got some say, for example, I can't get my hearing aid is I got my hearings gone from when I served. What can I do? Well, they can provide the avenues to go through or for the guy's got just I got trouble. I can't I can't bear with what I've experienced. Okay. We've got these resources, counseling, etc., that we can provide for you. And as a Legion member, that's something that the Legion will do for them. The website for the Royal Canadian Legion is full of information that as I was going through, it was going I didn't know that. I didn't know that November the 11th that was designated as a day of remembrance pre Legion. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. The Legion was instrumental in having that enshrined as an official day. The government really never thought of that. I mean no government did. Yeah. So what? It's the end of the war. Whatever. Yeah. Well, the Legion worked with the government to get that get that happening. So that's that's amazing thing. But also to the Legion was quite instrumental in what was called the Poppy campaign, 1921, I believe the first campaign. I think you're right. Yeah. But it was actually adopted through the Great War Veterans Association. That's how they started it. And it was all all the case of it's traditions. And it's also raising money and awareness through that. It took a while for the government to say, well, hey, you know, you've been really good at doing this. I think we should really enshrine that as your official, like a, what do you call it, an Act of Parliament? Exactly. 1948 1948. And it was it was a trademark protection of the poppy. Now there are other countries use that as well to variations thereof. But in Canada, that's that's the allegiance. And the poppy, of course, ties into Flanders Fields. And that's very famous poem written by a very cool dude. Another Canadian, another Canadian. That's correct. And I was looking back, like the 1926, we said July the 17th. They had this when he became into existence as the Canadian Legion. And but in the first year he already had 160 branches across Canada. That's a phenomenal growth. It grew very rapidly, especially when veterans knew what was, what was being made available to them. Over the years, veterans have supported the Legion in a huge way. Because the Legion supports veterans and their concerns. So they just step up to the plate and they're there. They did an amazing amount of stuff, not only just for for veterans in that, but they've done so many things that the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, they're instrumental. That was added to the National War Memorial. It was a what do they call it? It was a Legion Millennium project. I don't know how far back that it goes, but it's amazing when you think about it. An organization that started out of honoring service, helping veterans grew to what it is today, and it's still growing now. Naturally, the veterans that were early veterans, they're pretty much gone. You know, we're we're looking at now Korean War veterans. There's virtually none of them around. There's very, very few of them. World War two. Of course, they're in their 90s to hundreds right now. So now we're looking at a newer generation, Vietnam era Canadian served in Vietnam, Afghanistan, the Balkan states and stuff like that, trying to get them involved. It's a little bit difficult because a lot of those fellows have careers and they're still working. So trying to balance that work and and Legion time gets to be a bit of a challenge. But we do have guys stepping up to the plate. I said 160 branches in their first year. By January of 1927, the first Legion Dominion Convention, there was over 800 branches. That's six months later. Yeah, that's that's boggles the mind. And yet when you look at the door outside here, this is branch number 17, one of the earliest, one of the early ones. Yeah. I think Redcliff Legion was number six I think. But their the, their incorporation date I think is a little bit about two months before our. Yeah. Yeah. So that and district including Redcliff were early adopters of of the Legion. Oh yeah. As a as an entity. Yeah. There's things that have happened over the years too. And the people probably would like to know why it's the Royal Canadian Legion, how that came about. That was by royal assent by the Queen at the time. What it does, it allows a royal patronage process that it becomes recognized through the Crown, which is like an overseeing body at the time. And it still kind of is today. And it provides legitimacy more than just just the Legion. It's the Royal Canadian Legion. We had a group in Medicine Hat called the United Services Institute, and they were a group of veterans, and they would get together very similar to what the Legion was. But this is a younger demographics. And they petitioned the Crown for royal designation. It was a process. It took a long time. It took about a year and a half. But they they achieved the royal designation. So what that did again, it put their name on the roll of honor or on a roll in the the hierarchy in, in the, what do you call it, the royal family and the royal designation. So it was very important because now that opened it up to not just a Canadian thing, but the royal aspect had other connotations as well to, to Britain, to Australia, New Zealand and other Commonwealth countries. I believe up to 1959 it was known as the Canadian Legion of the British Empire Service League. Yeah yeah yeah yeah, that's what it was. That's quite a quite a long. Yeah. It wouldn't fit over the door. No no it wouldn't. So yeah it's interesting the British Empire League and Service League that that is again it's all related to the Commonwealth and the British Empire. So Canada was just at the the steps, the first steps of kind of moving their selves themselves out from under that and to be become an entity which can it became really quite an entity at Vimy Ridge after that battle. But this was the next step on organizations that were involved, like involved with, you know, veterans, etc.. One of the traditions of the Legion's the Silver Cross Mother. Yeah, that I think began early, right after the formation in 1926 to a mother who had lost a son in a war. There's a there's silver several aspects to that as well to it was something that was a Canadian military designation. Commonwealth designation was any mothers who lost sons or daughters in wartime. They were given what was called a memorial cross. And it is it's just a simple silver cross with the name of the serviceman on the back. And it's really kind of a poignant memorial to to a son or whoever that served their country. There is another aspect of that of daughters or wives who lost their father or their husband. They're also given what was called a Birks bar and all. What it was was a simple silver bar made by Birks jewelries. And I'm trying to think I think it was in Toronto, and it was engraved with the soldier's name and an official, official folder with a document saying sorry for your loss. So those are two very poignant memorials to someone's service. With that, they died in service. They are. I've got some here in the in the collection here for the museum or for the Legion in my private collection. I've also got a, got a few pieces of well to some that of airmen that were training here in Canada and died in training and never made it overseas. Yeah. They were the mothers received the Memorial cross because their son had died serving his country. So it was kind of opened that up a little bit broader, broader range. Nonetheless. It is something that's, you know, quite a poignant memorial thereof. Membership in the Legion has changed over the years, as well as membership has been opened up and expanded to other nonmilitary veterans. Yes. Initially it was strictly military service. Myself, I wouldn't have been able to join because I'd never served in the military, but they realized that quite a number of years ago that we're losing people and our numbers are beginning to drop. So we should develop what they call an auxiliary branch, which is an auxiliary member. So at that time, I was able to join the Legion as an auxiliary member. But it took I'm trying to remember now, at that time he had to be a member. I think it was for 5 or 6 years before he became a regular member. But now still, I was not, I was not eligible for some of the programs, though. That was the only thing which I understood that going in. So I have no problem with that. But being a regular member, there was some some backlash to that in a degree, because it was the civilians coming in and becoming members. Well, the veterans weren't stepping up to the plate as much, but then civilians were stepping up to the plate because they had the how can I say not the motivation, but they had the it was motivation to help. So a lot of these people were family members of veterans that joined. So and we've seen that like, like their father or uncle or grandfather served. So they wanted to join, join the Legion to do what they can to support it. So and that's an interesting thing, because the Poppy campaign that I mentioned earlier here locally, we have about 150 volunteers that step up and help to promote that, to set up kiosks, drop off boxes like with the poppies and and you drop a coin, loonie or whatever you'd like to donate. It's amazing. And some of these people, they never served, but they're there. They're helping out because it's something that helps out veterans. We would be remiss if we did not mention the ladies. Yes, a legion they I believe, were formed on the next day after 1926 and have walked side by side. They have now the Ladies Auxiliary. They were they actually grew like by leaps and bounds. At one time. They had well over a thousand members here, here in Medicine Hat, and they were an auxiliary branch to the regular Legion. So they basically some of them were wives and daughters, etc., of servicemen, and they were there to help out, help with organizing functions for fundraising, doing whatever it took to help the Legion prosper. And they did. And they did amazing job. And they're still active today. They they're going through growing pains, just as the Legion has been going through growing pains and things are changing, things are morphing, but they're still there and they're still doing things and they're still supporting the Legion. It's amazing. Some of those ladies, there's some of the 80 years old and they're just little firecrackers. They're there. Yeah, we're going to do this for the Legion and this is what we're going to do. And they do it and it gets done, you know, and the rest of the Legion, like they're just the ladies. Yeah. But hey guys don't get in their way. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. We are in the building here on the corner of second Street in North Railway. This was where the first Legion was. But not in this building. Not in this building because it was originally a courthouse. Territorial courthouse. That's right. And they had a had an agreement to lease part of the courthouse here for the, for the Legion. And eventually they moved and they moved into another section here. So this building actually dates back to about 1950, 1950s. And it's gone through its changes as well to the building now actually is from I think it was around 1974 or 76 where the final stages of improvement that it is, it's showing its age. It's it's an older building. Luckily we have on our on our board of executive, we got to meet committee and they are just absolutely amazing what they do to maintain the building and keep it up to not only up to building code, but keep it clean and keep it safe. And I have to commend those guys like and they're all volunteers, these guys here out here doing stuff there, I saw them today and they're going to be doing some stuff. And it's like you guys more got more energy than they ever ready. Rabbit. They and their their dedicated to maintaining this place and keeping the proper appearance. There was a time quite a number of years ago where it was beginning to slide a little bit, and a very good friend of mine, he had really bothered him and he was a veteran. He served with the Royal Canadian Air Force overseas in Germany in the 60s, and it it bothered him because he had the pride of being a Legion member. And that's what these guys, you know, that's the thing. Legion members, they have a deep pride in being a Legion member, whether you're served or not. Myself, I'm incredibly proud of that because you know, where the badge and and the service medal and the 100th anniversary medal, the King's Coronation Medal, which I was awarded recently. I think you remember that that came through the South over to Light Horse. And it's kind of humorous because and I say this in a humorous it's kind of a bit of a story to, to a certain degree, that former company sergeant major of the of the South later he was the president. He'd come up to me and says, you know, you're wearing that. And that's not regulation, okay. What do you want me to do? Beg your pardon? Yes. Well, I'm sorry, but I'm I'm going to be stubborn. I'm going to wear that. Oh, well, you know, but it's not regulation. I said I know, just relax. We're all going to go home tonight. Everything's good. And he came up on the other day and he said, you know you don't have a beret I said, yeah, I don't have a beret I know that. He said, well, you need a beret, isn't. Yeah, I should get a beret. So no, I got my beret. It's taken a little while to train because it's not. Not when you get it. It's not exactly the best fit, but it's taken a while. It's going to work with it. And so I'm waiting for the for the next meeting that I'm wearing that beret. And he said, hey buddy, I got my break. I'm sure he'll be he'll be happy about that. That's good. Talk a little bit about your work here. As the person in charge of the archives. I view that as a very, very serious responsibility because, as you know, I'm the curator at the South of Lake Regimental Museum. I'm the president of the chapter, Canadian Aviation Historical Society, and I do have my own private museum in my house preserving military artifacts, whatever age they are, is critically important because that's a tangible, tactile artifact, that sort of thing. When you hold it, you're holding something that a veteran has had in his hand. Exactly, exactly the way I look at it, of being preserving that. I also look at it from several different perspective that somebody bring something in. Oh, I'd like to I'd like to donate that. The first thing I look at, of course, figure out what it is, which I have, you know, I don't know what that is. But then I also look at the age, I look at the condition. I look at a lot of aspects of both that and then from that, if it's identified to somebody owes Joe's name on here. No, it's not okay. That's okay. But then you look at photographs, that's another key thing. You look at uniforms. We've got some uniforms in here that are amazing stuff. But I also look at it from a value, not just intrinsic display value, but also an actual monetary value. We've got some things in here that are just mind blowing, but I don't think about that as being that important. I look at that as being a part of that display of that thing here, that that uniform was worn by this guy, and this is this guy's history. So you can talk about that, that uniform over there that was worn by this unit, not necessarily medicine, that unit, but that was made in the United States. But it was a Lend-Lease to the Canadians to Commonwealth. They wore that in service. So the guy was serving with wearing that piece of uniform right there. That's important. The thing about the Legion, and I mentioned this in some of the tours that we get through the historic trolley tours and such that this is a multi branch, I see branch of service archives. It's not just about the regiment like the South Albert Lighthouse, which is what I do with the at the armory. That's very focused to that unit and the regiments it perpetuates in history, which dates back to 1885. This here that's related to all branches of the service the Air force, the Army, the. The armored Corps. It relates to service, different service branches, the United Nations and stuff like that. It relates to the Women's Corps. So we've got material that that goes past all of those different things. So that's where somebody said today they kind of laugh about this in a way. And the girls in the office, they kind of get a giggle out of that. We know Wes is having a good time. When we see them, we can hear them in the canteen. They're giggling to himself. And he said, I don't know. I think he's kind of nuts, but but I'm living the dream because I'm preserving the history of soldiers, their service with these artifacts. Yeah, I got tons and tons. Got to have the heart for that. Yes, yes, yes. I'm glad you mentioned that because. Yeah, that that that's that's true. I can't tell you and I can't explain to you where that came from, but it the best way I can think of is, is through my father. He had a deep, deep, deep respect for veterans. He never served. He was like me. He had never served. He tried. He wanted to join the Air Force, but he couldn't. He only had one. eye go home so. But he had the deepest respect. There's a photograph of a gentleman here on the wall here. That was his school teacher when he was a kid. And right to the day he died, he had a photograph of that guy by his bedside and the story behind it, and the poem High Flight that was written. John Gillespie McGee, a Canadian. So the importance not just about the personal narratives, but about the artifacts as well, too. I attribute again, I attribute that to a very good personal close friend of mine. I've known him since probably 1982. Oh my God, I'm getting old. Well, that doesn't seem like that long ago. But then you realize you count up the numbers and the count up the numbers. Yeah. I've known this fellow that long been good friends. He lives in Missoula, Montana. He's auto pollock. He's been not just a very close friend, but a mentor in how to preserve and what to preserve and what to look at. And then also, he's helped to help me help craft the concepts of how to display things. I've seen. I've gone to shows, events where guys put up a display of material and it's like, yeah, they just took a bucket of stuff and plopped it on the floor. There it is. Like a grad sale. Exactly. And I just don't like that my displays are I don't I don't like to use the word professional because I, I don't consider myself professional, but they're very focused and they're very detailed. So when you walk up to something, you'll stand there and you look at, okay, that's that. That's just not okay. That's not that's. Oh, there's stuff here. Okay. There's these these little things and everything ties in. It's all common. Common thread at the at the dinner here coming up on the 18th, I'll be setting up a couple of displays that are somewhat unique. I've had a request because I do these displays at all the veterans dinners. I did one of women's corps at different women's branches. So I set up this display Canadian women's art. Like the CAF Women's Division, the wrens, the Women's Canadian Navy, the Canadian Women's Army Corps, as well as the United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve, the US Army Air Force Women's Division, as well as the US Army Women's Corps. And I had people coming up. What's that? And he said, well, that's women's, you know, that's a women's uniform. And the president at the time, Sheila, she said, I think you should get up there and talk about this. Okay. I'll talk about it. So I explained this and guys are sitting there. Oh, we never knew that I had ladies come up afterwards. I said, I remember that uniform. I remember wearing that. I was back in the service back in that day. And my mom used to wear that uniform, enlisted. And it was just so cool because now they're putting these connecting these things, but also to it brought out that aspect of women in the service, which again, ties back to the ladies of Sillery. Some of these gals they did serve, and you can tell the ones that served, they're serious about what they do. They're very cool. But it opens up that whole prospect that it wasn't just the guys. Yeah. Sure thing. And I talk about that a lot when it when we do our tours this Saturday, the 18th of July, is when you're having your celebrations. What is going to happen here. Oh, that's going to be a day that's going to be a lot of fun. So the Royal Canadian Legion being it's the 100th anniversary in general. This branch was actually formed in January of 1927. So for 99 years going on 100 years. So we decided we're going we'd like to have a special event. So what we did, we luckily we had one of our executive members. He was with the with the Medicine Burns Burns Club. So what they did, we got together with them because the Burns Club, they're there. They know what they're doing when it comes to, you know, organizing events and stuff like that. They know what they're doing. They do put on the Robbie Burns dinner, which is a huge success. So they've got the experience. Not saying that we don't you know, the Legion's got the experience, but these guys go a lot broader range. So we sat down with them the first meeting and you could tell the excitement in the air because they were getting excited. Yeah, we can get these guys. We can do this. We can do the the pipes and drums. We've got Celtic dancers. We've got another group that can come and do stuff. We can do this. We can do, we can do a beer garden, we can do that. We can do a banquet. And we're just sitting back, okay. From a fire hose. Yeah. Like okay. Whoa, whoa. Now let's turn it down a little bit. Let's plan on this here. So there's going to be two things going on. And we're selling tickets for two different two different things. But it's happening on that same day. One will be a beer garden just outside here. And that'll be run by the Legion and the Burn Society. And that will run until I think it's about 4:00. I got that on the calendar there. And then afterwards we're going to have the banquet, which is going to be combination banquet, Celtic festival, which we I think that's I'm excited about that. There's other things we talked about earlier that I'm really kind of excited about too, because I'm doing the two displays and, but there'll be silent auctions and stuff like that going on. So yeah, it's going to be a fun time. It's going to be a really good time. Yeah. And that happens on Saturday, July the 18th, July the 18th. I've got a poster right there with all the extra information which will pass on to you as well. Tickets are available at our office here. And come on in and join. Join the festivities. It's going to be a good time. I think it's going to be a wonderful time. I know one thing. The Robbie Burns dinners are always a really good time. I think there might be some haggis involved here. I think I saw on the poster. Yes, I know there's going to be Scotch. Oh, okay. So yeah, I'll leave it at that. Okay. And if someone is watching this and thinks, you know, I'd like to become a member of the Legion, how do we do it? Come on down. Come on down to Legion office. They'll have a form there. Just fill out the form and talk to the ladies here. They're great. Great ladies are our building manager and such like that. They. They're good at what they do. And we'll sign you up. And it's $60 a year, which is a pretty good bargain. Bargain. Now where we are right now. And I'm going to have to explain this real quickly. This is what's called the canteen. This is the actual Legion. Legion entity right here on the other side of the building is the schooners. That's a pub. What we did with that, that was going back now about ten years or so, where the incorporated that under the LCB regulations to be a separate entity, but under the umbrella of the Legion. So the schooners over there, they've got well, we've got an amazing, amazing cook. She comes up with some, some specials, daily specials, their beef on a bun. Oh my God, it is. It is amazing. Great food, great atmosphere, good prices for for refreshments and such like that. This place here, the the canteen we have, it's available for food service as well to. But we have to let the girls know on the other side because the servers come from, from the schooner side. But we use this a lot for, for functions. Remembrance day. Yeah, packed to the rafters and absolutely fantastic. We've had the pipes and drums come walk right through here, right up to the stage and think about that. Pipes and drums and this kind of loud it is. But everybody's just rocking out and they're just enjoying it. Just loving it. One of the pipes and drums guy, he was past president of the Legion, Malcolm Class and cool Cat, all of them. All of them will catch, you know, and that's one of the things that's really kind of interesting. Legion members are very interesting, gentlemen and ladies, because they all have a story. Some have lots of stories. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, I could keep on talking for hours and hours and hours you'd run out of. Yeah. Okay. Those memory cards and those things, have they be full? But, so when they start talking and they start opening up, you can tell that it's virtually and literally therapeutic because they want to get things they want to talk to somebody. I said before, sometimes they can talk to their wife. They can't talk to their daughter. So they sit down across the table with a refreshment and they start talking. And that's cool. I like that I'm more than happy to listen. And I, I remember a lot of those stories and it referred to that. A lot of them when we do tours and stuff like that. Yeah. So the tradition continues and it continues, and I hope that we make it to the 150 and 200 after that, of course, I'm not going to be around, but I think your memory will survive. I sure hope so. Thank you for the visit. Well much appreciated Brian. We're really happy to have you here. We're happy to host you here and more than happy to have you back anytime. Thank you. Okay.