Feb. 2019 Legion membership swearing in ceremony, the largest ever held at Branch 13 of the Royal Canadian Legion. Photo: Sandy Robitaille
By Hedy Korbee
Membership in the Birch Cliff branch of the Royal Canadian Legion has surged more than 20 per cent in the last year thanks to a community campaign designed to help the Legion remain a viable organization serving veterans and their families.
The community boost is a welcome development for Royal Canadian Legion Branch 13, which first opened its doors at 1577 Kingston Road in 1922.
Membership in the Legion nationally has declined significantly over the years as many of those who served during WW II and Korea have passed away and the Legion has had difficulty attracting younger veterans.
The downstairs Branch 13 “Club House”.
There are currently 18 “ordinary members” of Branch 13 who served in the military and President Dan Burri said he’s “very happy” that so many more people have taken out yearly affiliate memberships to boost the overall number to 229.
“It helps to keep the place going,” said Burri, a veteran of the Swiss military. “We can do better work with the veterans because we have money coming in. We had a successful poppy campaign this year and that means we can allocate money to the vets because we are here to support the veterans in need and their families.”
Last year, Burri said the Branch 13 Poppy Campaign raised $30,000 to support veterans.
The branch provides financial support to the Sunnybrook Hospital Veterans Program through the Comfort Fund and hosts a dinner for Sunnybrook veterans every October.
They also donate money to homeless veterans through the “Leave The Streets Behind” campaign and help pay for service dogs for Wounded Warriors.
In addition, the Legion donated $1,000 this year to support the Variety Village swim team.
Variety Village swim team accepts a donation from Branch 13 of the Royal Canadian Legion. Photo: John Smee/Bluffs Monitor.
Community outreach campaign
In order to support its work during a time of declining membership, the Legion is actively encouraging Birch Cliff residents to become affiliate members.
They’re reaching out by holding events such as pool tournaments, dances, quiz nights, darts tournaments, euchre nights, chill cook-offs and bake sales.
“It’s great to see the community getting behind a landmark that’s been here for almost 100 years,” said Birch Cliff resident Sandy Robitaille, who has organized many events for the Legion including the Birch Cliff Village Christmas event and Canada Day celebrations.
Birch Cliff Village Christmas at Branch 13. Photo: Sandy Robitaille
Robitaille is a well known Birch Cliff booster who wants the neighbourhood to be more than a “bedroom community without a bank”. She’s also the daughter of John A. Robitaille, an Air Force mechanic during the Korean War who was a member of Branch 13 for 50 years.
“I grew up with the knowledge that the Legion was a good positive thing in our family unit and in our community. And I think that that should continue for the next generation of veterans and families that are to come.”
Joining Robitaille in her effort to help make the Legion a community hub is Gerard Arbour, a civically-engaged local chiropractor who is chair of Branch 13’s membership committee. Arbour first joined the Legion six years ago out of respect for his grandfather who served in WW II.
“It really is an institution,” Arbour said. “One hundred years on Kingston Road, not many can say that. And let’s hope that we can keep it going for another hundred as well. That would be the best message we can send to our veterans and those that serve.”
Branch 13 Canada Day Barbecue Crew. Photo: Gerard Arbour
New Branch 13 members Ed Doyle and Daniel Sieroka.
The message is getting out. A challenge was recently issued to the Balmy Beach Club, which resulted in seven new members.
And on Thursdays and Friday nights you’ll also find guys like Ed Doyle and Daniel Sieroka, recent members who joined with a group of friends to play snooker and darts but also to support the institution.
“I think by joining a it gives people a greater awareness of the veterans and their contributions to the country, especially younger people who maybe don’t understand as well or are more disconnected from it. So I think being a member of the Legion is good,” Doyle said.
Heritage mural at Branch 13 depicting the Scarborough Rifle Company marching to the Niagara Frontier on June 1, 1866. Artist John Hood, 1991.
“Passing the torch”
All of this is good news for John White, the longest participating member of the local Legion, who served in the Royal Air Force in Britain from 1951 to 1954.
In honour of his service, he was chosen to be a flag bearer when the Invictus Games National Flag Tour stopped by Branch 13 in 2017.
White joined Branch 13 in 1967 when he bought a house across the road and remembers a time when the Legion had 600 members and people lined up down the street to get into weekly dances.
He supports a more robust membership but said its important that people don’t lose sight of what the Legion stands for.
“We were part of the Commonwealth and they were being overrun by the Nazis,” White said. “It’s imperative that we never forget that. And I think the Legion is probably the only organization left in Canada that still holds that ideal,” White said.
When asked about the current efforts being made by the community to keep the Legion viable, White turned to poetry.
“McRae’s poem says it all, I think. You know, In Flanders Field. ‘To you we…throw the torch.’ So it’s the torch that we keep burning to remind us how this country was built with the sacrifice that the soldiers made.”
If you would like to support Branch 13, there’s a fundraising dance at the Legion on Sat., Feb. 29 from 7pm -11pm with live music. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the Legion or by emailing Sandy Robitaille at sandy_691@live.ca. Proceeds will be spent on repairs to the aging building.
You can follow Branch 13 of the Royal Canadian Legion on Facebook.
