The Royal Canadian Legion is lending a helping hand on several fronts this holiday season.
Terry Leith, president of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 2, said the organization’s members have raised about $3,000 to help support community members.
“We are really proud and happy that our members got together,” he said. “We have been able to outdo what we did last year with the donation to the Salvation Army.”
Michelle Lapre, operations manager at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 2, said the fundraisers arose out of a discussion she had with Legion member/volunteer Marilyn Sheehan about the impacts of the pandemic.
“We decided to make Christmas a little brighter for two families, with the possibility of doing more if we could,” she said in an email to the Record. “So we put it out to all the members and called the Purpose Society to get our family.”
Legion members donated $1,624 toward the two families it’s sponsoring, with the funds being split between the purchase of food and gifts. In addition, Legion members who had won Farmtown Meat gift certificates donated those to the hampers as well – contributing an additional $585 that was divided between the two families.
The Legion also raised funds through a stocking fundraiser, where members donated $15. In exchange, they had their name placed on stockings that were hung in the window of the Legion on Sixth Street.
“Our stocking fundraiser has brought in $950, plus with another large donation from a member of $400 for a total of $1,350,” Lapre said. “That will be helping to filling the shelves at the New Westminster Salvation Army food bank this year.”
The stockings will do double duty this holiday season, as they will also be filled with items and given to some Legion members for Christmas.
“I called our reps and got them to ship out some stocking stuffers, and we also had a very large donation of stocking stuffers from Ayumi Handa, one of our members,” Lapre said. “Being a part of this Legion for a long time I know a lot of our members here personally, and most of them are seniors living alone so the stocking fundraiser was something that I thought of to ensure that our members would also wake up on Christmas morning and have something to open.”
