It has been a long time coming, but Royal Canadian Legion Branch 445 Callander is ready to open its doors this Thursday, July 30.
“We are excited. We want to get people back in there. We want to see our people again. We want to be able to interact with them. We know we have always had excellent support from our community and the surrounding areas, so I’m sure that we will get excellent support again,” said Branch president Marc Picard.
“We’re going to open our doors for three days a week, Thursday, Friday, Saturday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. We’re going to see how that goes. The challenge now is we had to spend a significant amount of money for Personal Protective Equipment, for sanitizers, masks and we had to put some plexiglass up at the bar. We’re taking a risk. It is costing us money to open but we really want to get people back in the doors and get that socializing happening again.”
When people do walk through the doors, they will be greeted by a fresh new look.
Just prior to COVID-19 the Legion received grant money which enabled it to work on some much-needed upgrades.
“It has got new flooring. It has been painted. All the artefacts on the walls have been removed and cleaned and purged and replaced. So, the place looks like a million bucks,” described Picard.
“It is the nicest place that nobody could go to the last couple of months.”
Like all Legions across the country, COVID-19 has negatively impacted the day to day operations and regular socializing that members rely on.
The Callander Legion’s membership is 380 strong.
“It has impacted the fact that we had a very difficult time connecting with our elderly veterans,” said Picard.
“It has impacted us in that we don’t have people at the branch. Our primary goal is to have people there and support each other.”
The Legion has received money from the Ontario Command to help with membership dues.
“We received a couple of thousand dollars from the provincial command which was a rebate on dues that members pay. Our demographic is older. It is a challenge for them to renew online, so we have reached out to as many of them as we can to help them.“
Legions rely on social events, fundraisers and donations to help keep the lights on and the doors open.
“It has been very, very challenging. July and August are our busiest months for wedding receptions and stag and does and we’ve had nothing.”
The Legion lost revenue with the cancellation of its regular Friday night dinner’s which typically drew a crowd of between 100 and 180 people, followed by live music which helped with the lounge business.
Those dinners remain on hold for the time being.
“The challenge with Friday night dinners is that our capacity will be way down because of social distancing. The restriction is 50 inside,” said Picard.
“So, it is a big struggle not having those two things. We recently did a take-out fish and chip night which did extremely well. We served 295 people which was unbelievable. And now we’re going to do a pork schnitzel pre-order take-out on Friday, August 7," said Picard.
“The cost of the food has gone up a little bit and of course we don’t have any extra money laying around, so we have to be fairly frugal with what we order and we can’t waste anything.”
One saving grace has been the reopening of the empty bottle return depot, which is busier than ever, operating Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“We’re one of the fortunate Legions. We’re not out of the woods yet but it is keeping us above water right now,” shared the Branch president.
“We are very fortunate that residents from the whole area have been very supportive of our empty bottle return depot. And we received a substantial amount of donations which is pretty much what saved us.”
Picard says the returns are handled in a way similar to a regular beer store.
“We accept your empty liquor containers or beer containers and we refund you the value of that, and we get a small percentage to do that,” said Picard.
“So, during COVID-19, people are kind enough to just drop those bottles off and not take their deposit back. In turn when we turn the containers in, we receive the 10 cents plus a small percentage.”
Picard says the public does not see the amount of hard work that goes on behind the scenes by the executive and a ‘great group” of volunteers to keep the doors open.
