By Malcolm Hughes
It is perhaps not widely known that Turner Valley Branch 78 covers a large area of the Foothills. Its mandate is the care of veterans in an area stretching from Okotoks in the East to Bragg Creek in the West and Red Deer Lake in the North to Longview in the South. It includes Millarville, Priddis and the towns of Black Diamond and Turner Valley.
At this time, we wish to offer a warm welcome to our new members as well as all the members from Bragg Creek who have recently transferred their membership to our Branch.
The Branch is open for meals and relaxation from Wednesday to Saturday, with buffets available on Wednesday and Friday and menu items on the other days. There is also a Brunch available on Saturday mornings. In addition, the ladies Auxiliary runs meat draws and 50/50's on Friday evening. The sports programmes, except for golf, are all in hiatus for the summer.
There are occasional entertainment evenings and the latest, featuring a tribute to Johnny Cash was an outstanding success. Previously, Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day breakfasts were also held while upcoming events include:
July 1st from 4:30 to 7:30pm: Canada Day Picnic and entertainment.
July 9th at 9:00am: Stampede Breakfast with entertainment by Charlie D.
August 20th at 5:00pm: Second Annual Hog Roast. This was a sold-out event last year and tickets at $20.00 each should be ordered soon.
All Legion events as well as the use of our facilities are available to the general public. The facility can also be booked for private family celebrations including birthdays and weddings etc. We are here to serve the community.
The Branch is undertaking some new programmes including a more frequent recognition of our most important responsibility, that of Remembrance. We will carry out monthly ceremonies at the Cenotaph located at the Legion. These will typically be on the first Sunday of each month at noon and will take the form of a short service to acknowledge those Canadians whose lives were lost in particular conflicts or theatres of war the dates of which fell in that month.
We are also preparing to award Bursaries to graduating High School students from our three area High Schools. Forms and procedures will be made available to the schools early in the next school year. These will be in addition to those open bursaries or scholarships that we already present, but by virtue of our National constitution, they are restricted to descendants of Veterans. For this purpose, a Veteran is anyone who is or would be recognised as an “ordinary” member of the Legion because he or she has served in any capacity whether in War or in Peacetime in the Armed Forces of Canada or its allies including those who served in any police or fire service as well as the Coast Guard and some other services as defined in our By-laws. While service with the Legion by the veteran will be a consideration, it is not a requirement to qualify the student for a bursary.
The annual Poppy campaign as well as the School Literary and Poster Competitions place great demands on the members and because of the area to be covered it is always difficult to find sufficient volunteers. If you can help with this or any other task associated with the operation of the Branch we welcome you.
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