“If people don’t start participating in the legion, we’re going to lose it,” said legion president Doug Halladay.
“The problem is an ongoing problem of lack of member participation.”
Of some 239 members, perhaps 10 per cent participate regularly, Halladay said.
“We’re running at a deficit, we only have a few thousand dollars in the bank account. When that’s gone, the legion will be gone.”
Halladay has already spent considerable effort getting this message out, but it’s more urgent now:
“If we don’t make enough money at the bar for expenses, that will be the end of us.”
“The only profits we can use to pay our daily maintenance, our bartenders, and all our utilities, is the money we make over the bar and from the kitchen,” Halladay explained. “We can’t use poppy funds — all that has to go to charity, as do all our gaming funds.”
Branch No. 14 will celebrate legion week on June 24 and 25 with dinners, dances, and drinking. Halladay hopes these events will bring in much needed revenue.
The legion is otherwise closed for June, July, and August.