Local legion organization faces an uncertain future

They have lost some 290 members in nine years, carrying today a registered list of but 110 on their books. The money is tight and seemingly getting tighter and the prospect of building a new home seems to be further and further away.

The Royal Canadian Legion in Prince Rupert is facing many of the issues that have put Legion halls at risk across the nation. Much like the Rupert branch, the National organization is facing declining numbers and a growing lack of interest in the tradition that the Legion once held.

Dorothy Millington-Jones the local president of the Legion in Prince Rupert is fearful for the future of her organization, one which needs old members to return and new members to help carry on into the future.

Things seemed to have taken a decidedly bad turn once the Legion had to give up its home and sell off the land on 1st Avenue West to cover off debt. That land is still the centre of Prince Rupert entertainment coming in the form of the Chances Entertainment Centre.

It’s just a different clientele now, a new wave of people looking for fun and good times at the flick of handle or the flicker of bingo number, but not in the company of those that built the Legion over the years.

There is land that was once destined for a Legion on Park Avenue, but it recently saw a For Sale sign appear (see photo above), signaling perhaps the last post for the Royal Canadian Legion in Prince Rupert.

Tuesday’s Daily News features a background piece on the current situation and the dwindling options and hopes for the venerable Canadian institution in the city.

Future for local legion appears bleak
Rupert club and others across the nation hit by falling membership
BY CARLA WINTERSGILL
The Daily News
Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Page one

The governing body of Canada's largest veteran organization met this weekend in Ottawa to discuss sinking membership and the group's questionable future.

The Royal Canadian Legion's membership has dropped 27 per cent in the past 10 years, according to a committee report by the Dominion Executive Council.

Here in Prince Rupert, the local chapter of the Royal Canadian Legion is doing even worse.

"At the moment, we have 110 members in our books for Prince Rupert and the surrounding areas," said Dorothy Millington-Jones, the local legion's club president.

"Nine years ago when I became president, there were 400 members. In 2005, we had to sell our building to pay off debts."

The Prince Rupert Legion is now without a clubhouse, instead members use the Moose Lodge for meetings.

Millington-Jones blames the lack of building for the decline in membership.

"That's when our membership definitely declined because people said, 'we have no building so we're not going to join anymore,'" she said. "That's why it got really bad and I think that that has happened to branches all over B.C."

The legion club is best known for its Remembrance Day poppy campaigns. It also supports seniors' community programs. At one time, membership was only open to those who had served in the armed forces and their family members, but now anyone can join.

At the conference in Ottawa, the committee discussed various initiatives to bolster membership - from recruitment drives to creating a new branch for members-at-large.

"They send out pamphlets all the time to have membership drives," said Millington-Jones.

"I've had membership drives over the years and they don't come to anything. And if they do, we have people join, they come once and then we never see them again."

For now, the local legion keeps its paraphernalia in a storage area. But even that is becoming too costly for it to maintain. Millington-Jones said the legion's future looks bleak.

"There's a dark cloud hanging over us and I'd like to get rid of it," said Millington-Jones. "We go day-by-day now because we don't know ... It scares me because there's a big long tunnel and I cannot see the end."