Popular fishing derby won't take place this year!

One of the more popular of events on the North coast in the summer, the Legion Fishing Derby won't be taking place this year, the victim of a lack of volunteers as the Legion tries to rebuild its membership in the wake of the sale of the Legion hall a number of years ago.

The 36 year mainstay on the local scene will take at least a one year sabbatical as the Legion did not file the paperwork this year to hold the event with the BC Lottery Corporation, with Legion president Dorothy Millington-Jones expressing concern over the lack of interest from within the legion membership in the previous year to get things organized.

The Daily news featured details on the situation in Friday's paper.

Legion pulls the plug on big fishing derby
By Patrick Witwicki
The Daily News
Friday, May 23, 2008
Pages one and six
Fishing. It's synonymous with Prince Rupert, so it's no surprised that the Legion's Fishing Derby has been one of the most popular community events every summer.

Unfortunately, that run of 36 years as a major community event is over - at least for 2008 because there will not be a Legion Fishing Derby this year.

"It's just no volunteers," said Legion president Dorothy Millington-Jones.

"You need lots of people (to do it) and the people who did it are not attending the meetings."
When the Legion building closed its doors back in 2005, there was an underlying concern that not having an official presence - or building - within the community could cause a setback for the membership, and during the past two years, numbers at Legion meetings have dwindled.

However, the Legion Fishing Derby had still managed to hold two successful derbies in 2006 and '07, using Solly's Pub as homebase for the weigh-ins, celebration, and the awards ceremony.
Opinion seems to be divided as to whether the Solly's location was working.

"Because it's at a pub, you have to spend a pretty penny just to sit there," said Millington-Jones.
"At the Legion, you could sit around and socialize.

"At Solly's ... it was a little out of the way for some people."

But there are others who disagree. After all, in both 2006 and '07, Solly's was packed from one end to the other, as fishing derby participants waited excitedly to see if they had won, and who had snagged "the big one."

The annual grand prize of a boat or vehicle, or even just cash like in 2007, also helped create a buzz every year leading up to the event.

"People travel from all over to that derby," said Tobbi Gjelsvik, who alongside Bernie Alexander, has done much of the grunt-work for the derby.

"It shows a (Legion) presence in the community, and it should've been continued."

But at the end of the day, the main problem was whether or not the Legion had enough manpower to pull it off. When Legion meetings were happening back in the fall of 2007, members in the past who had helped organize the derby weren't attending, so Millington-Jones didn't feel comfortable applying for the required license (similar to what bingo halls and all other community functions that include some form of gambling), and didn't send in the paperwork.

"We have to apply for the license in the fall, and no one stepped forward," she said. "You apply every year for license, and it's the same with bingo and everything else."

After all, the event never really made that much money for the Legion, and in fact, barely broke even last year, according to Gjelsvik back in 2007. But because it did provide the community with an exciting event, and also gave the Legion a presence, Legion volunteers continued to get behind it.

"It was just a social function," said Millington-Jones. "We didn't make a lot of money, but even though we didn't make a lot, we didn't grumble a lot because of the social aspect."

But that manpower problem going forward relates back to the fact that the Legion currently does not have a building. The Legion has money in the account from the sale of the old building (that now houses Chances and the Convention Centre) and is still looking at possible real estate options, but that could still be years away before becoming a reality.

"It's sad," said Millington-Jones. "We'd like to get a building, and we've got real estate people looking for us.

"But the initial interest went when our building went, so they don't meet."

That said, the derby isn't officially dead, and everyone from the Legion - and probably Prince Rupert in general - is hopeful that it could make a successful return in 2009.

"The former organizers (feel) that it's something that should be continued at all possible," said Gjelsvik.

Millington-Jones added: "If they come to me and show an interest, call me. But if you don't, there's nothing we can do."