One location is London has been posted as 'for sale'
The Legion continues to sponsor minor sports, especially track and field
By Mark
Schadenberg
The
Woodstock Legion Athletic Club (WLAC) continues to send youth track
and field athletes to provincial and national-level meets.
The
WLAC (www.wlac.ca) was founded by a
group of dedicated track and field coaches and volunteers in
Woodstock – most notably David Bond and Mike Robinson -- and is
sponsored by the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 55.
David
Bond died of cancer a few years ago and has been inducted in the
Woodstock sports wall of fame, along with his daughter Catherine
Bond-Mills (Pictured below).
David
Bond was a competitive track athlete himself growing up and then into
his time at Acadia University in Nova Scotia. Bond would be an
educator in Oxford and spent a portion of his career at College
Avenue Secondary School, which is now home to the WLAC club's track
(Terry Fox Memorial track) and storage facilities.
Although
I'm sure others would have been involved, the person I best remember
as the Legion contact for anything involved with the WLAC was Dave
McBurney.
The
sponsorship key to the WLAC would be the Legion. The Legion, by the
way, nationally assists as many as 500 youth track and field teams
from coast-to-coast.
In
Woodstock, the two annual minor hockey Silver Stick qualifier
tournaments were also developed by the Legion and continue to carry
their name. As a side note, the Junior C hockey club is the Navy Vets
thanks to the on-going support of the Oxford County Naval Veterans
Association.
However,
as our population ages and veterans pass away, it seems the concept
of the Legion in many communities is waning. I know there is a Legion
in Ingersoll (Branch 119), Tillsonburg (153), Beachville (495), Embro
(318), Norwich (190), Tavistock (518), Thamesford (557), and
elsewhere in and around Oxford, including nearby Delhi.
With
word out last week that a Legion building in London is for sale, and
with this also being the 70th anniversary of D-Day in the
Second World War, it seems particularly sad that some of the Legion
groups appear to be struggling.
The
Duchess of Kent Legion was built in 1934 and is located on Hill
Street in London. The building has a 'for sale' sign. Membership
there blames two factors for this apparent demise – a lack of new
membership and the fact that approximately $60,000 was stolen by a
previous employee.
“We
can’t afford to keep this building operating with the membership we
have,” president Bob Marshall said, in a London Free Press story
(link below) “Our membership is up there in age, people have moved,
transferred to other branches.”
Back
in Woodstock, I visit the Legion on a regular basis as its the
location for our Lions Club of Woodstock meetings.
Whether
it be for a weekly bingo (see Woodstock poster), weddings and
anniversaries, birthday parties or a retirement, each and every
Legion is also a local community gathering space.
The
Legion will continue – I'm sure – certain it will evolve though
and maybe some centres which have 5 or 6 Legion halls will re-focus 1
or 2 and use those dollars to renovate, refurbish and renew the other
locations.
Here,
There & Everywhere
Catherine
Bond-Mills competed in the Olympics for Canada (Barcelona in 1992 and
Atlanta in 1996) and won bronze at the Commonwealth Games in 1994.
Her event was actually 7 events over 2 days – the heptathlon. She
was the Canadian Inter-university female athlete of the year in 1990
and was named to the University of Toronto Athletics Hall of Fame in
2002.
LINKS:
http://www.lfpress.com/2014/08/12/declining-membership-and-a-60000-theft-threaten-to-close-the-duchess-of-kent-branch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY36hiroePc
(Bond-Mills profile)
www.legion.ca
http://www.1047.ca/news/local-news/community-grants/
Mark
Schadenberg, Sales
Representative
Senior
Real Estate Specialist (SRES designation)
Royal
LePage Triland Realty
757
Dundas St, Woodstock
www.wesellwoodstock.com
(519)
537-1553, cell or text
Email:
mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter:
markroyallepage
Facebook:
Mark Schadenberg, Royal LePage Triland
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