By Greg Fry

Legion woes

COVID-19 may force Prince George Legion to close its doors

Jul 11, 2020 | 12:03 PM

PRINCE GEORGE — “Without having the revenue coming in to pay the bills, I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

That’s the situation the nearly 100-year-old Prince George Legion finds itself in thanks to COVID-19 says Branch 43 President Margaret Goings.

Not only were the doors closed for three months earlier this year, but she says seating capacity has also been greatly reduced leading to a 90 per cent drop in revenues.

“It’s had a big effect on our branch here. As you know we’re only allowed to have 50 people in and that’s counting our staff. So basically they can only bring about 40, 44 people in here at a time.

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“We don’t have that much revenue coming in because we can no longer have our dances. We can no longer have our Danny Bell events that brought in cash all the time so we can stay open. We’re really suffering right now.”

And it’s not just the Prince George branch that’s on the brink of closing its doors, over 40 per cent of them province-wide are in jeopardy. Especially the ones located in northern B.C. which don’t have sizeable enough memberships to recover financially.

And if branches start to close en mass, it’ll be veterans who suffer most because the Legion Poppy Campaign raises around $2,500,000 per year for services and support in B.C. grants for veterans and their families in need.

Vice-President of the Legion’s BC/Yukon Command John Scott said branch closures could cost the Poppy Campaign over $1 million dollars in revenue.

“Then we’ll have veterans that are liable to end up on the street who aren’t getting help. The funds are there to provide help to veterans and their families. So, it’s our aim to disburse those funds. Poppy funds can only be used on veterans, not on our buildings.”

Scott notes the financial pressures have the legion reaching out to Ottawa and Victoria for help.

In the meantime you can help by having a meal at the Legion or donating to its Go Fund Me page. You can also drop off donations at the branch in person.