The Royal Canadian Legion in Guelph is among seven of 12 branches in its command zone to temporarily close as COVID cases surge.
Other branches to temporarily close its doors in the Royal Canadian Legion Ontario Command Zone C-2 include two branches in Kitchener, one in Stratford, Elmira, Waterloo and New Hamburg.
“Our decision to close the Col John McCrae Branch in Guelph was not an easy decision as we know our members enjoy social events and activities that we provide. However, our top priority is the health and safety of all our members and their guests,” said Lorraine Roberts, public relations officer at the Royal Canadian Legion, branch 234 in Guelph.
Roberts said in order to stop the spread of COVID and to reduce the risk of exposing at-risk members, the executive of the branch decided to close the branch temporarily.
“Colonel John McCrae Memorial Br.234 Guelph operates on 100% volunteer service. We have no paid employees. In order to succeed in the business operations that keep our Legion up and running, and the limited number of regular active volunteers, their health is just as important as we value the countless hours they dedicate to the Branch,” said Roberts in an email.
“From bar tenders, cooks, dishwashers, set up crews, bingo callers, card night coordinators, sick and visiting volunteers, and more recently vaccine checkers, we have many people within our organization that provide to our veterans and members.”
Jim Mayer, the executive at the Waterloo Legion Branch 530 who oversees 12 legions in the Royal Canadian Legion Ontario Command Zone C-2 had initially posted the news on Facebook that the Waterloo legion will be temporarily closed. After that, local regions began to follow suit.
Roberts said the legion looks forward to resuming full time regular activities where Bingo ran every Wednesday night and there were league sports and banquet hall events which drew a high revenue stream.
“Our full-time regular activities will resume gradually once we are able to do so. We rely on our local health unit to provide us guidance as well as direction passed down from legion dominion command. I'm not sure there is a right or wrong answer, but our goal is to ensure that when we reopen that all of our members will be there to join us in good health,” said Roberts.
