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Volume 7, Issue 22
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Leamington Legion closing By Bryan Jessop Royal Canadian Legion Branch 84 in Leamington will soon close its doors permanently. As one of several branches across the country that has struggled to maintain its membership numbers in recent years, rumours of impending closure began surfacing after the Leamington location began experiencing trouble in appointing a new president, first vice president and sec- A member of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets 535 Leamington stands guard ond vice president. during the laying of wreaths at the Branch 84 mes- cenotaph at Dieppe Park in Leamington sages were posted during Remembrance Day ceremonies in 2013. Branch 84 of the Royal Canaon its Facebook dian Legion is expected to surrender page on April 6 and its charter and dissolve in late July of May 7 notifying this year. Other interested groups may chose to organize and conduct Remembership that membrance Day ceremonies in Leamthe positions would ington for 2016 and future years, but have to be filled to there will be no pre- or post-ceremony gatherings hosted by the Royal Canaavoid having to re- dian Legion in Leamington. Most of the linquish the charter. current 88 members in good standing After being unable are expected to transfer to the Royal Canadian Legion in either Kingsville or to do so in April Wheatley. (SUN File Photo) and then again about two months later, those attending the scheduled June 15 meeting voted to relinquish the branch’s charter. “We knew it was coming and we had to make it official,” said current Branch 84 president Bob McKee. “We’ve raised some money, but the biggest trouble is finding people to do the work. The duties are just too much for the people who are doing it — they’re aging and we can’t find enough young people. The majority are seniors or close to being seniors and the younger members have families.” Although most branches elect leadership roles for terms of one year, McKee has been the Leamington Legion’s president for the past three years. He has been a member of Branch 84 for the past 57 years, when his father signed him up after he completed basic training in 1959. McKee was also president for 1998-99 and 1999-2000. “We’ve got hard-working members willing to volunteer for different things, but there’s no one who wants to take office,” McKee said. The Leamington Royal Canadian Legion originally opened its doors 90 years ago, in 1926. Membership reached (Continued on Page 3)
Mya Youssef, 5, and Ava Armstrong, 6, are unable to avoid putting the squeeze on Chase Armstrong, 4, as the take a ride on the Himalaya. (SUN Photo)
Huge crowd attends Leamington Fair By Pat Bailey Mother Nature smiled down on this year’s Leamington Fair. Leamington District Agricultural Society president Tammy Wiper was also smiling from ear to ear late Sunday afternoon. While it may have been because the hundreds of hours of back-breaking work in preparation for the annual fair were coming to an end for another season, she credited the unbelievable weather, with not a hint of rain, for her jovial mood. For Wiper, the weather certainly helped bring in the tremendous crowd on Saturday at the Leamington District Agricultural Society’s 168th Leamington Fair, both afternoon and evening. She said it’s been years since there was such a long line to get into the fair. “It was unbelievable,” she said. Saturday evening, Wiper said, the demolition derby crowd was phenomenal. She credited the derby organizer for attracting triple the number of entrants and giving the crowd something to cheer for. Saturday afternoon’s bicycle draw also brought in hundreds hoping for a chance to take home one of the 20 bikes given away. But this year’s fair offered a bonus draw of 10 additional bikes on Sunday afternoon following the chuckwagon races. Wiper also credited her righthand man, husband and Ag Society vice-president Dan Wiper, for doing an exceptional job getting the fairgrounds in shape for the society’s big weekend. She couldn’t say enough about the importance of her rather small group of volunteers (Continued on Page 17)
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