Big plans are afoot at Barrie’s Royal Canadian Legion.
A mainstay on St. Vincent Street near Cundles Road East for more than half a century, Branch No. 147 has already seen some huge interior renovations which have put some sparkle in the place.
And there is more coming, legion member David Mills tells BarrieToday, adding a recent $140,000 Ontario Trillium Foundation grant was just the beginning.
“We had a vision of what we wanted to do and the grant very, very much helped finance it,” he says. “A part of the grant application asked to explain what you’re going to do when you come out of COVID. How are you going to rebuild and reinvent yourself and where do you want to go?
“In that regard, we were able to bring in a strategic planner. We brought in a business and fundraising planner,” Mills says. “We looked at best practices at other legions. We just really want to find ways that we can improve, given that there have been 25 legions that have closed during COVID across Canada.”
He describes the upgrades taking place on the building, and the plans being made to improve other aspects of the legion, as a revamp.
“We looked at where we are now and where we want to go,” Mills says.
While the grant may have kick-started the renovations in the 4,000-square-foot Club Room on the main floor (as well as a new main entrance), it was members’ sweat equity that made it happen, legion executive member Paul Marley tells BarrieToday.
“Without those volunteers — Michel Cormier, Peter Marion, Rod McNeil and Paul St.Clair — this place wouldn’t be the way it looks today,” Marley says proudly while standing at the brightly lit bar. “They donated hours and hours of their time for all the work — carpentry and plumbing, etc. — picked up the paintbrushes and got the job done.
“Everybody did a specific thing within their own trades.”
Upstairs is the 300-person capacity banquet hall, complete with a professional kitchen. Also upstairs is a large meeting room.
With the food management system getting another look and the legion wanting to promote some of its activities (think Catch the Ace) with new external signs, Mills says the executive wants the community to know what the legion can offer residents.
On one wall in the Club Room (recently dubbed Club147), dart boards await the next league play and on another side of the room are pool tables. Lots of room to stretch out, play some cards and catch up with friends, Mills says.
“The legion is for veterans,” he says. “How do we make veterans feel like this is their place? And at the same time make it a really open and friendly place that other people can call their own.”
You don’t have to be a member to rent the facility and you don’t have to be a member to drop in, either, Mills adds.
But if you pay the $65 yearly membership, $45 of that goes to the Legion Command in Ottawa to help with their work and the rest stays local.
While the legion is a not-for-profit operation, that hasn’t stopped it from helping dozens of local organizations that make Barrie the caring city it is: Terry Fox Foundation, Barrie Food Bank, Barrie and District Christmas Cheer, Salvation Army, Barrie and Women and Children's Shelter and the list goes on and on.
“When you see the list of different things we donate to, it’s pretty significant,” Mills says.
It’s important to keep the legion alive, president Marcel Vigneault tells BarrieToday.
“If you lose your legion and it closes down, you’re losing the Poppy Campaign and you’re losing all the help for the veterans,” he says. “So we did the renovations to make people happy to come here.
“If we want to keep the place going and continue to help the veterans, we had to renovate it and change the public’s attitude that it’s like a military canteen or something," Vigneault adds.
“We want to keep this place hopping and become like a social club, so we had to modernize.”
