My wife, Inga and I are long-time Royal Canadian Legion members, and we are concerned about what the soon-to-be-passed Town of Barrhead Neutral Space Bylaw will mean for our chapter.
This means that not only the Legion flag will need to be removed from the municipality's Cenotaph but also the Red Ensign, the flag under which many Canadian soldiers fought and died. Barrhead's Cenotaph at Memorial Park currently flies the Candian, provincial, Red Ensign and Legion flags.
We want to take a few moments to understand why the Legion flies these flags, especially the Legion flag as well as a bit about what our local chapter does in our community.
The Barrhead Cenotaph honours 252 First World War veterans, 480 Second World War veterans and nine Korean War veterans.
The Royal Canadian Legion was formed in 1925 for all Canadian veterans. Barrhead's Legion Branch 75 began in 1928, and the hall was built two years later, in 1950. The Barrhead Ladies Auxilary, a branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, started in 1946.
The Church of England donated the Field of Honour for the sole purpose of honouring Barrhead veterans.
What the Barrhead Legion has done for our community
The Field of Honour has 204 veterans, and 119 wives, for 323 graves.
The Legion looks after the field of honour at no cost to veterans of their wives through donations.
Our branch provides fruit baskets to all veterans and their wives in the hospital. At Christmas, all veterans in senior care also get a fruit basket.
The Legion also organizes an annual Mother's Day breakfast and veteran's dinner.
At Christmas, our Legion asks Barrhead medical and senior living facilities what their Christmas wishes are and tries to fulfil them.
For Remembrance Day, our branch sells poppies and wreaths to the public. The money collected is put into the Poppy Fund and used for veteran needs.
There is also the annual Poster and Essay contest sent to all schools in the area. The posters and essays are judged locally, and the winners are forwarded to the provincial and, hopefully, national levels.
All the winning selections at all three levels are paid through the proceeds of the Poppy Fund.
It should also be noted that all the money the branch collects from the sales of wreaths and poppies is spent locally in our district on veterans and families.
In the fall, volunteers place Canadian flags on 178 veterans' graves in County of Barrhead cemeteries and 240 flags at Field of Honour veteran graves. Again, all the flags are donated.
Herman and Inga Barkemeyer, Town of Barrhead