The Port Elgin Legion Ladies Auxiliary will be dissolving its charter at the end of the month.
Legion President Robert Harrison says the Ladies Auxiliary has only a few members left, who mostly all in their eighties.
“They’ve been an integral part of our legion for over 76 years,” says Harrison.
He says over the years they’ve done cooking and fundraising for legion events, and provided other support. The funds they raise go to local charities and foundations.
They say they had hoped a younger generation of women would be interested in volunteering, but they say no one came forward.
“It’s going to be hard because we’re going to have to reorganize,” says Harrison, and they’ll need more people to cook the meals, whether that’s existing members or new volunteers. “We’re very much looking for volunteers in the cooking department, just for branch functions, we do Friday barbecues that kind of stuff. We’re always looking for volunteers for all sorts of things.”
In terms of dinners, he says when you have 150 people at an event, you need people to serve it, people to cook it, people to clean up, “It takes quite a few bodies to run something like that and we just don’t have them right now,” says Harrison.
The ladies group will hand in their charter to Legion Dominion Command and stop operating June 1st.
Harrison says, of course both men and women are invited to be regular members of the legion, and that they’re looking for new volunteers. Those who would like to join can call the Port Elgin Legion Branch 340 at (519) 389-9917.