By Shawn Doolan, Poppy Fund Chairperson Royal Canadian Legion (Br 108)
I’m excited to bring you news of a wonderful program, brand new to North Dundas and specifically, The Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 108 (Winchester).
We have been hard at work with the Township of North Dundas and Downtown Winchester to bring another significant way our community can honour our veterans, and that is with the Honour our Veterans Banner Program.
In simple terms, this is an opportunity to honour local Veterans (living or deceased) by displaying a personalized banner off utility poles on Main Street and St. Lawrence Street in Winchester each year from Legion Week in September until Remembrance Day in November.
We hope this will help our community remember the sacrifices made by local men and women and put a face and name to our service men and women.
Each banner will have the Veteran’s name, photo, era of service, branch of service, and sponsor’s name in full colour, printed on both sides of the banner. Our banners will be very similar to the ones displayed in Perth, Ontario, except that our logo and those of our program partners, The Township of North Dundas and Downtown Winchester will be on the bottom of the banner.
For consistency, we have priced our banners at $275, which is the same price as other Legions offering the same program in other Eastern Ontario communities. All proceeds, after actual costs, will be going to the Winchester Legion Poppy Fund to be used only to support our veterans.
Once purchased, the banner is owned by the sponsor, but you agree that the Legion may hold and display it for three years, after which it will be returned to the sponsor as a keepsake. We will only be offering five banners per year, on a first come first served basis, for an eventual maximum of fifteen banners in year three. Sorry, we cannot hold applications for subsequent years, so please act quickly.
This is the first offering we are making to the public and the first year we are running this program. Please remember, we can only accept the first five applications that meet all the criteria below, and this has been a very popular program in other communities.
The criteria to be selected for this program is:
1. The person being nominated must be a Veteran as defined by the Royal Canadian Legion (see application form); and
2. They must have lived in North Dundas or have very strong ties to North Dundas, with priority going to those who lived here; and
3. There must be a portrait style photograph, preferably in uniform, of the Veteran being nominated.
4. The veteran (or Sponsor) does not need to be affiliated with the Legion.
Many more specifics are provided on the form which is available on the Winchester Legion website.