The year in review + Message from President

Hello Comrades,

As another difficult COVID year comes to a close, we have a chance to reflect over what was 2021.

Since we were closed and unable to have the St Patrick’s dinner, we decided to still get the corned beef and cut it up for people to purchase for “at home” St Patrick’s celebrations. Thank you to all who participated to make it a success.
With the re-opening on June 11, we started back with half capacity and tried to get some normalcy back into our Legion lives.
One of the casualties of COVID was our Flea Markets. It was going to be too hard to manage and follow the rules to ensure we would be able to keep everyone safe.
We were able to have a golf season that was a great success. Golfers were able to come back in June to the Legion and gather outdoors for a couple of refreshments which made it a lot safer. The annual golf tournament was held August 21 with an outdoor meal at the Legion.
We had the Canada Day steak dinner, also outside and very successful.
There was a corn roast in August that was well attended.
Pierre also hosted a very limited attendance music event in August. This was partly a trial to see how we would go about managing the audience and follow the government guidelines.
September saw the Labour Day dinner and the return of the TGIF Smoked Meat Friday dinner. There was also the Golf year end dinner.
Provincial Command allowed the districts to hold elections again. We were called upon and Morin Heights agreed to host the District 12 elections.
October, of course brought on the Oktoberfest Dinner, and our second TGIF Smoked Meat dinner.
This year’s Remembrance Day ceremony was held on Saturday November 6th. With the road construction we decided to not hold the parade, we did hold the ceremony at the cenotaph along with the lunch at the Legion afterwards. Our Legion was also in attendance of the Morin Heights Elementary School ceremony on November 11. I was also part of the group privileged enough to attend the LRHS Remembrance Day ceremony. It was a very moving event and extremely well done. I recommend it to anyone if you have a chance to go.
TGIF Smoked Meat proved to be popular again.
The Traditional Quebec Dinner was postponed due to an ice storm making for treacherous driving conditions. It has been rescheduled for January 8, 2022, if we are allowed.
The last TGIF dinner was switched up a bit for spaghetti and we had another music night following the dinner.

With the newest developments of this COVID saga, we have been ordered to close the Legion again!
In my final word about the President’s Levee, I was hoping to discuss how we could hold the Levee this year to not cancel it two years in a row. Unfortunately, we must cancel the levee for a second time. We will continue to monitor the situation to be ready to react to any and all Legion and Government COVID directives as they come.

Please stay tuned to the Legion web page and our Facebook page for any updates that may happen and change our situation at the Legion. Most importantly, if you, or anyone you know may require some help, please remember we are here for you and the community.

On behalf of the Legion Executive and myself I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Please stay healthy, safe, and strong! Wear your masks!

David Pittman
President, Branch 171