NANAIMO — Royal Canadian Legions across Canada are celebrating 100 years honouring veterans while supporting the communities they live in, with a Harbour City Legion one of the first in the province.
The Legion’s annual poppy campaign began on Saturday, Oct. 24, with Branch 10 at 129 Harewood Rd. opening its doors only months after the national group was officially formed.
Branch president Jason Lott said poppies can be purchased from now until Remembrance Day on Nov. 11, available by donation at major businesses across Nanaimo, including Port Place Shopping Centre, Quality Foods, Country Grocer, and even at BC Ferry terminals.
“Once the Governor General of Canada has been pinned with a poppy, then the local municipalities and stuff can follow suit in their areas, like in the city of Nanaimo, for pinning the poppy on the mayor. And then once the pinning of the poppy on the mayor has taken place, that’s when officially we can start wearing the poppy.”
Lott pinned a poppy on Nanaimo mayor-elect Leonard Krog on Thursday, Oct. 22, during a ceremony at City Hall.
All funds raised by donations go directly back to helping local veterans and their families, said Lott.
Legion Branch 10 president Jason Lott during his poppy shift earlier this week. Donations can be made by cash or by tapping your credit or debit card. (Image Credit: Submitted/Branch #10 Nanaimo on Facebook.)
“It goes towards basic needs like food and heating and clothing, prescription medication, shelters, medical equipment, hospital visits, vets that are transitioning from active service duty, or for PTSD and things like that. That’s some of the things that it funds, but it primarily supports our mission of supporting the vets.”
The Royal Canadian Legion was formed after the First World War and officially incorporated in July 1926, and now has about 300,000 members and more than 1,350 branches across Canada.
Lott said Branch 10 has been an integral part of the community over the last century, hosting community events and helping to create local organizations which are still operating, including establishing a local track and field program which evolved into the present-day Nanaimo Track and Field Association, which they still support to this day.
He said their number indicates they were one of the first Legions established in the province.
“Branch 10 would have been the 10th legion in British Columbia. Each province is numbered that way. Our actual day of our anniversary is the same as our Dominion Command for all of Canada. Our official birth date, if you will, is on November the 16th, 1926 is when our Legion was first formed.”
The first president of the Nanaimo Legion Branch 10 L. Sampson from 1924. (Image Credit: Submitted/Branch #10 Nanaimo on Facebook.)
Recent contributions include helping to host the 55+ BC Senior Games in 2025, while continuing to support local fire departments and the Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation.
Lott said they’re always looking for new members to join their Legion, which is open to any Canadian citizen 18 years of age or older, and you do not have to be an armed forces veteran.
To volunteer to help distribute poppies or for more information, go to Legion Branch 10’s Facebook page or the Mount Benson Legion Branch 256.
More information on how to donate or volunteer can be found at poppystore.ca, or at the Royal Canadian Legion’s website.
Remembrance Day ceremonies will be held across Canada on Nov. 11, with a moment of silence held at 11 a.m. followed by the playing of The Last Post.
Dozens of street banners were recently installed in the Front St. and Church St. areas, representing a highly visible collaboration between Royal Canadian Legion branches 256 and 10 in Nanaimo.
Loot said their Legion’s previous location on Wallace. St. (pictured) was the “official beverage pavillion” during the early days of the Bathtub Festival, when Frank Ney was Nanaimo’s mayor. (Image Credit: Submitted/Branch #10 Nanaimo on Facebook.)
—With files from The Canadian Press.
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