Legion members are celebrating the one year anniversary of the new location of the Esquimalt Branch, which had first closed its doors in 2018 after selling their property.
On May 1 and 3, Legion members and "VIPs" had the opportunity to celebrate the new location, which is on Admirals Road in a mixed-use residential building.
"Reactivation has been ongoing and we're relearning how to do things," said Ian Wiggs, an executive member of the branch. "Membership has come way up once we reopened. People are excited. We are doing very well, much better now with all our volunteers, and people seem to be happy and having a good time when we've been doing functions."
Esquimalt Dockyard Branch 172 opened in 1944. For decades they were in the same building, but due to financial hardships and an ever-aging building, the property was bought by Vista Independent Living in 2018.
"It came to a point where it was just not financially feasible to be running the building in the state it was in," said Wiggs. "So a decision was made to find a developer and have them purchase the building and the property on the condition that they build us a legion."
In the meantime, the branch was given permission to hold events at CFB Esquimalt before moving into the new space. It now sits on the ground-floor of the Chartwell Vista Retirement Community, which offers rentals and assisted-living for their residents.
Over the past year, the branch has been seeing more community support, notably hosting an all-day live music event fundraising for Veterans House where they raised upwards of $2,500 for the charity.
"Our primary purpose is to support veterans and their families, and members of the Canadian Armed Forces can help us do that by becoming members of the Legion," he concluded. "And the other big thing is you no longer have to be a veteran or connected to a veteran to be a member of a legion."
