President’s Report

It’s been a very busy year for the Executive of RCL Branch 15. President Geoff Hosking, along with Thomas Buchenauer, Gail Sigvaldason, Frank Svenshek and Peter Slade have represented the Legion at events in house, as well as in the community.
March – The Legion was invited to the Chilliwack Branch for The Battle of Atlantic Ceremony. We also hosted a Commonwealth Day Reception at our Branch.
April – We had an excellent turnout for the Vimy Ridge Ceremony this year. Also, we held a Queen’s Birthday Luncheon on April 21 at the Branch.
May – Our Branch hosted a special dinner for National Day of Honour and we were privileged to have six Afghanistan Veterans in attendance, as well as special guests MP Ed Fast and Mayor Bruce Banman.

June – Our Branch hosted a D-Day Luncheon on June 6; the last week of June was Legion week. We hosted a Veterans’ Dinner, held a silent auction and raffle, had a garage sale and a BBQ. We look forward to hosting the event again next year.
July – Our President, First Vice President and Secretary were invited to a retirement home in the community for an Ice Cream Social. The Veterans appreciated our presence and were assured that The Royal Canadian Legion has not forgotten about them.
August – We held a BBQ for the MPNMRR (Military Police National Motorcycle Relay Ride). This group travelled across Canada to raise money for the Military Police Fund for Blind Children and Children’s Wish Foundation.
September – President Geoff Hosking joined the Abbotsford Fire Department, Mayor Banman and various other dignitaries and soldiers at the Sumas WA border, where a memorial was held to honour those lost during 9/11. First Vice President Thomas Buchenauer hosted a documentary and luncheon at the Branch. September 14 was The Battle of Britain Parade held at Thunderbird Memorial Park, Abbotsford this year.
Thank you to our Executive for their perseverance during all the ups and downs during the year. The appointment of Peter Slade to take over as Secretary in April brought in not only Peter’s expertise in producing reports of the minutes of meetings, but also, the help and guidance he provided from his previous executive experience at the branch and from his other organizations.
Our Treasurer, Ken Brown, whose participation was curtailed by his wife’s illness, is working to have a full financial report ready for December’s meetings. As others have reported, “Some bookkeeping changes and record keeping has made the accounting procedures difficult during the year; new guidelines are rectifying the problems.”.
Francine Goodfellow has been working hard on our Membership for years and we wish her well as she passes on her vast knowledge to the next person to take over. Thank you to Gary Goodfellow for all his hard work as Poppy Chairman and we wish Harry Bishop the best as he takes over this year. Thank you to Morva Booth for all her help with Membership, the monthly calendar and various posters for our special events. Thank you to Art Turnbull for his devotion and support to the Legion.
A special thank you goes out to Mike Müller. He has been manning our kitchen daily, and cooking for all the special events hosted by our Branch. These include the luncheon visits from the veterans from George Derby and Brock Fahrni, who came a number of times this year, telling us this was a popular destination for them.
We would also like to recognize the hard work of Elsie Lukiv, Chris Riopelle, Margaret Vines and Brian Mills for holding our Saturday Meat Draws. We have made a profit of over $2,700, which will be given out to our community. Come and join us for our Saturday Meat Draws 2-5pm for some great food and live entertainment.
Sundays – We are back to hosting Bingo in the afternoon, and have started Cribbage tournaments.
Thank you to all the Citizens and visitors of Abbotsford during the Poppy Campaign. Due to the overwhelming support, over $56,000.00 was raised to help the Veterans in the Abbotsford Community.
I recently attended a dinner with Mayor Banman and he was impressed by the attendance at the Remembrance Day Ceremony. It was the biggest crowd he had seen in three years.
A special thank you to all the Volunteers and Air Force Cadets, who donated their time during the Poppy Campaign. We couldn’t have done it without your help.
WE HAVE A NEW WEBSITE: www.abbylegion.ca

For Abbotsford Legion Branch 15 news, information, and activities take a look at our WEBSITE. Please be patient as we get this under full service. Art Turnbull and Erica Duncan met and discussed web design with Darin Shepit, later joined by Peter Slade. With Art’s firm persistence, the website was finished by this Remembrance Day. Peter is our web administrator and shares editor duties with Erica. Art will be a regular contributor with his “Chaplain’s Corner” and other news.

If you have an email address, make sure you give it to the office. Our e-mail address is abbylegion15@shaw.ca

Your feedback about the new website will be welcome. Please send in comments and suggestions using the “Contact Us” page dialogue.

Geoffrey Hosking, President Branch 15