The Prince Albert Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 2 is putting the finishing touches on a seven-day ceremony to mark the 2025 Legion Week celebration.
This event will be held between Sept. 21-28 at the Legion branch. Legion Week Chair Deanne Riese said they are looking forward to putting local veterans front and centre.
Riese said that the Legion is excited to have Legion Week return to Prince Albert.
“I think Legion Week is important to get the community involved in celebrating the veterans and help them know what the Legion does for veterans,” Riese said.
The event will begin on Sunday, Sept. 21, at 11 a.m. with the flag-raising ceremony and will continue throughout the week.There will also be a smorgasbord breakfast from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. with a cost of a donation.
“We will be having some presentations that day on the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, and the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic, and also the end of World War II,” Riese said.
Riese said that they look for ways to celebrate war anniversaries.
“We’re also honouring the 170th anniversary of the Canadian Army. They’ve been in business for 170 years. So it’s important to celebrate our veterans,” she said.
Monday, Sept. 22, will feature the annual Volunteer Appreciation Night for Legion volunteers.
“We have our volunteer appreciation night. Every year we like to celebrate the many volunteers that we have. And so, we just have a little appreciation night at the Legion, and it’s for volunteers only. And usually we’re closed on Monday. So that’s why we do it Monday night,” she said.
Tuesday night is a games night courtesy of the Saskatchewan Seniors Fitness Lakeland District beginning at 7:30 p.m.
On Wednesday night will be the weekly Jam Session, where residents can bring an instrument and play along or just sit back and enjoy the music.
“We have some great people who come every Wednesday for a jam session, and they will be performing that night, and they encourage anybody who wants to bring an instrument and can play along to come. And we do this weekly, but we especially want to highlight it on the Legion Week,” Reise said.
“And you don’t have to be a Legion member to participate, but we encourage you to become a Legion member to help us out, help us support veterans,” Riese said.
On Thursday night the Legion will be honouring their own with the annual Legion Honours Night at 6:30 p.m.
Riese explained that when you join a Legion, you get a new member pin, and every five years, you receive a new pin on the anniversary of your membership. The Legion is also offering membership deals beginning on Legion Week.
“During Legion Week and from Legion Week until Nov. 30, if you join our Legion during that time, we’ll pay for the rest of this year. And you just have to pay for next year’s membership. So you pay for the 2026 membership, which is $60 now, and you would get the rest of this year free,” she said.
She added that if you join before November 30th, you will get entered in a draw for the following year of free membership.
Off the Cuff Improv and Interactive was originally scheduled for Sept. 28 but had to be cancelled because of a booking error.
Saturday, Sept. 27, at 5:30 p.m. is the regular Saturday Supper that the Legion hosts. Supper is $13 a plate. The Legion tends to not run Saturday Supper over the summer because people are away.
“But we find it really helpful for the seniors in the area and any veterans that are in the area. They come, and they can get a good supper for a fair price. And then we also have a meat draw that’s a dollar a ticket following supper on Saturdays. You can buy the meat draw anytime during the week, but then we do the draw that night,” Riese said.
Following the supper is a Music Bingo at 7 p.m.
She explained that Legion Week is just showing what the Legion does all the time that people might not know about.
“We just encourage people to come in and talk to Legion members,” Riese said.
Riese said that there are many volunteer possibilities at the Legion.
“We have had volunteers that aren’t necessarily Legion members, but it’s great to have Legion members that are volunteers,” she said.
She gave examples such as the upcoming Poppy Campaign, Canada Day in Kinsmen Park, Decoration Day, and Remembrance Day as other examples.
” So there’s so many different things that we do throughout the year to celebrate and acknowledge veterans that we need volunteers for,” Riese said.
There are also sports such as cribbage and Kaiser tournaments, pool, and shuffleboard.
“And you can compete at a branch level, or if you’re a member, like if you’re a member, you can go on to compete at the provincial level or Dominion level,” she said.
She said that the Poppy Campaign funds are put in trust to help veterans and their families.
“The only thing other than helping veterans and their families is also helping the cadets. So we can use a portion of the Poppy Campaign money for helping cadets as well and do donate every year for that.
Some Canadian Legion branches have celebrated Legion Week since the 1980s, but this will be the third year Saskatchewan Legions will take part. The event spread across Canada for 2023 and was hosted in Prince Albert for the first time. This year will mark the third celebrated across Saskatchewan.
The Mayor of the City of Prince Albert has proclaimed Sept. 21 to 28 as Legion Week, so the celebrations will take place in Prince Albert as they have the past two years.
For a complete list of events, please see the Royal Canadian Legion #2 Facebook page.
“We’re just hoping to get as many members as we can. And it’s a great place for camaraderie,” Riese said.
