The Lamplighters have outdone themselves yet again. Harvey Giesbrecht, one of the members of the team, says the Raising the Roof fundraiser held on April 9 and 10 saw donations that met or exceeded their goal for helping the Legion.
While the official numbers aren’t yet ready, Giesbrecht says the turnout was amazing. “It was huge. It was absolutely astounding,” he says.
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Giesbrecht says the community support was wonderful and says he was happy to report that everything ran smoothly from start to finish.
“It’s been all our wildest dreams,” he says.
Bill Cavanagh, the president of the legion in Drayton Valley, says the tournament couldn’t have come at a better time. “[April 10] was actually our 65th anniversary and it just coincided perfectly,” he says.
“Knowing the community has got your back feels pretty good,” says Cavanagh. He says the legion doesn’t always speak up and share their stories when they do something good in the community, so many people are unaware of the contributions to Drayton Valley.
In the past, the legion donated the money to help Frank Maddock High School build their gym. They also donated $500,000 to the curling rink when it was being built, made donations for the CT scanner and helped to upgrade the rooms in the hospital’s long-term care centre.
The funds raised by the tournament will be going toward fixing the roof at the legion. Cavanagh says in the past three years they’ve been down 80 percent in their revenue. While they had a reserve fund, it was still a lean time.
In 2019 when the economy was a bit slower, they started to notice an effect on the legion’s income. Many of the Christmas parties that were normally booked with them were cancelled. Once the pandemic hit in 2020, there were definitely no parties.
Originally when Cavanagh got the quote to fix the roof in March 2020, he was told it would be about $36,000. Recently they got another quote from the same company and the cost had doubled to $72,000.
“We’ve been shopping around to see where we can get a little better price,” says Cavanagh.
One of the attendees at the banquet on Saturday evening was MP Gerald Soroka. Cavanagh says it was great to see him there, though it’s not uncommon for them to see the MP. “He knows us by name, we know him by name. He pops in regularly,” says Cavanagh. “He’s always been very generous to donating to other fundraisers we’ve had.”
“The community’s been fantastic for us since we opened up for fish and chips and steak dinners in January,” he says.
He says the banquet on April 10 was the first time they’d hosted anything in the hall in about three years. “It was full. It was an absolutely unbelievable kind of weekend.”
