A ‘huge’ grant for Wolfville Legion
Five community projects in Kings County receive federal support
The Royal Canadian Legion branch in Wolfville is a step closer to its goal of being inclusive to all visitors.
The Dr. C.B. Lumsden Wolfville Branch 74 is receiving $100,000 in federal funding announced March 7 to support its ongoing revitalization project. It will use the non-repayable funding to upgrade the lower and main levels of its building to become more accessible and inclusive to visitors.
Legion first vice-president Paul Murphy said the project represents a lot of work on the part of many dedicated Legion members.
“Every grant we get at this stage of the game is huge for us,” he said. “It’s imperative that we continue to receive more, and we’re about to start a fundraising venture in the next couple of months.”
Successfully obtaining grants is very important at this stage of the project, he said. The Legion has written 20 grant applications. It has been successful with 15 and is still waiting to hear back on three.
Murphy said they have raised about $500,000 of the roughly $1.8 million required to complete the renovations. Officials with the Wolfville Legion hope the capital campaign will be supported by corporations, community foundations and the public so they can finish the project by 2023.
The Wolfville Legion was one of five Kings County projects to receive funding announced by Kings-Hants MP Kody Blois at the White Rock Community Hall. The $219,254.50 is from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency’s Canada Community Revitalization Fund.
The fund, created in June 2021, provides $500 million over two years to Canada’s regional development agencies to invest in shared and inclusive public spaces.
Blois said non-profit organizations raise money by bringing people together at events like pancake breakfasts and community suppers. These events have been largely curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Those are important, not only for the organizations that put them on, but they help provide the money to keep the lights on and keep the roof in good shape, and that’s been extremely challenging,” Blois said.
He said there are a number of rural members of the Liberal
Caucus who understood the pandemic would have real implications for volunteer organizations. They wanted to establish a fund that would primarily help non-profit organizations but also municipalities impacted in terms of their communal infrastructure.
Blois pointed out the Wolfville Legion has also received $25,000 through the New Horizons program, which aims to help seniors, in support of its revitalization project.
Murphy said the Legion’s
project would be about twothirds completed once the upcoming phase is finished. Structural renovations have been made and Legion officials are now focusing on improvements to the basement, the upstairs and the addition of four accessible washrooms.
He said the entire upper level would be framed-in and a new roof put on during the upcoming phase of the project work.
Murphy said they expect to complete renovations to the basement by the summer so
that portion of the building could be opened to the public.
He said it would be like a sports bar, including eight accessible dart boards so that people with mobility issues can play, and accessible washrooms. A ramp and elevator will also be installed as part of the project.
The Legion will continue to host weekly coffee and tea socials at the White Rock hall on Wednesdays from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. to help raise funds while its facility is undergoing renovations.