Nanaimo remembers.
War veterans and other members of the public will have numerous places to gather and give remembrance on Saturday, Nov. 11.
There are three Nanaimo-area Royal Canadian Legion branches that will be involved in the ceremonies and will open their doors.
Branch 10 Nanaimo, 129 Harewood Rd.
The branch in Harewood will host people after the 11 a.m. ceremony at the Dallas Square Park cenotaph in downtown Nanaimo, said Bill Brayshaw, Branch 10 past-president.
“There will be sandwiches, I think there’s a pulled pork, clam chowder, assortment of meats, chili … and then we have hot [toddies] for veterans that are in the parade,” said Brayshaw.
There will be live music and the public is welcome to attend, Brayshaw said.
Branch 256 Mount Benson, 1630 E. Wellington Rd.
Corinne Stewart, Branch 256 secretary, said the Mount Benson legion will open in the morning for breakfast followed by other events.
“We’re having a ceremony in the hall here for a lot of folks that can’t make it downtown and that will begin at 0900 hours and we have both a piper and bugler lined up … plus we also do some laying of wreaths at that time too for folks that are not able to do it downtown.”
The ceremony will be hosted by Ernest Gray, branch chaplain.
After the legion ceremony, there will be shuttle service to the downtown ceremony, followed by a community lunch from Save-On-Foods back at the Mount Benson legion, open to the whole community. It will consist of beef on a bun, salads and dessert. Transportation will be available to the two other legion halls. There will be live music from 1-3 p.m.
Branch 257 Seaview Centennial, 7727 Lantzville Rd.
Lantzville will be holding its own ceremony at the Huddlestone Park cenotaph at 11 a.m. and the Lantzville legion will hold events afterwards.
Annemarie Smith, Branch 257 president, said the parade to the cenotaph begins at the legion and there will be a large contingent marching in the parade.
“Once that is finished, everybody will come back to the branch and we have soup and buns available for everybody, because they normally get very cold. We always open the Costin Hall across the street and any of the young ones go in there and we give them hotdogs and hot chocolate,” said Smith.
There will be a roast beef dinner at the legion beginning at 4:30 p.m. put on by the ladies’ auxiliary. Veterans eat free and it will cost non-veterans $10.
There will be live music throughout the day as well.
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