It still isn’t easy for members of Roxboro’s General Vanier branch to speak about the fire that ravaged their building last October.
A lot was lost in the blaze and members are still picking up the pieces.
“You could see some of the paraphernalia that’s on the walls that we managed to save — we literally dug a lot of it out of the rubble,” said legion president Martin Bruyère.
Some of the items that were saved were cleaned and are now proudly displayed in the legion’s new main hall, which is now partially opened to its members and veterans one day a week.
“It’s taken us this long to get things back in shape, to modernize, and well, we’re ecstatic that we’re finally here,” said Bruyère.
The fire completely ravaged the legion, which had been open for 65 years, and it was devastating for those who come here to socialize or for support.
“We firmly believe in remembering our veterans, in helping our veterans and it’s been tough for the last 10 months,” Bruyère said.
To help rebuild, there were fundraisers and community organizations and local businesses even pitched it to help.
The legion estimates about $35,000 was raised from the community..
“It was a lot of coming together,” said Donna Abel, the legion’s treasurer. “There was things to do, there was a comedy event to plan — an awful lot of hard work went into this.”
While the legion’s main hall is mostly complete, the rest of the building still needs a lot of work.
The basement will eventually have a new kitchen and a space where members can play darts.
Meanwhile, upstairs will be renovated last as a space the legion will rent out to local community organizations.
Tens of thousands of dollars are still needed to renovate both spaces, but for now, the legion is just happy to be open again.
“To be able to serve the veterans and some of our neighbours in different ways, it’s really important,” said the legion’s past president, John Floud.