Minnedosa veterans to be featured on lamp posts

By: Bud Robertson
Posted: 12/27/2018

By next summer, banners bearing the faces of Minnedosa veterans could be lining the town’s main street.

"We actually got the idea from the ‘Legion’ magazine," said Duane LaCoste, president of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 138, adding that a couple legions on the East Coast were featured in the organization’s national magazine and it seemed like a good idea to Minnedosa members.



LaCoste said he knows of no other communities in Manitoba that have undertaken a project such as this.

The heavy-duty vinyl banners are about a half-metre wide by just over a metre long. They feature photos of the veterans, along with their service unit and dates they served, and are hung on poles in communities for everyone to look up at and admire.

A committee formed about a month ago to explore the idea of doing the same in Minnedosa, and LaCoste said the reaction from legion members and others in the community has been positive.

"They are looking for the framing that would be necessary to hold (the banners) on the poles," he said.

From May to around August, the town hangs potted plants on the poles, and after November they hang Christmas decorations.

"We though we could fill that space in between the flowers and the Christmas decorations with our banners," LaCoste said.

The town has agreed to put the banners up and take them down again, he said.

The committee is now looking for sponsors to pay for the banners, which cost approximately $300 each.

"Usually they are family members, but they could be businesses or friends who could pay for the banners.

The local branch would take care of any other costs, such as the framing.

"Hopefully, it will all come to pass and we would have them up for this coming summer," he said.

"As we go along and see where we’re at, then we would put the call out to any families that are interested in having their loved ones on the banner and we’ll go from there."

LaCoste added community members have already been expressing interest in the project.

"We’ve had a number enquiring already," he said.

"I know one family, a couple of months ago I mentioned it, and they were prepared to give me the money right away," he chuckled.

Another committee member has already received emails from out-of-town families who are interested in the banners.

"I’m sure as soon as we put the call out, there will be a number (of interested parties)."

In the communities out east, LaCoste said, they started with fewer than two dozen banners, then doubled by the next year, LaCoste said. "They keep adding them."

Minnedosa’s banners would hang on poles along the main street first, then move to a side street past the cenotaph and then others as the demand grows.

"We’ll see how it goes," he said. "That might take two or three years to get there. The thing to do is to get going the first year."

The first banner will feature Gen. Hugh Dyer, who served in the First World War. It will fly outside the local legion branch, which is named after Dyer.

LaCoste said the banners are not only a good way to honour the community’s veterans, and would also be good draw for visitors in the summer.

"I’m sure it will bring people to the community to just go up and down our streets and see the people," he said.

"We think it’s going to be a win-win situation. It’s a great way to honour our veterans and a great way to get people to our community."

https://www.brandonsun.com/westman-this-week/minnedosa-veterans-to-be-featured-on-lamp-posts-503189032.html