The Charlottetown Legion is appealing to the public to help with a couple of major fundraisers.
The legion needs to sell another 60 tickets to its upcoming $10,000 cash draw on Saturday night.
It's also looking for more people to take part in bingo on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday nights.
The two activities, along with bar and VLT revenue, enable Branch No. 1 to stay open.
"We'd like to see them all gone,'' said John Yeo, president of the legion just moments after a meeting Wednesday over concerns the fundraising efforts weren't going well. "Our attendance is down and we'd like to see people come out and enjoy themselves.''
This is the legion's fifth annual cash draw fundraiser. All the tickets sold last year. First prize is $10,000 cash; second prize is $1,000 and third prize is $500. Only 300 tickets are printed.
Tickets are $100 each and are available at the legion or by calling Allan Callard at 894-4386, Yeo at 569-5220 or the legion at 892-6022.
Bingo has been running for the past 50 years at the legion but revenues have been dropping in recent years. The last few months have been difficult and the game has now become a money loser for the legion.
Yeo wanted to stress that the legion never has and never will dip into revenue from the poppy campaign to cover losses in other areas.
"I'll use the Rustico legion as an example. They had money in their poppy fund (and) they had financial problems but they could not use that money to offset their financial problems and we're in the same situation. The poppy money is used to assistant veterans, dependents of veterans, children of veterans and grandchildren.''
That money goes to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Navy League and Sea Cadets, Pat and the Elephant, Meals on Wheels, Camp Gencheff, academic bursaries, special grants and to various other organizations that support the needs of veterans and Islanders.
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SG I believe you answered your own question.