Like many Royal Canadian Legion branches in smaller communities, Branch 83 in Florence, N.S., has been having a hard time replacing aging volunteers.
"Like me, I'm 77-years-old. This is my 58th year in the legion,” said Clarence Dawe, District A Commander for the Nova Scotia-Nunavut Command.
As the local district commander, Dawe helps oversee the operations of 24 different legion branches on Cape Breton Island.
He says the Florence branch is financially sound, but without new blood to keep the doors open, the branch is “hanging by a thread.”
"It's hard to get the younger people in their 30's and 40's, because they're married,” Dawe said. “They work all day long, then they come home and they have children that are involved in hockey, soccer, baseball."
The area's municipal councilor attended a community meeting Wednesday evening about the Florence branch's future.
"It was a great turnout. There were 16 people who put their hands up,” said CBRM District 1 councilor Gordon MacDonald. "It was the community that built that legion stick-by-stick, and they feel very loyal to that facility."
While Dawe is among those trying to ensure the future of Branch 83, it wasn't long ago that he needed help of his own.
In late October, a slew of volunteers helped clean up Dawe's Sydney Mines, N.S., property and got the lights back on when he went 28 days without power following post-tropical storm Fiona.
Dawe said legion members were among those who helped back then.
Now, he hopes to tap into that community spirit once again.
"It would be a sad day if any branch has to close,” Dawe said. “That means the Remembrance Day service in that community is gone, unless there's people that can step up and hold the service."
Dawe says there will be another meeting in the near future to see whether potential new volunteers can actually commit.
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