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Veterans Welcome Home Banquet Huge SuccessThe Lac du Bonnet Overseas Cigarette Fund, under the chairmanship of F H Waters, wound up its wartime activities by being hosts at a Welcome Home banquet, for returned men and women of WORLD WAR 2 The banquet was held in the Choma Building on Wednesday, December 19th To say that it was a success would be putting it too mildly. We would almost have to go to Hollyw-ood to borrow one of the adjectives used to describe a motion picture, to do it justice.The evening started w'ith the banquet proper, and all present certainly did justice to the plates piled high with roast turkey, pot* atoes and vegetables There was salad in abundance, followed by pie and ice-cream and coffee. Rev.S. Richardson, acting as chairman, called on F. H. Wraters for the address of welcome, who in turn introduced Miss Eileen Small, as the girl who wrote all the letters to the boys overseas.Eileen needed no introduction to most of those present, but very few, outside of the returned men knew much about her letter writing. Shortly after the first of the boys arrived overseas Eileen was inspired to write a weekly letter, have it mimeographed, and mail a copy to every man from this district. The replies she received from the boys were so encouraging that she carried on the good w'ork for the duration, mailing a total of some 1,600 letters.But, to get back to the story of the banquet; after Eileen had been introduced by Frank Waters she thanked the boys for all the letters of appreciation they had sent her, told of the times she almost despaired of getting a letter away on time when there just didn’t seem to be any news, thanked Joyce Sparman and Edith Passeck Smith for their assistance in typing and mimeographing, modestly belittled her own endeavors. She ended her remarks with a note of welcome, and expressed her appreciation for the opportunity enabling her to use the phrase “Hello Soldier” to each of the boys personally, instead of having to write it. The thunderous applause, and the cheers and “tiger” given by the boys expressed far better than words their appreciation to a fine lady for a good job well done.John Horbatiuk, in a few well chosen words, thanked the Com mittee for the banquet, and also thanked all the people who had worked so hard to make it success. He also thanked Miss Small for her letters, and explained how and why they meant so much to the boys away from home. Sam Tomlinson, president of the local branch of the Legion also thanked the people for all their efforts. He asked both the returned men and the community at large to support the Legion, explaining that no individual or organization could get more out of anything than they put into it, and a well supported Legion would not only be of benefit to j the returned men but could also I accomplish a great deal in a community if it received the necessary support. The assembly then stood at attention in silent respect of the memory of the following boys who made the supreme sacrifice, and w’hose names were read out by Rev. Richardson:H. W. Oderlund, S. David, R.J L. Fournier, A Horbatiuk,Roy Irwin, L. LeVasseur, FSmall, C. Tinndal, W. Wood The silence was ended by the National Anthemn.After the banquet was completed, the floor was cleared and dancing started. The music was supplied by Ivor Peterson’s lrches-tra and Fred Dufily’s Orchestra both rendering their services free for the occasion. Catering for a banquet of this size is no small matter w'hen one realizes that the facilities usually available in a country town are very limited, but thanks to John Choma for delaying the opening of his new building for business purposes until the banquet could be held, and to all those who worked so hard and gave so much of their time, it was, as we said at the beginning a huge success. In fact, details were so ivell planned that there was only one turkey left when all was over, and this w'as auctioned off by Fred Dufily, and knocked down to Alf Gretzinger for the nice sum of $10. Three lucky winners of a turkey, a goose, and some smokes were asked to call at the Red A White Store and get their prizes from Frank Brown. —J W DmumSammy Bruifeau’s luck was running high on Wednesday night. He stopped of the train at 7.30 tohear that there was a Welcome Home banquet scheduled to start at 7.30 Sam, who is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Bruneau said it wasn’t luck at all, he could smell the turkey before he left England. However, it all worked out very nicely, and the folks were all sure glad to see Sammy back.
Newspaper Details
Lac Du Bonnet Springfield Leader
Lac Du Bonnet, Manitoba, CA
Tue, Jan 01, 1946
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Dianne S.
CA 09 Mar 2025
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