By Peter Crompton
At the Branch General meeting on December 11, election of officers for 2013 came to a sudden halt following the election of Cmde Ray Hallock as president and Cmde Les Annandale as vice-president.
The failure of the nominating committee to put forward a full slate of members wishing to be elected resulted in no treasurer, which in turn resulted in the elections being suspended until the January meeting.
This year's Poem Poster and Essay winners where in attendance to receive their awards for their efforts.
Winning the poem contest for intermediate students was Christiaan Fourie whose submission will now go forward to the Zone level, joining winners from other branches in the North Western zone, as will the essay winner Riley Fell, also at the Intermediate level.
Second and Third places in poem went to Emily Patricia Barron and Myah Bowal.
While Shannon Murtonen and Carol-Jean McIvor came in second and third in intermediate Essay.
Congratulations to all students who entered this year's contest.
Unfortunately for the first time ever, we only had students from one school participate this year.
Our December steak night was once again a sell out, it would be great to see some of our steak night people visiting the branch throughout the rest of the month.
Remember, everyone is welcome to come in and visit our place of business, sign the book and introduce yourself to the staff.
Also anyone is now eligible for membership in the branch, all we expect is for people to respect our bylaws and to support the cause of The Royal Canadian Legion.
Choir night was again a great success, thanks to the hard work of Fern George and her crew along with the branch's staff, and big thank-you to all the sponsors.
A fitting tribute was given in remembering long time Santa Claus Cmde Tony Reddy who we lost earlier this year and also to Cmde Les Sinnott who was a great supporter of choir night and a past legion president.
Both these great people left us way to early.
Just this past month, we lost veteran Michael Ross and our oldest veteran, Cmde Otto Lindstrom
Our thoughts at this time of the year are with all the families of all the members lost to us this year.
The branch will be holding a New Year's Eve Dance, tickets are available at the Branch.
On the sports scene, there where no zone playdowns in any of the sports, here a Branch 13 we had no playoffs at branch level either.
The Annual Legion Bonspiel will take place at the Terrace Curling Rink on the weekend of January 26, 2013.
To all the members and to the Community of Terrace MERRY CHRISTMAS and a SAFE and HAPPY 2013.
Next Steak Night: 4 January 2013, 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Next general meeting (elections to continue) 8 January 2013 at 7 p.m.
Meat draws every Saturday afternoon, first draw is at 4:30 p.m.
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.