A cool breeze and roar of a nearby train didn’t dull the ambitions and spirits of a handful of townspeople at the cenotaph Monday afternoon.
Local citizen Dan Kroffat presented a cheque for $5,830 to the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 15 of Cochrane. The money will go toward finishing off some esthetics at the cenotaph park. Residents, groups and businesses exceeded Kroffat’s goal of $5,000.
“The community made this happen,” Kroffat said. The large white box was constructed by Roy Genung, father of Cochrane's mayor Jeff Genung, and traveled to three businesses around Cochrane from October 12-19. The completion of the yet-to-be-named park began two years ago. Donations to the cenotaph campaign will go toward adding landscaping, water maintenance, installing benches and a naming stone.
With the cenotaph campaign complete, the large box will now collect money for the national Legion Poppy Fund. The box will be at McDonald's restaurant in Cochrane and then the Legion until Remembrance Day.
The excitement didn’t end there. Kroffat, who was flanked by Legion president Karen Bruens and Roy Genung, unveiled first of their kind theft-proof donation boxes. One hundred pint-sized white boxes will be affixed in businesses around Cochrane and will be used to collect money for the national Legion Poppy Fund.
Lance Schreiner, of Hunterwood Technologies Ltd., explained that it took his business only six hours to collect funds from customers and their suppliers for the construction of the boxes. Schreiner’s company used the funds to weld and powder-coat the boxes. Schreiner said a box was sent to a community in British Columbia who has experienced an influx in donation box thefts.
Kroffot hopes that Ottawa will jump on board with this initiative and replace existing donation boxes with the anti-theft ones he’s helped create.
“Canadians would put more money in them if they were secure,” Kroffat said. Bruens agrees and said the Cochrane Legion has a long way to go to meet their donation target for this year.
“This is very beneficial,” she said referring to the new boxes.
Donations to the boxes will benefit the Legion Poppy Fund. The fund provides financial assistance and support to veterans, including Canadian Armed Forces and RCMP, and their families who are in need. For more information visit: www.legion.ca/remembrance/the-poppy-campaign
