by Michael Erskine
LITTLE CURRENT—Anyone attending a Royal Canadian Legion event in Little Current over these past many years will find Kari Bourque’s familiar face. At first, she guessed that she has been volunteering since 2013, but then her aunt corrected her. “I guess I have been volunteering since 2000,” she laughed. The hours she spends volunteering isn’t something she normally keeps track of.
“I started volunteering here at the Legion while I was still in high school,” she said. “I did all of my high school volunteer hours here.”
Although she works part-time as a bartender at the Legion, Ms. Bourque’s efforts extend far beyond her paid gig. “I am the Poppy Fund chair,” she said. “I was the co-chair, but now I am the chair.”
Ms. Bourque volunteers at Legion breakfasts, lunches and dinners, answering the call for whatever is needed. She was a member of the Little Current Lions Club in the past as well, lending a hand at Haweater Weekend and other Lions events, but declining health has caused her to have to set priorities. “It just became too much,” she said. Ms. Bourque recently lost her nephew to the same hereditary condition that also stole his mother (her twin sister) several years ago and which now limits what she can do in a day.
Asked why she started volunteering at the Legion, Ms. Bourque points out that her mother was quite active in the Legion and she was often there helping her mum. As to why she has continued to volunteer well into her adult years, Ms. Bourque doesn’t hesitate. “Because it matters,” said Ms. Bourque. “Someone has to do it, if not me, then who? There was a time, just a little while ago, when it wasn’t guaranteed that the Legion would stay open, that it would have to close—I just couldn’t let that happen.”
Ms. Bourque said her volunteer time spent at the Legion is well worth the effort, given the camaraderie in working with a team of dedicated volunteers. Would she recommend volunteering at the Legion to youth? “Absolutely,” she said. “It is very rewarding, and time well spent.”
She points out that volunteers learn valuable skills volunteering at organizations such as the Legion and that there are plenty of opportunities to step up to executive positions where you get to learn organizational skills firsthand.
