Sask. veteran wants to change how young people interact with his city's legion

Jesse Darby is the president of the Legion in Melville. He says he is trying to shake things up and he's trying to change the way that young people interact with the Legion. And Jesse joins us now. Hello there. Hey, how are you doing? I'm all right. And I'm wondering what made you decide to get involved with the Legion in Melville in the first place? Well, what got me involved was a little bit of arm twisting. I guess you can classify me as a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces. I was a primary reserve with the British Columbia Regiment, Duke of Connaught's Own, from 2011 to 2017 as an armored reconnaissance soldier. Um, and, uh, I moved to Melville to become a, uh, a pastor at the Baptist church in, in Melville. Um, and, uh, the, uh, Melville branch was, uh, they didn't have a, a Padre. And so I was asked to, to be the Padre. And at first I kind of hesitated, uh, because a lot of, uh, younger veterans actually have a very standoff, uh, Approach to the Legion. A lot of younger veterans don't feel like we have a place, a voice, or are even welcomed in the Legion as it is today. I had a very standoff approach. But one of the things that I realized is that if I was going to be involved in the Legion, I would have this very real opportunity to actually help and actually be who the Legion is supposed to be. And that is to be the hope. For the veterans, when they when they hit that rock bottom and they come to the Legion, that's their last hope. Melville is one of our smallest cities in Saskatchewan, and we do have a Legion thanks to you and the other members who are making it work and keeping it open, trying to bring people in. What do you think the future of legions should be going into the future, Jesse? Well, if the Legion wants to have any future at all, they need to be willing to adapt. They need to be willing to look at what has worked on the bases. For instance, stop in at the junior ranks mess in the base. Go to the sergeant ranks mess and the officers mess and see what's actually working. Right. The reality is the face of war has changed. Actually, what startles me is just from my time in the military to now looking at the face of war in the Ukraine. Like, It horrifies me, right? The usage of those small drones, that's scary, right? We never had to worry about stuff like that. It was, you know, um, We'd use tanks, and sure, there'd be IEDs and things like that. But yeah, to have this moving IED coming after you, that's an intimidating thing. And so with the face of war changing and the face of the veteran changing, we need to be willing to change too. Right. And, and, and if that means like, you know, I know a lot of people shake their heads at it, but putting a Xbox down in the lounge so that guys can come down and play some shell, right. NHL. Um, then, then that, that's one of those things. Right. Um, uh, Yeah, like having it so that, you know, there's some pay-per-view nights of, you know, watching the Grey Cup parties or Super Bowl parties or Stanley Cup parties. Like, you know, you just have to be a little bit more creative, that's all. More of a social place, more of a support, possibly a little less on the drinking.