Penticton’s Royal Canadian Legion will hold its regular Canada Day celebrations but that will be the last event for a while. Come Thursday morning, the doors to the 81-year-old institution will be locked for at least two weeks.

The closure comes after the resignation of the Branch #40’s president and two vice-presidents, said Linda Sawyer, executive director for the Legion’s B.C and Yukon Command, who ordered the two-week hiatus to give the branch time to reorganize and elect a new executive.

Ron Bannister is a former president of the local Legion — he stepped down from the position as of Jan. 1. Since then, however, the legion has had trouble replacing him as well as keeping the other seats on the executive filled.

When the current president resigned, he said, the first vice-president was unable to fill the role, also resigning to deal with a family medical emergency, and the second vice-president was out of the country.

“It was determined that we had to have a new executive, which means a president, first and second vice, a secretary and a treasurer, to keep the branch open,” Bannister said. “When we didn’t have one, Command said fine, you’ll close for two weeks and have an election.”

If they get those five officers, Bannister continued, then the branch will reopen following the meeting. He expects that’s what will happen though he cautions that if no one comes forward, the future is not too rosy for the institution, which is one of the oldest Legion branches.

“If we don’t get the five people to run and take over, then it will close,” said Bannister.

Concerns have been raised over financial problems and the size of the legion’s debt but both Sawyer and Bannister dismiss any worry over financial wrongdoing.

“They’re not that deep in debt, the real problem is that we don’t have a cash flow. There’s not enough people coming into the branch to support us,” said Bannister. “If we had more people coming in here, then we would be all right.”

“We have over a thousand members and you might see the same 15 or 20 every day here. That’s pretty hard, to run a business with that amount of people.”

Sawyer said the Command’s only concern is that the Penticton Legion has the proper executive to represent the membership.

“I don’t deny that there is debt there, but we’re not sending in auditors to go over the books. They have an internal audit committee that is working to audit their books — as branches are allowed to do,” she said. “They’re working on that internally and that work is continuing to go on.”

Bannister said he’s hoping and praying that enough people step forward, so the legion doesn’t have to close. The legion does a lot for the community, he continued, helping with minor sports, cadets, support for the elderly, even yearly bursaries to students graduating from high school.

“There are two bursaries to each high school from the branch and then, I believe, there are three from the Ladies’ Auxiliary,” he said, explaining how the legion closure would affect these community groups. “It’ll make a big dent, a very big dent.”

Sawyer said Command is a long way from permanently closing the Penticton Legion.

“We have every expectation that this is going to continue to be a viable operation. That branch has been there for more than 80 years, we’re not going to let it close without a fight,” she said.

“I think that the community of Penticton deserves a Legion. You have lots of veterans there and our branch still has a vital role to play in the community in Penticton.”