HAY RIVER - The Royal Canadian Legion in Hay River has made a huge donation to help celebrate its 60th anniversary.

Tracy Cross Gauthier, left, president of the Hay River Royal Canadian Legion, and Laura Rose, president of the Hay River Soup Kitchen, hold a large cheque symbolizing the $60,000 donation made by the Legion to the Soup Kitchen on July 25. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

Branch 250 presented $60,000 – its largest-ever single donation – to the Hay River Soup Kitchen on July 25.

Branch president Tracy Cross Gauthier said she got the idea for the donation from a newspaper article about the fundraising challenges of the Soup Kitchen, which needed to raise another $60,000 for a new trailer.

"The two numbers sort of clicked for me," she said, referring to the 60th anniversary and the $60,000 needed by the Soup Kitchen.

A lot of organizations need support, she said. "But none more than the Soup Kitchen."

Cross Gauthier said the idea received tremendous support from the Branch 250 executive and membership.

"The Soup Kitchen provides a valuable public service," she said, adding the Legion is pleased to contribute.

Laura Rose, the president of the Hay River Soup Kitchen, was happy with the donation, noting the Legion has always been a good supporter of the Soup Kitchen,

"It doesn't come as a surprise to me, but it floored me when I heard it," Rose said of the latest donation.

The Soup Kitchen, which offers healthy meals three days a week to needy people, will use the money to help obtain a used diner trailer, which will cost $87,500.

Currently, the Soup Kitchen operates in a smaller camp trailer, with a maximum seating of nine. The new trailer will be able to seat 15 or 16.

Rose hopes the new trailer will be in place by the end of August or the beginning of September on the same site as the existing trailer.

Bev Gibb, the secretary of the Soup Kitchen, said the Legion has always been a big supporter in the past.

"But they outdid themselves this time," she said.

Gibb recalled receiving the "amazing message" that the Legion planned to donate $60,000.

"We're honoured, we're humbled, we're truly grateful," she said.

The Legion donates $5,000 annually to the Soup Kitchen, along with support in the form of food throughout the year.

Cross Gauthier said the large donation to the Soup Kitchen will not affect Legion support for other Hay River organizations this year.

Last year, the Legion made donations of about $80,000, she said. "This year, we will be well over $100,000."

In fact, Lorraine Peterson, the secretary of the branch and chairperson of its donation committee, said the Hay River Legion has made donations totalling just under $850,000 since 1991.

Peterson estimated that, by the end of 2010, the Legion branch will have donated more than $1 million.

The Legion raises the money through the sale of Nevada tickets, meat draws, bingos and raffles.