The Norwood Legion Branch 300 recently made a sizeable donation to the Asphodel Norwood Cultural and Heritage Committee. The committee in turn has designated the generous $1,000 donation to a special project they have been working toward for several years now, the digitization of their large collection of Norwood Register newspapers. Legion president Bob Tytko made the official donation presentation on April 16 at the legion’s Thursday Wings Night.

Started more than a decade ago the legion’s weekly Wings Night has grown steadily over the years and in spite of the occasional hiccup, including a pandemic shutdown and a hiatus for a kitchen remodel, their wings nights have become very popular. The branch is a busy place on Thursday evenings, especially in the kitchen where a small army of volunteers expertly prepare a tasty array of deep fried foods available to order. The menu includes more than just breaded and plain chicken wings (and more than a dozen sauces), they also have fries, onion rings, chicken strips, deep fried pickles and mushrooms, poutine, mozza sticks and nachos. Wings Night starts at 4:30 p.m. Orders are made (and paid, cash only) at the kitchen window. You can also phone your order in by calling 705-639-2374. 

Returning to the aforementioned newspaper digitization project, the Historical Committee is very fortunate to have in its archives a very large number of old Norwood Register newspapers. The collection spans nearly the entire 134 years the paper was in operation; many editions date back to the 1800s and continue through to the renaming of the paper in 2005. It has been the committee’s mission for many years to not only preserve this incredible collection, but to also be able to finally offer the public the opportunity to view and search this local historical resource (Impossible at the present time due to the fragile nature of the old papers). Through various fundraisers and generous donations over the years the committee has worked diligently to save the funds required to get the project started and see it through to its completion.

So without further ado, the Asphodel Norwood Cultural and Heritage Committee is very pleased to announce its digitization project of the historical Norwood Register is officially underway. The first steps are already in process with the order of a specialized wide area scanner and computer system that is due to arrive in the next few weeks. Volunteers will receive training on the equipment before the scanning can finally begin. The committee is definitely devoted to the project and they are in it for the long haul, so to speak as scanning a few thousand newspapers is going to take a while.       

In the end those that have helped to make this project possible can take pride in knowing they have preserved the past, for future generations to see and study. The old Registers provide a glimpse into the lives of our ancestors, how they lived and what they experienced; a printed diary of daily life in the Town of Norwood for more than 130 years.

The Norwood Legion has been hosting its Catch the Ace Draw for several years now; the proceeds have made it possible to do most of the impressive restorations and improvements to the legion’s Historic building in the last few years.

The draw itself has become a very popular fundraising raffle and is used by organizations across Canada. Catch the Ace as you might have guessed is based on a standard deck of 52 playing cards. Each card is placed in an envelope; the envelopes are shuffled and then numbered, this way no one knows what card is in any envelope.

A random draw is held each week from the tickets sold during that particular week; the winning weekly ticket holder receives a portion of the total ticket sales for that period. Ticket holders select a number between 1 and 52; giving them the opportunity should their ticket be drawn for the weekly prize to also win the progressive jackpot if their chosen number corresponds to the envelope containing the Ace of Spades.

Each week an envelope is opened and a card is revealed, that envelope number is then removed from the available numbers to choose from, therefore a draw has a maximum run of 52 weeks.

The breakdown from each tickets sale is: 20 per cent of the weekly sales goes to the weekly winner, 30 per cent of sales goes to the progressive pot, 25 per cent goes to the branch for a designated project (such as an elevator) and the last 25 per cent is reserved for funding charitable projects in the community. Each ticket costs $5, so $1 goes to the weekly prize, $1.50 goes to the progressive pot, $1.25 goes for legion projects and $1.25 goes to charitable works.

Tickets are $5 each and are available at the legion during regular business hours and at several local businesses including J.J. Stewart Motors, Paul’s Norwood Pharmasave and Centennial Pharmacy from Monday morning to Friday afternoon. In Havelock they can be purchased at Rachel’s Beautiful Beginnings, Carquest and Havelock Pharmasave, from Monday morning to Saturday morning. They can also be purchased at Campbellford Chrysler from Monday morning to Saturday morning and in Hastings they are available at Peppers Pet Food Store and Pethericks Pharmasave. Tickets cannot be purchased online or over the phone.

Draws are held each Saturday afternoon at the legion. They also have weekly a meat draw at the same time that visitors can take part in while they wait for the weekly Catch the Ace draw to take place. The weekly prize and the progressive jackpot can grow quite quickly and become pretty substantial. Last week’s weekly winner was Krista from Millbrook who did not catch the ace however she did take home a tidy sum of $3,801.

This Saturday’s progressive jackpot is estimated to be almost $94,000 and with only 12 numbers or envelopes left to choose from it might be time to try your luck while having the satisfaction of also helping your local legion continue its mandate to help our veterans.

© Peterborough Examiner