Charlotte Varcoe
MORE than 60 members of the Penola and Coonawarra community gathered at the Coonawarra community hall last week to celebrate a significant milestone.
The Penola Coonawarra Returned and Services League (RSL) celebrated its centenary birthday over the weekend with a number of important visitors in attendance.
Alongside Penola’s sole surviving WWII veteran, Roen Lynn, the club, Trevor Whitelaw OAM, also joined in on the festivities.
Mr Whitelaw responded to the toast made to the club and discussed how the state RSL clubs are back on track following a number of difficult years.
Students from the Penola Primary School choir sang the song of Australia while Mr Lynn proposed a toast to diggers past and present.
Penola Coonawarra RSL president Peter De Garis said it was important to look back on the club’s achievements as well as look forward to the future.
“We reflected on the timeline of the opening and when the club started,” Mr De Garis said.
“Originally there was an RSL club in both Penola and Coonawarra and the two merged in 1935.”
During the evening, Mr De Garis spoke one the old club rooms as well as the current ones and reflected on the past and present defence force.
“The future for our club is similar to many RSL clubs across the state,” he said.
“We continue to battle for membership and long term, our future is clouded with lack of membership.
“RSL clubs give support to past and present returned soldiers and it is critical we keep these clubs for as long as possible.”
