THUNDER BAY — Members of Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 5 and Katriina Myllymaa have made history.
Myllymaa is the first woman to be elected president of the branch since it was established 102 years ago.
"It's pretty mind-boggling that it took this long to do it," she said Tuesday in an interview.
"We have a wall full of [photos of] the wonderful men that have run the organization. I was looking at it and thinking...yeah, some day my head's going to be in one of those pictures. It's kind of cool."
Myllymaa joined the legion about 15 years ago and served as first vice-president for six years.
Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, she said she wants to ensure the branch has all its "ducks in a row, and that we're going to be able to continue providing services to the veterans in the community and having the doors open to allow people to come in and enjoy themselves."
Myllymaa said it's important to come out of the pandemic-imposed shutdown with a common purpose.
"Things are just opening up. It's a matter of slowly manoeuvering our way through the minefield that COVID's put out, and get us going again...We need to make sure we do the things we need to do to keep Branch 5 a viable organization."
Myllymaa hopes to be just the first in a line of many women to assume the top leadership role.
"You can't sit back and wait for things to happen. You've got to go out there and do what you can do. Hopefully somebody will look at it and think, well, 'If she could do it, I could do it.'"
