The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 65's hosting Johnny Dietrich and The Sharpe Sisters as part of their Raise the Roof fundraiser Saturday night in Portage la Prairie.

"They both approached us and wanted to assist in raising funds for the roof at the Legion," says Bob Oldford, Legion Branch 65 President. "It's going to be an acoustic night, so you can sit across from someone and actually talk to them while listening to great music. We'll be serving chilli with a bun that night too as a meal, and the cost for the night is $20. The proceeds will all go to the Raise the Roof fundraiser."

The event starts at 8 p.m. and will be downstairs in the lounge. Oldford says they'd like people to get their tickets early because they have a limited number of seats available.

"The fundraising is over $7,000 now with just some of the small events that we've been doing," says Oldford. "There are more funds coming in on a regular basis from members and others in the community that are donating toward the roof fund. Plus, events like this, and event coming up down the road, a casino night that we're having, will also go toward the fundraising."

The Legions is currently in the process of putting together all the information needed to put out tenders and get companies quoting on the roof. Oldford says they've got a design, and the engineering is done, and they're looking at moving forward.

"It's been a fair bit of work. We've been sourcing out different areas where we can get grants, or money, from different branches, and that's been a lot of hard work too. It's falling into place, we have some assurances of being able to get some match dollars. We do have to raise 1/3 of the cost with one particular group, so we're looking at raising about $20,000 or better and we'll go from there."

Oldford adds they've budgeted their final amount needed at somewhere between 60 and $70,000, to make sure if they run into something unforeseen they can deal with it. Tickets are on sale now at the Legion.