Legacy Week runs from September 1 to September 7, and the club celebrated its 90^th anniversary with a high tea for legatees and their widows at the Ararat College Training Centre.

Over 50 attended the high tea, which was prepared and presented by the Ararat College VET hospitality students.

The event was the first of a number of activities to take place over the coming months, which recognise and celebrate 90 years of service to the families of deceased and incapacitated veterans in the region.

Legacy currently cares for 52,000 beneficiaries Australia-wide.

Legacy Ararat president Robert Irvine has been a member for 54 years.

"I've been involved in Legacy since 1965 as a 10 year old boy, as Legacy looked after our family," he said.

"When I was first involved there were lots of children, and now there's a lot of older widows.

"The core business is still the same and that's still a feature of what we do."

More events will take place throughout the next couple of months.

"Ninety years of Legacy in Ararat is significant, and a brilliant achievement, and it just shows how much people care about the community," Mr Irvine said.

"But it also says how much our community supports us in what do.

"We're also having a luncheon on September 17 in Ararat at the RSL for all our widows.

"We've also got a changeover dinner on November 9, and there will be a significant celebration of our 90 years. The next morning there will be a brunch at J Ward, supported by Rotary."

Mr Irvine said Ararat was a great town for service clubs to work together and celebrate each other's achievements.

"Service clubs always work together and they've always been in the background of the community," he said. "You have a a good time doing it."

In addition to the events, legatees and volunteers have been visiting different venues in Ararat, Stawell, Beaufort, Avoca and Willaura this week to sell badges and other merchandise in order to fundraise and increase awareness.

What is the history of Legacy?

Legacy, as an organization, was conceived in 1923 when 190,000 servicemen had returned to Australia from World War 1.

Being mindful of the diggers' unspoken, unbreakable code of 'Stand by your Mates', a group of senior ex-servicemen in Melbourne established the 'Friendship Club'.

The role of the organization at that time was to help ex-servicemen who were unemployed, were physically impaired, or their earning capacity was diminished because of their war service.

At a further meeting in 1925, also in Melbourne, the question was asked 'Have any of you blokes thought that the dying wish of any of our cobbers would be that we look after the missus and kids?'

And so Legacy, as it is known today, was born. It is 'Australia's Biggest Family'.

Being the 10th Club to be formed, Ararat Legacy was created through the auspice of Ballarat Legacy on the 28th September, 1929.

The inaugural meeting of 29 ex-World War 1 servicemen was held in the Ararat Town Hall.

Its task was huge; the territory allocated to the club extended to the South Australian border, as far north as Hopetoun, and south past Hamilton.

With the outbreak of WW11 in 1939, it was realized that the territory for which Ararat Legacy was responsible was too large to be adequately covered by one club.

Immediately after World War 11, a legatee had to resettle, bring up a family of his own, and also the family of a deceased comrade.

Thus, in 1946, Ararat Legacy was the sponsor club for the formation of Wimmera Legacy and in 1948 set up Hamilton and District Legacy.

By 1962, Ararat Legacy was looking after 208 widows and 54 children under the age of 15 years.

In that decade, country holidays for metropolitan children were being held, and the personal care and help to the families of departed comrades continued unbroken.

Wood was being distributed throughout the local area and to the Melbourne metropolitan region.

By the Year 2000, over 300 widows were being looked after by Ararat Legacy.

Ararat Legacy today has twenty eight Legatees from the areas of Ararat, Avoca, Beaufort, Stawell and Willaura looking after the welfare of approximately 130 widows.

Importantly Legacy's role, as it was in 1929 is the same today; the care, guidance and encouragement of the families of those servicemen and servicewomen, who through death because of their service, are no longer there to give those benefits.

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