Many service organizations and clubs have been struggling – does this hold true for our local VFWs and American Legions? Are the organizations still viable? I spoke with members from four of the local VFWs and American Legions to see how things are going from them.
Canton American Legion
The Canton American Legion’s membership has not lost any members recently and has actually gone up by a couple members. Greg Turner credits Commander Nick Prestby for his work to involve more of the inactive members and add new members. The Legion has 24 members (20 of which have Canton addresses); Turner considers this a good number given the many posts all around them and the population of Canton.
The Canton Legion stays active. A new Veterans’ Memorial Park can be found on Main Street; the city gave the Legion permission to use the property. The park is paved with 1,200 bricks; residents can purchase pavers in memory of veterans and have them engraved. At this time, several hundred personalized pavers have been installed.
On Memorial Day, the Legion will be dedicating a bronze statue depicting a Field Cross. The statue will be mounted on a marble base at the park and will honor those who died in action. Turner shared that when he was in Vietnam, he was personally involved in two funerals of servicemen at which the actual boots, helmets and rifles of the deceased were used to create the field cross.
Turner enthused that several people stepped up and volunteered their time and donated work on the statue project.
The Canton Legion will again hold a fundraising pancake breakfast April 7. They expect to serve around 300 people at the town hall. The Legion appears to have found a way to inspire its members to serve in assorted ways.
Rushford American Legion
Tom Butterfield, Commander of the Rushford American Legion, said their membership has been at a constant of around 94 members in the last three years. Four years ago the membership was at 120. Calling their organization a “dying breed,” Butterfield shared that the Legion has been working hard to keep their numbers up.
Butterfield credits current members with going out and finding new members. A couple members have transferred in after moving to town. Another member transferred from the Winona post when he moved to senior housing in Rushford.
As it has always been, the young veterans are busy raising their families; most don’t take the time to belong to the Legion until they are over 40. Butterfield himself said he never got really active until he retired and had more time.
Butterfield stressed that both the Legion and VFW are veterans’ organizations that are “here to help and support them (the veterans)” in many ways, including monetarily. The focus of the Legion is local. The Legion helps in schools, food shelves and has a fund at the Good Shepherd Home to help veterans with their needs.
“We try to make sure that there’s more to belonging to the Legion than paying dues; we’re there for the veterans!” Butterfield encouraged veterans to join the Legion.
Caledonia American Legion
Caledonia’s American Legion Post 191 Commander Arlyn Pohlman reported a membership of 115 this year. Members are not required to attend the monthly meetings; average attendance at the meetings is 14. The American Legion holds its meeting first and then the Caledonia VFW Post 3833 follows with their meeting.
Two major events are held each year for the veterans. A membership dinner takes place in August and a Veterans Day dinner on November 11.
Pohlman shared that membership continues to decline with the passing away of most of the WWII veterans. Pohlman feels the fact that there are no active military posts locally contributes to the decline.
Pohlman feels that younger people don’t have the money to spend to join and are busy with their families. He shared that he himself didn’t join the Legion until he was in his mid-60s and had more time. Dues to join the Legion are expected to cost between $50 and $55 next year.
The Legion hasn’t done anything specifically to encourage young people to join. A roadblock to finding new members is the fact that the Veterans Department cannot share veterans’ names with the clubs due to data privacy. Word of mouth is used extensively to learn of new vets.
Charitable gambling funds are used by the Legion to offer 14 $1,000 scholarships to Caledonia graduates as well as to support St. John’s Elementary by providing playground equipment and St. Mary’s Elementary by paying for an intercom system. The Legion supports the Legion baseball team, sports, one-act play and Girls and Boys State.
The Legion presents the colors at home football games and graduation. They attend veterans programs at four schools and put on the Memorial Day service. The Caledonia Legion obviously contributes a lot to the community despite their declining numbers.
Preston VFW
Preston VFW Commander Ron Scheevel quickly pointed out that the VFW functions with the Preston American Legion, the VFW Auxiliary and SAL (Sons of the American Legion). The Legion and VFW jointly own the Servicemen’s Club.
Scheevel reported that membership numbers have been steadily declining, but they have picked up some new members recently. In 1968 there were over 170 members; now there are 60-62. Many members are now in their 70s and were part of the Vietnam era. New members are from the Iraq period and more recent campaigns.
The VFW is trying to do more social media and sending meeting reminder emails. Scheevel agreed with Pohlman that the necessity of using word of mouth to contact new veterans was a handicap. Scheevel shared that when he returned from Vietnam, the local club paid for his membership.
SAL has been very helpful in putting up and removing the 160 flags put up for holidays in Preston, but they cannot be on the firing squad. The VFW, Legion and the city each cover a third of the expense of flag replacement. At this time Preston and Harmony Legions cooperate to form firing squads for funerals. SAL does chicken-ques and ham dinners for fundraisers; they contribute to the Cancer Telethon as well.
Charitable gambling proceeds have provided funding for an $8,000 four-person golf cart for the Preston Veterans Home, $5,000 for the Preston Area Foundation, and $1,000 to Fillmore Central to refurbish the Preston Sportsmen Club stand for trapshooting.
It’s apparent that all of the area VFWs and Legions work to help veterans as well as their local communities. Their members have not given up on the clubs; they see the value of their work and enjoy the camaraderie in the organizations. They are cautiously optimistic about obtaining additional members and ask all to encourage new veterans to join their local posts.
Tim says
It’s to bad this isn’t how it is on the east coast. I recently moved to a New England state and finding an active post that is welcoming is pretty non existent. There are posts on paper that never meet. When I was I Florida, the legion posts were havens for alcoholics and smoke filled. I was a legion rider and the other riders would drink heavily and then ride their bikes. Upstate NY active but not very welcoming.
I’m tired of looking fo a legion home!