What do you do with a Legion post that is losing its members?

Nov, 17-2009 4:05 pm

By JACKIE HANUSEY
Staff Writer

LINWOOD – Linwood American Legion Post 353 sits at 23 Elm Ave., old and in disrepair.

The building’s yellow paint is peeling; the once-red door faded. From the outside, the curtains look worn and moth-eaten.

Birds live in the roof, and the portico over the front porch is rotted and unstable, according to City Councilman Tim Tighe. Sometimes, the grass is unkempt.

Tighe said the city has been wrestling with what to do about the building for several years.

He said it is a shame that the building needs so much work. Owned by the American Legion, it was constructed in 1900. It is on an undersized lot, which would make it hard to sell.

But perhaps the biggest problem to overcome is not the age of the building, but its membership.

“It’s a touchy situation. No one has any intentions of hurting the veterans,” Tighe said. “We don’t understand where the younger veterans are.”

“We don’t know what to do,” said Linwood construction official Jim Galantino. “We are not getting anywhere.”

He said the building’s condition has prompted complaints from neighbors in the residential neighborhood. Its stability is also in question.

But he said the last thing the city wants to do is condemn a building owned by a veterans group.

The American Legion was chartered and incorporated by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veterans organization devoted to mutual helpfulness, as stated on the national website.

The American Legion is the nation’s largest veterans service organization, committed to mentoring and sponsorship of youth programs, advocating patriotism and honor, promoting a strong national security, and continued devotion to fellow service members and veterans.

World War II veteran Rev. Norman Thomas of Northfield is post commander.

“The last time the city called us about the building being in disrepair, the grass was wild,” said Atlantic County American Legion Cmdr. Charles Kassparian of Ventnor.

“We contact Reverend Thomas, and the next day it was all cleaned up,” he said.

But the building needs more than quick fixes.

Code enforcement official Ed Beck said there have been six complaints made about the building since he was hired in November 2004.

He said if it is cleaned up, maybe with help from other posts, the building would be more pleasing aesthetically and mollify the neighbors.

“To cite them and bring them to court would be a lose-lose situation,” Beck said.

Kassparian said they have contacted several people to determine what repairs are needed, but they were told that just going into the building is dangerous.

“It used to be a vibrant and active post,” said Sue Marciano of Egg Harbor Township, adjutant and treasurer for the Atlantic County American Legion and former post commander of Galloway Post 430.

A Vietnam Army nurse who has been a member of the Legion for 39 years, Marciano said that when she has offered her help to Thomas, she is told he has things together.

But with the members being in their 80s and 90s, it is proving difficult to keep the property up.

Marciano said the commander is so determined to keep the post going that “most times he pays the dues out of his own pocket.”

It is not uncommon for the rolls of a legion to dwindle.

Marciano said she was redoing a mailing list for Galloway Post 430 and realized that, of the 450 members it had 10 years ago, now there are only 250. Of the 200 lost, most had died, and about 75 had been Vietnam veterans, she said.

When this happens, it is the community who loses most, she said.

“The American Legion is not to serve ourselves, but to serve the public, children and youth,” Marciano said.

American Legion posts sponsor contests in elementary schools and an oratorical contest for high school students to win scholarships.

It also sponsors the American Legion Boys State and the American Legion Auxiliary Girls State, a program by which students learn about politics and government. In New Jersey, high school juniors participating in the program go to Rider University for a week during the summer to learn.

“The kids hurt,” Marciano said. “It’s a shame.”

There are 14 American Legion Posts in the county. While some have merged, like the posts in Margate and Ventnor, Marciano said they prefer to keep all chapters going if possible.

“We really hope some way, somehow, something can be done to salvage it,” Kassparian said.



To comment on this story email Jackie.Hanusey@catamaranmedia.com.