Thursday January 10, 2008
Calvert Independent Managing Editor
JOE NORRIS
American Legion posts throughout Calvert County are seeking to encourage veterans and their family members to join up.
“We’re trying to get the word out that we’re not just a bunch of vets sitting at a bar drinking beer and swapping war stories,” said Calvert County Commander Patricia McCoy. “We do a lot of good things in our communities.”
On Saturday, Jan. 5 the Stallings-Williams American Legion Post 206 in Chesapeake Beach held an open house in an effort to lure new members to their ranks. In 2006, the Stallings-Williams Post celebrated its 60th anniversary.
“We got our charter in 1946,” said Post 206 Commander Jack Gregory. “We have 1,500 total members including Sons of Legionnaire members [siblings of family members of veteran members].”
“We have well over 3,000 members here in Calvert County alone,” McCoy added. “All four of the county’s American Legion posts work to help our baseball teams, we have oratorical contests and scholarship programs for high school seniors.”
Getting new members is sometimes difficult, she admitted.
“That’s one of the reasons we put this program together,” McCoy said. “We’re not just about wartime veterans. We’re giving back to our communities every day.”
A new program the American Legion is promoting is called “Heroes to Hometown,” which is an effort to help support the families of veterans who are returning from war with traumatic injuries.
”We want to be there to support them,” McCoy noted.
The Stallings-Williams American Legion Post 206 has two Gold Star members who have lost a sibling to war—Kelly Swanson of Rose Haven, whose son, Sgt. Christopher Swanson was killed in a helicopter crash, and Delores “Dolly” Niewenhous, also of Rose Haven.
“We’ve established a veteran’s charity in his [Swanson’s] memory,” McCoy added. “We’re helping to support that family.
“In Calvert, we have such a small county but we’re doing so much together as a big family,” McCoy, a Navy veteran, noted. “Unfortunately we haven’t done a good job of getting the word out and that’s our fault. But we give back to our community every day and that’s the message we really want people to know.”
