Stormey and Darryl Brown from the Williamstown American Legion join us to share the rich history and vital role of the Legion in supporting local veterans. They highlight the various ways the Legion raises funds and resources to give back to those who have served our country. Both Stormey, as the post commander, and Darryl, the post adjutant, emphasize the importance of community involvement and encourage veterans, as well as the public, to participate in events and initiatives. From hosting bingo nights to collecting donations for local charities, their passion for helping veterans is evident. This episode not only sheds light on the Legion's activities but also invites everyone to join in and support those who have dedicated their lives to serving others.

Engaging with Stormy and Darryl Brown from the Williamstown American Legion Post 0137 was an enlightening experience that showcased the vital role this organization plays in supporting veterans and the community. Stormy, the commander, shared her extensive history with the Legion, which began in 1989, and highlighted her dedication to helping veterans and their families. Together with her husband, Darryl, the post adjutant, they emphasized the importance of creating a welcoming environment for all veterans, regardless of their discharge status. They discussed the significance of membership and how it fosters a sense of belonging among veterans, encouraging honorably discharged individuals to join and actively participate in the Legion's activities.

During our conversation, we explored the various ways the Legion raises funds to support its initiatives. The Browns detailed their ongoing bingo nights, which not only serve as a source of income but also as a community gathering event that fosters friendships and connections. They shared heartwarming stories of how the Legion has provided essential support to local veterans, including medical equipment and assistance with VA benefits. The emotional depth of their stories illustrated the profound impact the Legion has on individuals' lives, reinforcing the idea that it is more than just a social club—it is a lifeline for many.

As the discussion progressed, the need for community involvement became increasingly apparent. Stormy and Darryl emphasized that the Legion relies heavily on the support of local citizens, encouraging everyone to participate in events, volunteer their time, or make donations. They expressed a desire to dispel any misconceptions about the Legion being solely a place for drinking and socializing, instead presenting it as a family-friendly environment focused on service and support. Their genuine passion for their work and the community shone through, leaving a lasting impression that the American Legion is a place where veterans can find support, camaraderie, and a sense of purpose. The episode concluded with a heartfelt invitation for everyone to get involved, whether through volunteering or simply attending events, highlighting the collective responsibility we all share in supporting our veterans.

Takeaways:

• The American Legion is a vital support network for veterans, fostering camaraderie and providing assistance among those who have served.
• Stormy Brown, the commander, emphasizes the importance of giving back to veterans and the community.
• Darryl Brown highlighted the various services the Legion offers, like loaning out medical equipment and helping veterans navigate VA benefits.
• The Legion hosts events like bingo nights to fundraise and engage the community in a family-friendly atmosphere.
• Membership at the Legion is open to all honorably discharged veterans, providing a space for veterans to connect and support one another.
• Community involvement is crucial for the Legion’s sustainability, and they encourage locals to volunteer or participate in events.

Mentioned in this episode:

Toad Talk Media

Toad Talk Media is a storytelling-driven media company based in Grant County, Kentucky. We create podcasts, videos, social content, and a quarterly magazine that spotlight local voices, businesses, and community pride. As the production team behind We Are Grant County, we believe in authentic conversations, meaningful connections, and creative content that celebrates small-town life. Whether you're a listener, viewer, or future guest, you're invited to be part of the story.

So, hello, Stormy and Daryl, thank you so much for being part of this podcast.

Would you like to introduce yourself, kind of tell us what your role is with the American Legion, how long you've been with the American Legion and how you kind of got involved.

I'm Stormy Brown.

I've been the commander going on seven years now.

I got involved basically because it was a way to give back to the community and a way to give back to our veterans.

I'm Darryl Brown, I'm her husband.

I've been a member since the early 90s.

I took over as postage to run the admin part of the post.

As far as doing paperwork, signing up new members and making sure the post is functional.

So you guys have mentioned, like in our talks before we started recording, you mentioned memberships and you just kind of hit on that again.

What does I guess a membership entail or why would somebody want to be a member?

We encourage all veterans, it's honorably discharged, to become members, to come out and help support other veterans.

We're an organization that's here for veterans to support each other, to support the community, give back to the community in ways.

So we encourage all veterans to come out and join the member the local Legion hall at.

It's a $40 a year membership fee here at this post to join, to become members.

So we encourage all veterans to come out and support each other and support the community.

So to be a true member, you need to have been a veteran of one of our armed forces, is that.

That's correct.

We accept just about all services now branch of service, even the National Guard reserves, and they're more than welcome to bring a copy of their 214 in and that's all they need that and pay their membership fees.

They have to be honorably discharged, correct?

In good standing.

Yes, yes.

Right.

Okay, that's great.

So.

And again, in our talks prior to recording, you mentioned that Daryl, you had served.

Yes, I was.

I was an army tanker for eight years in the military.

In the Army.

Thank you so much for your service.

Thank you.

So to work here, you would have to be somebody that was in the service.

But.

And so that's where I kind of wanted to clarify because Stormy, I wasn't sure if you had served or not.

So.

Yes, I was in the Navy back when Women weren't really the norm and that was at the end of Vietnam.

And you do not have to be a member to help at the hall or to participate in events here.

Those are open to the public and volunteers are always welcome.

So there's a way for non service members to actually be engaged with the hall and without officially being a member, but can still contribute and help the work of the Legion and supporting veterans.

Yes.

It's just members get voting rights and they get the use of the hall and a place to meet and talk and just kind of be with one another.

And if you're a non member, you don't get that, you know.

Right.

But we're here for the community.

We're here for each other.

So what does the American Legion mean to you personally?

Is there anything to me, it's a way to help our veterans.

It's a way to give back.

They've done so much for us.

They've given so much.

Their families have given a lot because they serve as well as their veterans do.

And it's a way to be there for one another.

Okay.

What does that mean to you, Daryl?

It means a lot being a veteran.

You know, you, you take on the role of helping your, your fellow veterans and, and the community in making sure that your veterans are taken care of.

That's our priority, or my priority is to make sure that we help the veterans in the best way possible to make sure they have their needs met, whether it be through the VA hospital, getting their benefits, whatever they need, or even in the community.

We go out and we have like portable wheelchair chair, we have wheelchairs, we have walkers, we have portable wheelchair ramps that we can loan out if we need to.

For the veteran that has a hard time and can't afford to put a ramp on their house and they all of a sudden can't get out, then we can supply them a portable ramp.

Until they can establish one of their own or until as long as they need it, it's there for them.

So it kind of seems like it's a way to continue that camaraderie.

Right.

I've always heard of, you know, like the people you serve with, not just a brotherhood, but like a family.

And it kind of, at least that's what it sounds like to me.

The military, whether you're active service or veteran, once you're in your family, you're always family.

You're there for every generation after you and those before you.

It's just like you would help your grandparents if they became ill or they needed your assistance.

We help those before us because they paved the way.

We help those that are coming in now because they're our future and we're just one big family.

The mission statement is that the Legion is to protect and serve for God and country.

The phrase reflects allegiance, founding principles of faith and patriotism, indicating a belief in a higher power and deep allegiance to the United States.

It suggests that service to God and service to the country are connected.

And both are essential for the Legion's goals of upholding the Constitution, fostering Americanism, and serving the community.

Thank you for that.

And you had mentioned, Darrell, a few of the, I guess, the things that you can offer, services that you can offer.

So what are some core activities or programs that this local post is engaged in that may be able to raise funds or take in maybe donations that would help?

We.

Well, first off, we accept any and all donations that are given to the hall.

We accept wheelchairs, we accept walkers, things of that sort that normal handicapped people would need as far as being veterans.

But we can also give them to the community.

It's not just for veterans.

It's.

It's to certain people that come to the Legion that needs assistance, basically, so.

Meeting different needs from the community.

So whether it's service members or not.

We also collect handmade or store bought lap blankets.

And when we get enough, we donate them to the dialysis center.

Here in Grant county.

We haven't had any but about three donations lately, so we're actively seeking those.

We collect food to help the Spheres Foundation.

We collect toys all year because the first Saturday of every December, we have an open house for the children of the community.

You do not need to be a member.

And every child will get a toy because we firmly believe that every child should have a smile on Christmas morning.

And if we know of a family that's having it hard, we will give extra and help out what we have left at the end of the day.

We give to the police department to help with their program every year.

So there are numerous things.

We sell raffle tickets every year to help the women's club.

We with their scholarship fund for a quilt that they do every year.

And we collect socks for the homeless.

And we do different things that people ask our help with.

We also make sure that if we know of a veteran that is being buried with no family, someone will try to be there so that veteran does not leave this world alone.

That's awesome.

Thank you.

And I think there's something that happens every Friday night.

We have bingo.

Something I Know, some of our family members are very interested in.

Yeah, we do bingo because we needed a fundraiser that would help with our projects.

And this was suggested because there hasn't been a bingo here in many years back when the football boosters used to do it and the people are looking for something to do.

And so this was just another thing that we could offer the community to come out on Friday night and have fun playing bingo.

Electronic pull tabs, paper pull tabs, meet your neighbors you haven't seen in years.

You know, just give you something to do.

And so we do bingo every Friday night.

Doors open at 4.

We also have a full kitchen that we have a variety of food for, for purchase while they're playing bingo too.

And drinks are available, sodas and stuff.

And so we're open to the community.

We base that out on a tier system for the amount of people that are here.

So the more the people come, the bigger the payout is for the bingo sessions.

And we can put bigger pull tab payouts on the floor too as the more people we come and get to play.

So we have different special bingos.

Like we had a glow party dance night this Friday night.

We're having a designer purse bingo.

We're going to have a trivia bingo later this year.

So we have different things.

We have door prizes often.

So there's different things to offer to give the community something back.

Just so that it's a little bit more than just bingo, right?

Yeah, we got bingo shark.

It's $1,000 payout for bingo.

So somebody or two people play bingo.

It's a, it's a one dab game that somebody can walk out here with winning $1,000 possibly.

You know, we've had one person win 1,000.

We've had two people split it and walk out with $500 a piece.

So.

So you mentioned earlier like services with the va.

So do you help coordinate like a veteran getting in touch with the VA.

Or we, we recommend, we give them recommendations who to go to to.

Okay.

Get assistance where they kind of tied our hands back years ago we could do the service but now rules and regulations have changed or we have to recommend where they go and who, who can go help them apply for their services.

Okay.

We steer them in the right direction.

We, that's about basically all we're allowed to do now.

So yeah, you can't do like we.

Can'T do the paperwork.

We can't fill out the paperwork for them.

Yeah, we have to reform to organization that can do that for them.

But we steer them in the right direction.

You can get.

Yeah.

Get them their help through and other service were before we used to be able to do that.

Now they tied our hands to where each post can't do that.

They have to refer them to like DAV or one of the other organizations or somebody that can do that for them.

Right.

And I mean that makes sense so that it's kind of hopefully more centralized and hopefully more.

More helpful.

Well they have more organizations that stays on top of all the rules and regulations by the government that we don't keep up with.

So now since you guys have been involved with the American Legion for a number of years, do you buy any chance have any like good feeling stories or anything that like what has the, the Legion provided for somebody that's really benefited that individual or.

Well, six years ago I took her spot as a, as adjunct.

So she was ready to shoot me.

So she didn't like me at all.

So a year later it kind of convinced her to become the commander and I made a big apology and we kind of hit it off and started dating and married a year later.

So that's our love story of the Legion.

Brought together.

Brought together by service and the Legion.

Exactly.

We've had several people that have met at dances or they used to play cards here and they met at card parties and they'll come in and they'll say, boy, this looks different.

But I met my wife here or I met my husband here.

And you know, it's really, really touches my heart to hear that, you know, we help put somebody together.

We have them where their dad served here and they remember coming up when they're and helping out when their dad was a member and many, many years ago, long before my time.

And we love those stories.

And we just got Friday night some memorabilia on the gentleman the hall is named after.

This is Robert P. McLaughlin Hall.

He was killed in service in World War I.

We just found out he was killed by friendly fire.

We have the letter that his commanding officer sent to his father telling him of this.

We have a letter that he wrote to his brother and sister when he landed in France.

And we had had some newspaper clippings there on the wall and the frames.

But now we have this to connect it.

And it was really awesome of his second cousin to bring this to us all the way from Arizona.

That is pretty awesome.

So how long has this building been here?

1920.

Wow.

It was added on to over the years and the, the bingo area, the meeting, the rental hall that you're Sitting in this was the enlistment center for the Vietnam war for Grant County.

Many of our guys enlisted right here in this room.

That's a lot of history surrounding us.

There is, there's a lot of history in this still.

Seeing the floor where the walls that.

Where it was petitioned off into these.

Black lines and marks in the floor, that was where they petitioned areas to take the guys information to enlist them and do their physicals and stuff.

What are some of the biggest cost or challenges that you have just operating the hall?

It's the upkeep.

We have done a lot of upkeep to the hall.

We've put a new.

With the help of other legions, we have put a new furnace in central air in this part.

We need a new one in the meeting area.

That's a separate furnace and we don't have the funds for that.

So we have no central air over there right now.

And the furnace is stuck together with bubblegum and glue.

And we need basement windows.

We don't have those.

But we, we have remodeled the bathrooms.

We've done some remodeling on the kitchen.

We have a block building outside we wanted to use for storage.

And a young man who was trying to get his eagles found out badge took this on as a project and he raised the funds and did the work and put a roof on it for us.

And then we got collected the funds to put a door and a lock on it.

So it's been slow going, but we're getting there.

But we, we desperately need a furnace and air conditioning in the other room because I don't know how much longer it's going to hold up.

But most of us who volunteer donations, we don't.

We've got 25 paid members at $40 a month.

Do the math.

Or $40 a year.

Not in a month.

It's $40 a year for fees.

You got 25 people.

That's the only income that we have coming in.

And we don't run that $40.

We get.

We get $3 out of the $40 because the other 37 goes to state, national and national fees dues.

So you're taking $3 for 25 people to run this post.

So if it wasn't for bingo back during COVID the six active members kept this hall open.

We kept it open out of pocket.

Pocket.

So I mean, we've got 25.

25 people.

Six of us paid to keep this hall open during COVID I mean our.

Other members, a lot of them are shut in.

A lot of our Vietnam era, we have lost our Last World War I or World War II.

World War II member.

We've lost I think most of our Korean War members and we are actively losing unfortunately our Vietnam War members.

And we're trying to get new members but they're just not ready yet.

And when they are, they will join.

It takes time for veterans to get face what their service was to fight, find out that they have somebody out there that's willing to listen to them, help them out.

A lot of them don't know.

You know, I just had one newest member asked me the other day, you know, I've got health issues.

What do about it?

Well, I referred him to who he needs to go to to see to get the help that he needs.

They don't know.

And until it's the word gets out and that we're here and they're willing to come and to us and help and join and be a part of the organization, we're losing the battle.

You know, it's.

Once we're gone, the six of us ain't active.

Where does the post go from there?

You know, it's.

It's a.

It's going to be.

They're not there for the veterans and we need the community to come to step up and help and get the veterans to step up and come up and join.

You know, that's without newer members and newer people.

Six people is not going to be around forever to run this.

Right.

All of the posts are having the same issue.

So you know, if they're anywhere near an American Legion of vfw, it's not just sit and talk about war stories.

If you don't want to do that, we don't either.

We're here to be there for you.

And they need to go and join their local post, help them out, be there for the next ones coming up.

So you kind of touched on it a little bit.

So how.

Where do you think the general public is that of what the Legion does?

They don't have a clue.

Years ago hopefully get out there and.

This had a bad reputation.

I'll be honest.

It was a drunk hangout.

You come all veterans come, they drunk, they brought their friends.

Everybody come to drink, socialize, play cards, whatever.

Well, Grant County's dry.

Everybody was at the.

Yeah, this was more during the.

Not so acceptable exactly.

Very much.

It got a bad reputation in the community.

Right.

So I mean they rented the hall.

You had to deal with drunks to come and rent a hall.

Who wanted that?

We've come in, took it over, made it family friendly, cleaned it up for the community.

Community needed a place to come and rent, to have parties, dances, whatever.

But getting over the community, getting over the communities, bad outlook of it, I guess is how you want to kind.

Of look past the stigma of the past.

You have.

They need to get a past the stigma of the past and, and look at it, it's, it's cleaned up, it's family friendly, it's non smoking.

So it's a place you can come and bring your family.

You can come and enjoy a family night out, play bingo, fellowship with the community veterans.

So if we have dances, they're open to the public.

Yeah, anything kid friendly.

Bring the kids to the dance, let them dance.

We play songs for the kids too.

We did, we did A Touch of Truck for the kids back in the community back in the summer.

It wasn't a big crowd, but it turned out to be a pretty decent crowd.

By the time the word got out that we was having a Touch of Truck.

And the police department, fire department and some of the community over from Harrison county brought wreckers and rollbacks over and they brought a little tomato, little mater, golf cart.

Our son got to enjoy the little mater.

He enjoyed all the different trucks.

That was our first touch, a truck that we've put on.

So I mean, hopefully it'll become an annual event, grow and get bigger and the community start coming out and seeing that we're here.

We have a full kitchen available, open for.

We do take out, we do takeouts, we do fish fries on lint during Lent.

So that was a big deal that started last year.

So hopefully the word gets out, the community can start participating more.

It definitely sounds like you guys have all those little seeds planted for the future and it all these different programs and really trying to reach out.

So that's very interesting.

And I know Michelle was probably going to ask a question about plans or future, the future of the legion.

So every podcast it's my job to kind of keep us on track.

Yeah, I know that had to have been one of your questions.

Yeah, so I was just kind of, I was going to ask like, what is it that local citizens, local veterans or anybody, what can they do by volunteering?

You've already mentioned kind of like donating things, participating in some of your events, even advocate for you.

Like, is that something that.

It sounds like it's something that's needed.

So how do they get involved?

So they can contact me on Facebook or they can come in on a Friday and or leave me a note or put it, you know send us a letter in the mailbox.

I will call them back and that way they can donate.

They can help if they have flags that need retired.

We have a flag box next to the garage.

It says flags on it.

A lot of people have used it.

Put your flags that need retired in there.

The Boy Scouts have been gracious enough to come every year and do our flag retiring ceremony.

But just leave me a note, send me a message.

You know we will do everything we can.

Daryl's number is on the Facebook page for the Legion hall.

And what is that Williams Sound American Legion.

Okay.

And you can contact him that way.

But Friday nights are your best time to catch us.

I was going to say that it sounds like if you were to pick one thing that like what would have the biggest impact for you guys if there was something that you could say as a community.

What do we need?

Does that make sense?

Donations and volunteers for bingo.

I think that's pretty clear.

I think that makes sense.

Yeah.

If bingo is the biggest fundraiser and things that help maintain and you have.

Five of us trying to do everything well you have a caller, you have a banker, you have a bingo paper sales and payout.

You have a kitchen to be run.

You have the POS which is for the electronic games that has to be run and we don't get a break.

We're here every Friday night.

I'm not asking for a break but I do need volunteers.

I do need help and if you just want to make a donation because you can't give me your time that's fine too.

You don't have to be here every Friday night.

One Friday night a month would be awesome.

Yeah.

So maybe you're not so stretched so thin.

Exactly that and bring people to bingo.

My mother's trying.

I promise.

She'S a big help.

Yeah.

So looking ahead what do you see as far as like your biggest goals for the next few years?

To increase our membership that and then.

We'Re in the process of we have a memorial walkway out here that we sell bricks for for veterans that want to be recognized for their families to walk on.

We there it sits out here.

We're in the process of wanting to get it removed over to flatter even more better location improve it so we can expand it more make it better for and make it handicapped accessible to words a little harder for the handicap now to get to it.

The view.

So the bricks are for sale.

They are $40.

They are 45.

If you want insignia on them.

They are for any honorably discharged veteran.

You don't even have to live in Grant County.

The memorial was created for the five gentlemen who served in Vietnam.

From here, there is one of their families still in the area.

It is to honor them and all who served in any war or any peacetime.

If you have a family member, a friend that you would like to honor, just come up and let us know and we will get bricks ordered for them.

You don't have to be a veteran to order to come up and order the bricks.

They're from family and members and friends that you know that you want to honor.

So for their service.

And if there was one listener out there right now that was like, I want to get involved, what would you want to say to them?

If they're kind of like on the fence, like, I don't know if I can do this or I really want to help them, but I'm not sure how.

Like what, what would kind of be like something that you would say to them that would help them.

Kind of like come up and talk to us.

Whatever you can do, I promise you, is a help.

If you want to collect blankets or make blankets, if you want to sell, pull tabs.

If you just want to.

To come up and clean the howl, I don't care.

We will find something you are physically able to do to help us, and we are very grateful for it.

So are there any messages that you'd like to share with veterans or people who support veterans?

Don't give up.

Stick with it.

Times are hard right now for everyone.

We understand that.

But stick with your veterans.

They.

They were there for you, and now they need you there for them.

And we're here to listen.

If it's nothing else, you know, just stop by, call me.

We're here.

So we'll.

We'll be a shoulder to listen to.

Whatever.

Whatever your needs are.

If you need help, we'll see what we can do to help you.

And if we.

You just want to come out and hang out on a Friday night while we're playing bingo, come up and join us.

We'll come up.

Welcome to.

You don't have to play bingo.

Just come up and watch.

It's fun.

These ladies get all excited when they win or if they don't win.

They.

They talk.

And we got a front table that just giggles and laughs all night long.

We won't mention I wonder.

I wonder who sits at that table.

We just have a feeling.

Carry on.

They.

They enjoy it.

They have a blast.

They keep the place rolling and laughing.

And I might know somebody at that table.

So it's just come up and hang out.

It's.

And see it.

Check it out for yourself.

We have a private.

We do have.

Sorry.

We do have a door prize that we give away.

Every Friday night that you come play, you get a door prize.

Tickets.

It's put in a thing at the end of the month.

We give a door prize away.

We give a smoker away.

One night that the lady won.

We give a UK basket full of UK memorabilia.

A gentleman one playing Friday night.

So we got another smoker that might come up for a door prize sooner or later.

We've got a couple other tools that comes up that's going to be coming up next Friday night's a purse bingo.

We're not talking dollar store purses, we're talking high dollar Kate Spades and Michael Kors and the new one that's on the market now.

What's his name?

Sam Elliot.

Sam Elliot, you know more about purses than I do.

So come on up and play Friday night to deal with the purses is it's a single bingo to win a purse plus the prize money.

But if there's more than one bingo, our caller is going to pick a number and the people that bingo chooses a number and the closest number wins.

That way it's fair to who gets the purse.

They don't have to split it in half.

Well, they don't have to.

They can if they want.

They can if they want.

But we prefer giving a functional.

I'm sorry, we do have a private room that is for members only.

And if you are a veteran and you just want to come up and hang out with another veteran, that is there as well.

We have regulation dartboards on the wall.

It's one that takes 50 cents to play, is still operational.

It's still in pretty decent shape.

It could be refilled and if we have somebody out there that could volunteer to refill it, it would be wonderful.

But it's still playable and functional.

So you had mentioned before the, I think the Facebook address.

Is there a website or anything else?

We don't have a website.

Okay, so just find you on the Facebook page.

Yes.

What was that again?

Just so we Williamstown, American Legion or Gorge, go to Storm Brown or Darrell Brown.

And you will find us on there one of our members, Charles Maston, you can get with him as well.

He is our sergeant at arms and he can answer a lot of your questions.

Okay.

And I'll include those links on the show notes.

So before we wrap up, is there any kind of story or detail that we haven't touched on that you'd like to share?

Not that I can think of.

Just come on out, have fun, support your community, support your veterans.

Come on out Christmas with your children.

We're all grandmas and grandpas.

We welcome them, we love them.

You know, just come be a part of the Legion.

Well, thank you all very, very much.

Coming into this interview, I didn't really know much about the American Legion or what it did or what it offered.

I know it's been here forever.

I've driven past it a million times but again, didn't know anything about it.

But now after this, after this interview, I know so much more.

We're learning quite a bit on this podcast about what's going on in our community.

And so now I know American Legion is more than just bingo that my mother in law goes to.

Yeah, I feel like that's, hopefully the community can really take that information and we want everyone to get involved.

So it sounds like that's the kind of thing that you all need.

That's what we're looking for.

We're looking to get the veterans more involved into the community, get them recognized as veterans, get the community involved, get the community back out here to support the American Legion.

Whether it be just coming up playing bingo or coming in monetary, whichever they want to feel they want to contribute.

I mean we need community support.

You know, it's, it's time for the community to step up and take care of their own.

And we will get this podcast out for you and hopefully share the word and, and hopefully it touches somebody out there that, that they, they do feel that they can come in and help or volunteer or reaches become a member.

Reaches another veteran or a family member of a veteran who can maybe even family of veterans, you know, can motivate them.

Right.

There's also other groups that can be involved in the Legion.

We can do a what's we do donations the ladies auxiliaries we can do.

We have supported youth groups, sports groups, we supported ROTC for a while.

We, we support the Autism foundation assistance groups that we donate to.

And a lot of your money from the fundraising goes to these donations.

So you're not just helping us, you're helping other very, very active and worthy groups.

I was going to say worthy groups in the community.

And, and we can also, once we get volunteers, you can.

There's Ladies Auxiliary that can be added to the, to the Legion Hall.

We've got Sons of the Veterans, that group that can be.

But you got to have the members and the Sons of the Veterans to come up and join the hall to be able to get these groups going.

And that's what we're trying to do is get.

Get the word out to where we can get Ladies Auxiliary started.

We can get a son's group.

You can have a motorcycle riders group for veterans that ride motorcycles or Sons of Veterans that they can come up or veterans and veterans that do it.

So, I mean, there's.

There's more to gain by joining the Legion for the community if they get involved.

And in order to find out what needs to be done, you need to contact us and get.

Find out what.

Where you can fit in and where you can join and what you need to do.

Because, say, for example, the Ladies Auxiliary Legion officers can't run that.

It takes more people to be involved to do that part.

And they do their own charity work, approved by us here at the Legion as part of the Legion, but they do their own charity work.

They can even run their own bingo here.

The Sons of the Legion and the motorcycle groups, they do their own charity work.

So they're.

Again, it's Legion members giving back to the veterans, giving back to the community.

They do their own veteran projects that are separate from ours here.

And it's all run out of the American Legion.

It's all part of it, but we need the members.

And I can help them get their groups together as commander, but I can't do it if they don't come through the door and ask.

Right.

So I guess it's just kind of just sharing the word and sharing the information, kind of getting it out there.

And we'll do our part for you.

And hopefully that does start to kind of like open the doors and let people at least know what's going on here so that they can kind of learn some more on their own.

All right.

But thank you again very much.

Thank you.

We appreciate talking to you.

We appreciate you all.

Thank you.