VFW Post 7689 in Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, donated $2,500 toward new helmets for the local high school football team to enhance safety measures in sports.

Post Commander Doug Warmath presented the donation during Central High School’s second football game at home in Martinsburg in mid-September.

“The safety of our students is a top priority,” Kayla Myers, president of the QB Club, told the Morrisons Cove Herald in Martinsburg. “We are incredibly grateful to the VFW and the broader community for coming together to ensure our athletes are well-equipped.”

The donation stemmed from the Spring Cove School District administrators recognizing the need for more proactive safety measures, though unable to cover the new unforeseen costs of implementing new safety standards for football teams in the district.

VFW Post 7689’s contribution to the district now allows Central High School to purchase the necessary amount of helmets to meet the safety standards lobbied by the local school district and its members.

The check presentation by Warmath on behalf of Post 7689 also alluded to the large role the community in and around Martinsburg played in helping raise the funds for its local high school football program, according to the Herald.

“This is what community is all about,” Myers told the Herald. “It’s amazing to see everyone come together for the benefit of our students.”

This article is featured in the 2024 October issue of Checkpoint. If you’re a VFW member and don’t currently receive the VFW Checkpoint, please contact VFW magazine at magazine@vfw.org.

Since March 2019, VFW Post 2667 and its Auxiliary have donated more than 15,000 pounds of food to local pantries around their community in Newnan, Georgia.

Their efforts began when Auxiliary secretary and historian Janet Alford joined several others in tasking Auxiliary and VFW members to bring a jar of peanut butter to each monthly meeting at the Post.

“They all thought it was a great idea,” Alford said. “We started out slowly until the members finally remembered to bring their donations. We collected 28 jars of peanut butter in our first month, and then received about 10-11 jars for several months.”

By 2021, the Post had added canned foods, jelly and birthday kits to go along with their initial donations of peanut butter to several food pantries around their community.

To date, the Post and its Auxiliary has donated 6,858 jars of peanut butter, 2,253 jars of jelly, as well as 1,004 canned foods and 186 birthday kits, which includes alternative, self-made cake mixes, to the local Salvation Army, The I-58 Mission, Bridging the Gap and One Roof.

“They are very grateful for our donations and many times we arrive to find they are completely out of peanut butter and/or jelly,” Alford said. “A jar of peanut butter can make a difference in a family missing a meal and is one of the most needed items at a food pantry.”

The Post and its Auxiliary plan to continue to collect donations from its members each month to distribute to local food pantries in the area, an effort that has prompted positive feedback in the community.

“Our local newspaper publishes our photo of delivering the donations each month and this brings not only attention to our local VFW giving back to the community on a regular basis, but gives each food pantry recognition,” Alford said. “While out in the public, many members have been thanked and recognized for our work in the community.”

VFW magazine continues its “Destination Post Series” this month. The series will feature 125 VFW Posts located in sought-after tourist destinations. Featured VFW Posts are those that make a real difference in the communities in which the Posts are located. This month’s article takes VFW magazine to Whidbey Island, Washington.

Sprawled along the blueness of Puget Sound, Whidbey Island is a gangly island about 30 miles north of Seattle and nestled between the Olympic Peninsula and the I-5 corridor of western Washington, commonly known as the Purple Heart Trail. Known for its own trails, historic military forts and picturesque water views with orca sightings, the island also is home to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, making it a small but vibrant veterans community.

POST HOSTS A CAMPGROUND
At the heart of this veterans community is VFW Post 7392, chartered on May 12, 1946, and currently the fifth largest VFW Post in the state. Located on the northern part of the island in Oak Harbor, about a half-mile away from the naval air station grounds, the Post is home to more than 1,000 veterans, of which 870 are life members.

Serving as a hub for the island’s veterans population, the Post offers one of the largest canteens in the area, a full-time restaurant and bar, as well as weekly events, such as bingo and poker nights. But it is the Post’s 5-acre campgrounds that brings in the most amount of veterans each year, a luxury only one other VFW Post in the state shares.

For Post 7392 Commander Julie Doran, it was the Post’s campgrounds that initially drew her into the embrace of the VFW family on the island seven years ago, when her family was forced out by their landlord after a decade of renting from them.

“As a mother of four, we were on the verge of being homeless,” said Doran, a Navy veteran who joined VFW in 2005 at Post 1473 in Spirit Lake, Idaho. “We owned a large trailer, so I asked around, and a veteran from Post 7392 told me about the campgrounds.”

Doran, who still lives on the campgrounds with her family, which includes her husband, a Navy veteran and Auxiliary member himself, has since become camp host, helping
veterans like herself find a place to stay as they transition from the military or navigate hardships.

“It is my way to pay it forward,” said Doran, who alongside her husband, also serves as caretaker of the campgrounds, which includes a veterans memorial garden, showers and a V-dome picnic area.

“When I first got to Post 7392, I realized how active and amazing these people were. I had not seen what a real VFW Post was until I came over to this Post. I used to think it was just a hangout for older veterans. But they opened my eyes, and I saw all the work they were doing in the community.”

‘ENGAGING’ THE COMMUNITY
A fixture in and around Whidbey Island, Post 7392 members remain active in the community by conducting service projects that include monthly Adopt-a-Road cleanups, as well as involvement with local schools and their JROTC programs. They also host Memorial and Veterans Day ceremonies, and participate in all annual parades in the island, oftentimes fostering relationships with local businesses and organizations by setting up booths at local events to better help engage with the public.

Past Post 7392 Commander and retired Navy veteran Bill Thiel, an NJROTC high school instructor since 2000, believes being active in and around the community dispels the notion that a VFW Post is just about old veterans sitting around doing nothing.

“Engaging in the community enhances getting people involved with our Post, and that is why we also invite non-members to the Post for lunch, dinner or some of the other activities we host every week,” said Thiel, a 2024 VFW Department of Washington Teacher of the Year recipient at Oak Park High School on Whidbey Island.

“Being well-known in the community, not just at the school or other businesses we deal with, also allows our retired military who work on base at NAS Whidbey Island to find a place for great camaraderie and one they can call their own.”

This very exposure, and the ripples it stirs among younger veterans around the island considering joining the VFW, is what allows Post 7392 to continue to build and grow its veterans community, according to Post Sr. Vice Commander Bob Mador.

“By being active in the community, we are visible to the veterans that might need our help, in one way or another,” Mador said. “Our exposure will help get our programs, such as service officer support, hospital support and veteran relief support, the recognition that will help veterans know where to go.”

MOTORCYCLES AND GUITARS
Post 7392 also offers engaging, unique ways for its membership to connect and build camaraderie, having both an active chapter of the VFW Riders, as well as a new chapter of the nationally renowned Guitars for Vets.

Since its recent inception in April 2022, the Guitars for Vets chapter at Post 7392, one of more than 110 chapters across the country, has welcomed several veterans who have turned to music as a means to cope with their PTSD while learning to play music. The program gives participating veterans a guitar to practice for a minimum of 10 lessons, before gifting them a brand new guitar and accessories once the lessons are completed.

Alongside the VFW Riders group, which promotes the public visibility of the VFW, its programs, and the VFW National Home in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, through community service and participation in veterans service events, these groups afford members of Post 7392 unique ways to stay active and serve their community. They also cater to the diverse needs of the Post’s members, according to Post Adjutant Everett Wardlaw.

“No two veterans have had the same experiences, nor do they have the same outlets,” Warsaw said. “Having multiple alternative programs provides many opportunities for veterans to support one another and build camaraderie. There are many ways one can lose their thoughts. Guitars for Vets provides a musical forum, and the Riders go out and ride. It is connecting veterans to veterans for peer support, and that is the goal.”

For more information, be sure to follow VFW Post 7392 on Facebook at VFW Post 7392 Oak Harbor, Washington. And if you find yourself in Whidbey Island, stop in at Post 7392 located at 3037 Goldie Rd.

This article is featured in the 2024 October issue of VFW magazine, and was written by Ismael Rodriguez Jr., senior writer for VFW magazine.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – “Throughout our storied history, times of challenge and adversity have brought forth the opportunity for VFW and VFW Auxiliary members to demonstrate the true spirit of our great organizations. Hurricane Helene recently presented us with yet another opportunity, and once again, our community united in the essence of our existence to answer the call of service to others.

My deepest gratitude goes out to all VFW and Auxiliary members, and our supporters for the time, supplies, financial contributions and forward efforts in assisting those whose lives were suddenly thrust into devastation and despair in the wake of this natural disaster. Your tireless efforts and support are not only providing ongoing, much-needed relief to so many, but serve as a meaningful contributor toward healing and eventually, rebuilding.

From Brookhaven, Mississippi, to Kernersville, North Carolina, you have been a source of light for many in their darkest hour. Still serving despite the challenges, the physical and emotional toll, and at times, the danger, your continued willingness to put others first is truly an inspiration and represents the heart and soul of our organizations.

While our Hurricane Helene relief efforts will continue, we now turn our eye to Hurricane Milton as it bears down on Florida’s west coast and is expected to bring yet a new wave of needed support. God be with those in the anticipated path and I know VFW and Auxiliary members are standing at the ready for the call to serve once more.

Again, I thank you all for your many contributions, and for your strength and selflessness as we work to provide our fellow Americans with a hand up. Veterans of Foreign Wars and its Auxiliary members epitomize the mantra of ‘Believe in what you do – Do what you believe in … Follow Me!’ I could not be any prouder to call you Comrades, Brothers and Sisters.”

VFW Life member Sam Baker is #StillServing as a member of VFW Post 6683 in Enterprise, Alabama, and by devoting his time to the VFW and several other local organizations.

Baker not only serves his Post as adjutant, he also volunteers as a pilot for the Friends of Army Aviation and is the senior vice president of the Aviation Center Chapter of the Army Aviation Association of America. He also organizes the annual dinner fundraiser for the Enterprise High School Junior ROTC Wildcat Battalion.

“Supporting young cadets is important to me,” he said.

Additionally, Baker serves on the boards of the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation and the Foundation for Hospital Art. As a member of the Above the Best Silver Chapter of the United States Army Warrant Officers Association, he also interviews and helps recruit warrant officer candidates from around the country and in Enterprise.

“I want to show that military retirees can still contribute to our communities and demonstrate the importance of service to my grandchildren,” Baker said.

WASHINGTON – This Sunday, Sept. 29, we proudly celebrate VFW Day, marking the 125th anniversary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). This extraordinary milestone is not only a testament to our rich history but also a reflection of the unwavering dedication of veterans across our nation and around the world.

Since our founding in 1899, the VFW has been a beacon of hope and assistance for millions of veterans and their families. We have fought for the rights, recognition and benefits that they earned and deserve. Our organization stands united in its mission of advocacy, service, camaraderie and honoring those who have sacrificed so much for our freedom.

As we look back on 125 years of service, we also look forward to the future. The challenges facing veterans today are ever evolving, and it is our duty to adapt and continue to be fierce advocates for those who came before us and those coming after us. Together, we will ensure that every veteran receives the care and support they need, and that their sacrifices are never forgotten.

On this special day, I call upon the more than 1.4 million members of the VFW and its Auxiliary to reflect on our shared achievements and renew our commitment to one another. Our strength lies in our unity and, together, we can continue to make significant impacts in the lives of veterans and their families. May the spirit of the VFW – our devotion to one another and to the communities we serve – remain unbreakable.

Thank you for your service, your comradeship, and your support to our great organization. Here’s to the next 125 years of making a difference, honoring our heroes who have answered the call to defend our nation and ensuring that their voices are heard.

Let us all celebrate the legacy.

Al Lipphardt
Commander-in-Chief
Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)

Clinton, Utah, veteran and VFW Life member Chuck Love is #StillServing through leadership positions at the Corporal Fred J. Grant Post 1481 in nearby Ogden.

As the Post’s junior vice commander and honor guard captain, Love works as a liaison between families seeking military honors for loved ones at their funerals and the military organizations that provide them.

“The country’s veterans deserve to be honored, even after death,” he said. “This way, I can help ensure they are.”

Additionally, Love is an adult leader for the Post’s special needs Scout Troop 1481, providing guidance, support and organization for scouting and community youth activities.

“I enjoy working with the special needs scout members and hosting fun events. Assisting the community is important to me,” he said.

Iraq War veteran Sam Wybenga is #StillServing by helping veterans access affordable medical care with assistance from the VFW.

Wybenga was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2022. As a Gold Legacy Life member of VFW Post 1 in Denver, Colorado, he advocates for veterans by sharing his experience navigating the medical claims and health care landscape. Today, Wybenga urges others to contact VFW Accredited Service Officers for claims assistance.

“I want all veterans to know they can receive help at no charge instead of going through an expensive law firm,” he said.

Wybenga has made it his mission to help veterans save thousands of dollars and make it clear that they do not have to face anything alone or pay a high price for support.

“I want younger generations of veterans to know that help is available through the VFW and how to find it,” he said.

During his tenure as commander of the VFW Department of New Jersey in 2020, Brian Wiener considered his options as to how best to help fellow veterans who, like him, suffered from PTSD and other post-service challenges.

Wiener, a Persian Gulf War veteran and firefighter in Atlantic City, New Jersey, quickly zeroed in on surfing, as that was something that had contributed a great deal to his own mental health following his six years in the Navy.

“I wanted to share that experience with others because of what it has done for me,” said Wiener, a Life member of VFW Post 6964 in Brigantine, New Jersey. “Out there, you are so far removed from work and home and all the triggers that you might suffer from. The neighborhood upstairs is never in an uproar when you are all alone at sea.”

To make this idea a reality, Wiener needed to find model examples by which to guide himself in creating a camp to dispense the therapeutic effects of surfing with fellow veterans.

He found the perfect model in the Warrior Surf Foundation, a veteran-owned nonprofit that has, since its inception in May 2015 along the shores of Folly Beach, South Carolina, addressed post-service transition challenges such as PTSD, moral injury, survivor’s guilt and TBI through surf therapy, yoga, wellness sessions and community.

Wiener said he reached out to the Warrior Surf Foundation through social media and explained his vision for the camp he wanted to start in Brigantine, which in turn was met with a very helpful response.

“They drove up here and helped me set things up and have been participating ever since,” Wiener said. “They are all certified in CPR, as well as counseling and teaching how to surf.”

The first annual Brig-Vet Surf Camp took place in July 2022 and proved successful for Wiener, who said more than 40 veterans stormed the shores of Brigantine Beach, about 7 miles along the coast from the Atlantic City skyline.

It has since welcomed more than 200 veterans from across the country, who flock to Brigantine Beach each July to participate in the two-day surf camp, oftentimes staying at hotels in Atlantic City paid for by Wiener and his team at Brig-Vet Surf Camp.

“We usually receive a lot of ‘thank you’ letters from those who come through our camp,” Wiener said. “But there are some who you can see the impact instantly. We have one individual, a Korean War vet, who had never been in the water and was afraid because of his Parkinson’s. One of our VA counselors took him out and spent the whole day in the water with him, and he, the vet, has been surfing every day since.”

Part of the appeal is that along with surf therapy, yoga and wellness sessions, Wiener also provides an opportunity for participants to connect with other veteran service organizations and groups offering a plethora of services.

These include the free assistance of VFW Accredited Service Officers and VA outreach coordinators who often help veterans with claims and other VA-related tasks.

Registered as a nonprofit by Wiener and his team in August 2022, the Brig-Vet Surf Camp has been able to expand its vision by raising more than $20,000 in donations, which mostly come from VFW Posts and Districts across New Jersey.

The Brig-Vet Surf Camp also served as current VFW Department of New Jersey Commander Luddie Austin’s service project, helping bolster the numbers of VFW members at this year’s camp on July 8-9.

Through the continued support and donations from the VFW and other VSOs, as well as local surf shops and a local chapter of the Elks, Wiener believes his nonprofit is becoming financially stable enough to eventually expand.

“We are just doing two days in July right now, but as we continue to grow and become financially stable,” Wiener said, “we are looking to start having it several times in the summer and eventually in the spring and fall.”

This article is featured in the 2024 August issue of VFW magazine, and was written by Ismael Rodriguez Jr., senior writer for VFW magazine.

LOUISVILLE, Ky., – From our 125th National Convention, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) is thrilled to announce the selection of Army and Air Force Veteran Jerry Kayrouz as its 2023-2024 John A. Biedrzycki Accredited Service Representative of the Year. Awarded annually, the Biedrzycki Award is presented to a VFW Accredited Service Representative who has demonstrated exceptional achievements in support of the VFW’s veterans’ service mission and related programs.

“Our accredited representatives are the backbone of the VFW’s National Veterans Service,” said VFW National Commander Duane Sarmiento. “Day in and day out, they are in their communities getting veterans their hard-earned benefits and compensation. It is fitting that we bestow the Biedrzycki Award upon Jerry Kayrouz after an unbelievable career of selfless service.”

Kayrouz, who retired from his Department Service Officer role just last month, was an essential part of the VFW’s network of nearly 2,000 accredited representatives around the world and had served Louisville, Kentucky-area veterans and families since August 2001.

VFW Accredited Service Representatives are legally recognized and authorized by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to prepare, present and prosecute VA benefits claims. Importantly, VA-accredited representatives NEVER CHARGE for initial disability compensation claims. In fiscal year 2023 alone, the VFW’s Accredited Service Representative network secured over $13 billion in compensation and pension on behalf of veterans and eligible family members.

A native Louisvillian, Kayrouz served first as a jet engine mechanic in the U.S. Air Force from early 1965 to late 1968. He then went on to serve as a food service specialist in the Kentucky Army National Guard from 1982 to 1995 during which time he deployed in 1991 with the 438th MP Company to Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert Storm. Concurrently employed by the Ford Motor Company, he retired from Ford in 2000 after which he became a VFW Accredited Service Representative in 2001 where he served until his retirement in June 2024. In fiscal year 2024, he helped recoup more than $95 million for Kentucky’s VFW-represented veterans, families, and survivors.

Kayrouz joined the VFW in 1992 and holds his Life membership at Middletown Post 1170 in Louisville, Kentucky.