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For V.F.W. Every Month Is “Military Appreciation Month”
by Mike Ference
May, which Congress officially declared National Military Appreciation Month (NMAM) in 2004, is a time for all of us to remember, focus thoughts on, and show appreciation for our active, inactive, and deceased servicemen and servicewomen, as well as their families.
Whether through official public events or just a quiet personal moment, May is the nation’s opportunity to say thanks, and to honor and remember those individuals now in uniform, retirees and veterans, and of course those who paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives while serving our country. According to the NMAM Web site, www.nmam.com, those on active duty, retirees, veterans and their families number well over 80 million Americans.
One organization that honors and remembers those in the military every month is the Veterans of Foreign Wars and its Ladies Auxiliary, founded in 1899 at the University Club in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. According to Ron Conley, Director of Veterans’ Services at Soldiers and Sailors Hall, a plaque on the corner of Bigelow Boulevard and Fifth Avenue near the military museum marks the event. Today, V.F.W. members total more than 2.7 million in approximately 9,500 posts worldwide.
In West Mifflin, about 125 active members of V.F.W. Post 914 Intrepid serve under Commander Joe Popovich, a Marine veteran of the Vietnam Conflict, and captain in the West Mifflin Police Department. Popovich says that 30 to 40 members gather each month at the Thompson Run Social Club. “We’re strictly a service organization, with our relief funds going primarily to veterans, active servicemen and women and their families in the West Mifflin area,” he explains. The group’s efforts include sponsoring a girl’s softball team and a boy’s baseball team; an annual soap box derby; scholarships; and helping to finance the color guard uniforms worn by the West Mifflin High School Junior ROTC, which now boasts over 100 cadets. “We have a great bunch of guys in our post and we’re going to continue to do what we do best, which is help the veterans and their families in our community,” Popovich adds.
Russ Emery, 77 year-old World War II Army veteran, is a long-time member of the West Mifflin V.F.W. and serves as the post’s surgeon. Along with his wife Doris, he helps organize monthly visits to VA facilities. “We spend at least $200 on every visit. We bring in root beer floats, boxes of pizza, milk and cookies, and we give them coupon books that can be used in the hospital commissary, or they win quarters playing bedside BINGO or buddy BINGO,” Emery says. According to Emery, veterans most appreciate the camaraderie, a reminder that their sacrifices have not been forgotten.
The group also reaches out to widows of West Mifflin veterans. “Twice a year, Christmas and Easter, we send gift certificates for food to the widows of veterans in the community,” Emery explains. “We invite them to any function we have — we want them to feel welcome.”
To raise funds for its good works, the V.F.W. sells “Buddy Poppies” at various retail establishments in West Mifflin during the Memorial Day weekend. Poppies first became associated with war through a poem written on the battlefield by Colonel John McCrae of Canada in 1915. “In Flanders’s Field”, which begins with the poet watching “poppies blow / between the crosses, row on row / that mark our place”, remains one of the most memorable war poems ever written.
The V.F.W. was the first veterans’ organization to adopt the poppy and develop a national distribution campaign. The program has raised millions of dollars to support veterans and their dependents. From its inception over 75 years ago, it has been endorsed by the Veterans Administration and every president since Warren G. Harding.
Buddy Poppies are assembled by disabled, needy and aging veterans in VA medical facilities across the country, then sold at minimal cost to V.F.W. Posts and their Ladies Auxiliaries. The money raised provides compensation to the veterans assembling the flowers and financial assistance to maintain state and national veterans’ rehabilitation and service programs. Funds also help support the V.F.W. National Home for orphans and widows of our nation’s veterans.
Most Americans give generously when they see V.F.W. members selling Buddy Poppies. But if you need a little extra motivation, remember that they’re quite an elite group of individuals, although they have only one requirement for membership: to have served our country overseas in combat. “All members of the post are linked together by a bond of camaraderie that was forged through their experiences in combat,” states Mike Mauer, quartermaster for the West Mifflin V.F.W. “That’s just one of the reasons we’re so active.”
To learn more about V.F.W. Post 914 Intrepid in West Mifflin, visit the community’s Web site at www.15122.com. Anyone interested in joining the group may contact Commander Joe Popovich at (412) 461-9119.
Mike Ference is a freelance writer. For story ideas or comments, call 412-233-5491, or e-mail ference@icubed.com.
