In the News...
The Roosevelt Aurora American Legion was featured in the Beacon News:
Large scale effort underway to boost Aurora Legion post
Denise Crosby
[email protected]
Oct. 10 12:51 p.m.
The numbers are impressive.
According to the latest U.S. Census numbers, over 25,000 veterans live in the Aurora area.
What’s not so cool – and some would say downright embarrassing – less than 300 vets belong to the local American Legion Post, one of the oldest in the state.
That’s why, when Mike Eckburg was elected commander of the Roosevelt-Aurora American Legion Post 84 this year, he was determined to give the old group a much needed kick-start.
This four-day revitalization effort began in earnest Wednesday when a team of about 20 state and national Legion leaders convened at the Comfort Suites in Aurora to map out strategy and begin the work, including an open house and a membership drive, they hope will turn things around.
And that meant more than talking the talk. While volunteers dialed hundreds of numbers from a long list of inactive members last week, more teams took to the streets, knocking on doors in an effort to convince these veterans to join the local post.
It was, they all agreed, a long-overdue resuscitation.
This Aurora chapter, mostly composed of World War II and Korean War veterans, was at its most vital through the 1960s and ’70s when there were about a thousand members, said Eckburg. But lack of involvement from Vietnam vets, as well as those returning from recent wars, put a serious dent in the roster, a problem not unique to this local group.
“With so many of the older veterans dying, we weren’t picking up the younger ones,” noted Eckburg.
And it didn’t help Post 84 lost two dynamic leaders with the deaths of former State Sen. Bob Mitchler and Norris “Doc” Erickson.
Another “huge loss,” Eckburg added, was an unfortunate “misappropriation of funds” decades ago, which forced the Aurora post to sell its building at the corner of Fourth Street and Galena Boulevard. For a while, members convened in a rented building. For the past 10 years, however, meetings were not even in Aurora, but at a Montgomery restaurant.
That will all change at the end of the month when the group meets at two Aurora locations: at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 22 at Pomegranate Café, 55 S. Commons Drive and 8 a.m. Nov. 14 at Colonial Café, 1961 W. Galena Blvd.
While there have been these revitalization efforts at smaller Legion posts around the state, noted Paul Gardner, state Senior Vice Commander with the Elburn post, “nobody came to Aurora, the second largest city in the state.”
But past National Commander Marty Conatser of Champaign, who heads up membership drives, says, “We don’t come unless we are asked.”
And so Eckburg asked, convinced Aurora has the potential to become a thriving post again, especially considering two local state legislators, state Reps. Linda Chapa Lavia and Stephanie Kifowit, are members.
Plus, “there’s so much history here, so many wonderful projects the Legion does,” added the soft-spoken Vietnam veteran. “It is time for us to get back in this community. And what better way to celebrate Veterans Day this year than to build up this post and make it vibrant again.”
I got a back seat look at just how they are doing that when I drove around Thursday with Conatser and Illinois Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Kostuchowski with the Maple Park post, as the two men dropped in on inactive local vets.
While the visits were not scheduled, these vets had received letters the membership drive would be taking place. And within a few hours that morning, Conatser and Kostuchowski had signed up six new members from World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
One Gulf War veteran was not at home and a second World War II soldier told them he was in too poor of health to join. But this organization, pointed out Conatser, is as much about serving these veterans as asking them to serve. It was, in fact the American Legion influence, pointed out Michele Steinmetz, assistant diretor of internal affairs with the National Headquarters, that led to the resignation of Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki after the VA scandal over secret patient waiting lists.
There is power in numbers, these leaders point out. Which is why “Aurora is too big and too important” for just a quick drop-in, noted Conatser of this initial four-day effort for Post 84.
“We will be back,” he then promised, “… probably a couple of times.”
Large scale effort underway to boost Aurora Legion post
Denise Crosby
[email protected]
Oct. 10 12:51 p.m.
The numbers are impressive.
According to the latest U.S. Census numbers, over 25,000 veterans live in the Aurora area.
What’s not so cool – and some would say downright embarrassing – less than 300 vets belong to the local American Legion Post, one of the oldest in the state.
That’s why, when Mike Eckburg was elected commander of the Roosevelt-Aurora American Legion Post 84 this year, he was determined to give the old group a much needed kick-start.
This four-day revitalization effort began in earnest Wednesday when a team of about 20 state and national Legion leaders convened at the Comfort Suites in Aurora to map out strategy and begin the work, including an open house and a membership drive, they hope will turn things around.
And that meant more than talking the talk. While volunteers dialed hundreds of numbers from a long list of inactive members last week, more teams took to the streets, knocking on doors in an effort to convince these veterans to join the local post.
It was, they all agreed, a long-overdue resuscitation.
This Aurora chapter, mostly composed of World War II and Korean War veterans, was at its most vital through the 1960s and ’70s when there were about a thousand members, said Eckburg. But lack of involvement from Vietnam vets, as well as those returning from recent wars, put a serious dent in the roster, a problem not unique to this local group.
“With so many of the older veterans dying, we weren’t picking up the younger ones,” noted Eckburg.
And it didn’t help Post 84 lost two dynamic leaders with the deaths of former State Sen. Bob Mitchler and Norris “Doc” Erickson.
Another “huge loss,” Eckburg added, was an unfortunate “misappropriation of funds” decades ago, which forced the Aurora post to sell its building at the corner of Fourth Street and Galena Boulevard. For a while, members convened in a rented building. For the past 10 years, however, meetings were not even in Aurora, but at a Montgomery restaurant.
That will all change at the end of the month when the group meets at two Aurora locations: at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 22 at Pomegranate Café, 55 S. Commons Drive and 8 a.m. Nov. 14 at Colonial Café, 1961 W. Galena Blvd.
While there have been these revitalization efforts at smaller Legion posts around the state, noted Paul Gardner, state Senior Vice Commander with the Elburn post, “nobody came to Aurora, the second largest city in the state.”
But past National Commander Marty Conatser of Champaign, who heads up membership drives, says, “We don’t come unless we are asked.”
And so Eckburg asked, convinced Aurora has the potential to become a thriving post again, especially considering two local state legislators, state Reps. Linda Chapa Lavia and Stephanie Kifowit, are members.
Plus, “there’s so much history here, so many wonderful projects the Legion does,” added the soft-spoken Vietnam veteran. “It is time for us to get back in this community. And what better way to celebrate Veterans Day this year than to build up this post and make it vibrant again.”
I got a back seat look at just how they are doing that when I drove around Thursday with Conatser and Illinois Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Kostuchowski with the Maple Park post, as the two men dropped in on inactive local vets.
While the visits were not scheduled, these vets had received letters the membership drive would be taking place. And within a few hours that morning, Conatser and Kostuchowski had signed up six new members from World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
One Gulf War veteran was not at home and a second World War II soldier told them he was in too poor of health to join. But this organization, pointed out Conatser, is as much about serving these veterans as asking them to serve. It was, in fact the American Legion influence, pointed out Michele Steinmetz, assistant diretor of internal affairs with the National Headquarters, that led to the resignation of Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki after the VA scandal over secret patient waiting lists.
There is power in numbers, these leaders point out. Which is why “Aurora is too big and too important” for just a quick drop-in, noted Conatser of this initial four-day effort for Post 84.
“We will be back,” he then promised, “… probably a couple of times.”
