Post 276, Ladies Auxiliary earn top award

Lion Mountain VFW Post 276 and Ladies Auxiliary recently returned from a national convention in Indianapolis with a national award in tow. The post was awarded the 2010 National Outstanding Community Service Award for tallying more service hours than any post in the nation — 49,000 in all.

More than 400 members and volunteers from across the country helped the local post rack up all of the hours.

“Other posts in larger cities raised more money than us, but none of them, not even New York City, had more service hours,” Ladies Auxiliary chairwoman Helen Clark proudly said.

The post accumulated those hours through a variety of services. They volunteer with youth organizations, host blood drives, spend time with seniors, work with the veterans home, clean up highways, organize recycling drives and regularly visit nursing homes, among other things.

“People have no idea how many hours we put in,” Corky Meagher, the post commander and community service director, said. “Volunteering, that’s what we’re all about.”

Clark said the post and auxiliary “helps out anyway they can” in the community.

“We have women who help seniors with cooking, picking up groceries or just giving them a ride to church,” Clark said.

Meagher pointed out that many of the post’s service hours come from military funerals. Members go to about 100 funerals in the Flathead Valley each year. Often they go to two or three funerals in a single day. A full funeral takes four hours or more, but the volunteers are honored to be a part of each ceremony.

“Every veteran is promised they won’t be forgotten,” Meagher said. “It’s our duty to remember them. You never quit serving as a veteran. It’s the vets that make this country strong.”

Clark says that getting new members to join the post and auxiliary is often a struggle and that it’s best if young people get involved early and make a habit of volunteering.

“Our post, with 400 members, is small,” Clark said. “We’d like to get more and more. We have to get the word out to the young people.”

Any veteran of a foreign war can join the post, and any woman who is related to a veteran can join the ladies auxiliary. Volunteers are always welcome.

The post will host Make a Difference Day on Oct. 23 where people will be invited to shake the hand of a veteran and troops that have recently returned home.