VFW hopes to recruit members, raise funds for roof
Group seeks younger veterans to keep organization operating
Gilbert Romero walked around the outside of the Veterans of Foreign Wars building on Montezuma Avenue on a recent morning, pointing out cracks and peeling stucco.
The tar-covered roof of the VFW post is sagging and rife with holes that allow rainwater into the building, particularly during monsoon storms.
“It’s in bad shape,” said Romero, commander of the post, which serves about 335 active members and their guests. It’s been about 30 years since the building’s exterior has been repaired. The post needs to raise about $28,000 to replace the roof and another $13,000 or so to refurbish the adobe walls, Romero said.
On Saturday, the post will hold an open house fundraiser, with music, food and a cash bar. The goal of the event isn’t just to raise money for repairs. Romero said he also hopes it will attract some younger veterans in the community and encourage them to become involved.
“This is a great place for vets to come in and sit down and talk with each other,” said Romero, a U.S. Army veteran.
“A lot of combat vets have issues,” he said. “They don’t discuss their past, what they experienced in combat, with anybody. But here they can talk to each other. I believe this place has saved some lives.”
In Santa Fe and nationwide, however, social organizations for veterans have struggled to maintain membership.
“The World War II vets are leaving us,” Romero said. “The Korean War veterans are leaving us. The Vietnam vets are getting older, but they still come.”
Veterans of more recent wars are more reluctant to join, he said. “The new combat vets are a different breed. They tend to stay away for a while. We have to win them over.”
The national VFW, founded in 1899, is one of the oldest veterans organizations in the country. The American Legion and the Military Order of the World Wars both started in 1919.
The local VFW Post 2951 opened in 1934. A former post commander, World War II veteran Manual Armijo, donated the Montezuma Avenue building to the group in the mid-1960s, Romero said. Before that time, he said, it operated out of a building somewhere around Second Street.