Greensburg's Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #33 honored for community service
Greensburg's Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 33 is one of a small handful in the country to receive a national award for community service.
Only 61 of the more than 7,000 VFW posts in the country received the award at the organization's national conference in Pittsburgh in July.
“I really do think it's a combination of everything that we've done. We're trying to show the community that we're not just a local club, a social club. We're a service organization,” said post community service chairman Robert Stricklin.
Members of Post 33 volunteer at food banks, homeless shelters and churches. They take veterans to ball games, give them Christmas cards and take them fly fishing. They oversee military funerals and hold programs on Veterans Day.
“We just put everything we do into community service, and helping our veterans and their families,” Stricklin said.
The award comes one year after the post celebrated its 100th anniversary.
“I think that we deserved it, because our post really reached out and does a lot for the community,” said Paul Yeckel, an officer with the organization.
Yeckel has been with the post for decades, but he said he was originally hesitant to join because he thought it was just a hangout for old veterans. He has since learned how much good the VFW is capable of, he said.
“We're more than a bar, there's a lot of things we do,” he said.
He has spent the last few years trying to increase the amount of service the post does, and to make sure the community knows about that service.
“We don't publicize things a lot. I think we should do more,” he said.
The post is always ready to help those who need it, he said.
“We never turn anyone away.”
Post 33 has about 560 members, according to Stricklin.
VFW posts across the country contributed about 8.9 million hours of community service last year, according to the national organization.
Jacob Tierney is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-836-6646 or jtierney@tribweb.com.
