The spring is a very patriotic time of year with anniversary dates of the start and end to the American Civil War, defeat of Nazism and the end of Adolf Hitler’s regime, and now the demise of Osama Bin Laden.
Spring is also when local veteran’s organizations like the American Legion and VFW are selling poppies, planning Memorial Day activities and electing officers for the upcoming year.
The future of VFW Post 6204 will probably be determined this year as the Post has been struggling for the past several years trying to fill the offices and carry out the activities of the organization. It is not possible to have an active Post with only 4-8 members showing up at meetings the third Thursday of each month.
When I first became active in the VFW 12 years ago, Post membership was over 250 members and there were enough active members to fill the offices and help with all the functions. Today there are less than 150 members and that includes those members from the defunct Grand Marais and Two harbors VFW posts.
We have reached a crisis. The four members who were at the April 21 meeting had a lengthy discussion on what the future of the Post may be. All those presently in office will serve for one more year. That gives us one year to decide the direction of the Post and whether it will continue. With the closing of the Grand Marais Post a number of years ago and the disbandment of the Two Harbors Post last year, VFW Post 6204 is the only Post between Duluth and the Canadian border.
By this time next year there may be no VFW Post representing the North Shore. There are 219,000 eligible VFW members in Minnesota, with many of those living in Lake and Cook counties. Because VFW Post 6204 is the only Post on the shore, maybe now is the time to make it a truly North Shore Post. What direction that takes is up to its active membership.
An active organization needs more members, new members, new ideas and new energy to keep it going. We have one year to either make that happen or to give up our charter.
Edward J. Maki Jr.
Adjutant, VFW Post 6204
Silver Bay
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