News – Page 27 – Ballard Eagleson Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3063

Quartermaster Update (April 2023)

By Harold Rodenberger

The VFW was formed by volunteer veterans of earlier wars seeking to help and socialize with other veterans of those wars. As the organization grew, many local posts were chartered with the same goals.

Our post was chartered in 1926 by volunteers who felt strongly about helping and socializing with their fellow veterans. Those men (only men in those days) of the post, and ladies (only women in those days) of the soon to be founded auxiliary, worked long and hard to raise money to keep the post vibrant and eventually to build a building that became their home away from home. Those dedicated volunteers started the race and carried the first baton.

As the years passed, those members passed on and others stepped up to keep our post alive and well. In the forties and fifties we had baseball and bowling teams, a drill unit and an honor guard. There were weekly bingo games and other fundraisers. In the late sixties, we even had a bar and lounge for a few years. All of those activities required many volunteers to support the post.

In addition to those volunteers, there are many other members who are volunteers in spirit. They help by keeping their dues paid or moving up to life or Legacy Life memberships. As the old saying goes, “There is strength in numbers” and those members, local and remote, keep us strong through their memberships.

As the deadline neared for me to submit this final quartermaster’s update to our editor, I reflected on the more than forty years that I’ve been a member of the post. I have played only a small part in keeping the post going forward. It was the synergism of many people working together that kept us alive and well.

Now it is my time to pass the baton. I have been honored to serve as your quartermaster for the past ten years, and even though I’m stepping down as quartermaster, I will continue to help out in any way I can, for as long as I’m able.

I salute those who came before, all of you current members, and all of our new volunteers who will continue to run the race and carry the baton into the future for Ballard Eagleson VFW Post 3063.

Commander’s Corner (April 2023)

By Alyson Teeter

Spring is here and the long winter is ending, thank goodness. We had a wonderful kick off to the season by hosting the District 2 St. Patrick’s Day-themed fundraiser and a flag recycling event March 25. Looking at April, we have our second round of nominations and our officer elections at the April business meeting April 6, a blood drive April 13, and another fun-filled trivia social April 20. For May we’re planning to participate in the Syttende Mai parade May 17, an Armed Forces Day-themed social May 18, and a variety of activities for our Day of Service May 27. Stay tuned!

If you weren’t at our March meeting, I’ll recap startling news. Comrade Quartermaster Rodenberger showed a historical graph of our investment fund. We have withdrawn nearly $900K from it since 2009. If we operated with a balanced budget, it could have grown to $3 million but instead it’s ~$1 million.

Let’s balance our books so we don’t whittle away at our investment account. It should grow and ensure the fiscal longevity of the post. We will be sharing profit/loss statements at meetings going forward. We’ll also get creative with our fundraising. “Gentlemen, we have run out of money; now we have to think,” – Winston Churchill.

Memorial Stadium update

By Robert Kettle

Last year ahead of the school levy vote for Memorial Stadium we had a site visit which showed the Memorial Wall to be in a terrible and unacceptable state. We had some VFW social media posts to raise awareness. We also started some engagement with the city, Seattle Center and importantly the school district’s athletic department about the state of the memorial. Fortunately, we received a positive response from everyone and the facilities team at the school district worked to clean up the memorial from the sad state it had gotten into.

Where are we now? As you know the school levy passed. This means the stadium was going to get replaced basically like for like. The city however in partnership with the school district which owns the property adjacent to Seattle Center appropriated funds to improve the new stadium from where it would be otherwise and better incorporate it into Seattle Center who will operate the new stadium with/for the school district.

The stadium as we understand it will maintain its current east-west orientation. The new stadium will have better sight lines to the city and specifically elements of Seattle Center which it will be better integrated with. Other elements of the plan will give the stadium greater flexibility to host a wider range of events. Regarding planning and construction timelines the goal again as we understand it will be to have the project complete before the World Cup arrives in 2026 and after that our 250th anniversary on July 4th. Our position now is support the stadium project overall and specifically engage on the Memorial Wall.

The Memorial Wall at the stadium will be, under current plans, at its same location. There doesn’t seem to be much more with respect to plans for the memorial at the moment. It is vital for our VFW post, other veteran service organizations (VSO), and other community organizations generally to make input into the planning process as it starts right now in 2023 and not at the end of the process through a public comment period. Input will be along the following points:
– Protect the Memorial Wall during the demolition and construction process. If the memorial wall needs to be moved in order to protect it then it should be moved until it can be safely placed back at its location.
– Update the lighting and water features of the memorial and perhaps adding other features such as landscaping.
– Create an appropriate sized and dignified area in front of the memorial to support remembrance ceremonies to include space for color guard and other groups participating in such events at the memorial.
– Place an information board aside the memorial explaining how the memorial came to be and who it memorializes.
– Create some sort of screen (concrete, steel, wood, vegetation, or some combination of those four) between the memorial and its observance area and the school district owned parking lot to the east of the stadium/memorial.

We will be also interested in any other efforts on the east side of the project in the area of the memorial towards 5th Ave. N. and the Gates Foundation to the east and MoPop to the south.

Thank you for your support so far. We will look to engage again with the various stakeholders in the school district, city, and Seattle Center and may ask you contact them as well to express your support for a fully renovated Memorial Wall. This is what those memorialized deserve.