City faces its first year without a veteran’s club
VFW Post 295 disbanded after more than a century; merged with Hastings
Jake Spitzack
Staff Writer
Since 1909, thousands of brave men and women who have journeyed overseas to protect our country found support and camaraderie back home at South St. Paul’s VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) Gallagher-Hansen Post 295. That changed this past summer when the Post made the difficult decision to disband due to declining membership and a lack of volunteers for leadership roles. However, its legacy can be seen throughout the city, and its approximately 350 members have joined Post 1210 in Hastings to keep support systems alive for generations to come.
Before disbanding, Post 295 used most of its remaining funds to invest in South St. Paul one last time. It donated $40,000 to South St. Paul Secondary School for its annual scholarship fund, and helped purchase a flagpole for Harmon Park. It also passed the torch for its Memorial Day tradition of placing U.S. flags on headstones of fallen service members at Oak Hill Cemetery. Boy Scout Troop 9095 will now do the honors. Some funds were transferred to Hastings to help support the newly expanded club and to cover the cost of lifetime membership for members of Post 295. Annual dues for new members are $40.
“It was a really hard decision [to disband],” said former Post 295 commander Terrance Pieper. “We just couldn’t get enough people to come to meetings and we didn’t have anybody that was wanting to move up through the chairs [leadership positions]. I had been commander five years in a row. My junior and senior [commanders] were willing to stay where they were at but not move up.” He noted that commanders have extra responsibilities such as attending district meetings and state conventions.
The Post once operated a popular event venue and held annual fish fries and other events at its longtime home on Concord Exchange, but the writing had been on the wall for a few years now. In 2019, it relocated to the former Cunningham Sports store on Thompson Avenue, which was small and had no kitchen or bar. Pieper said the bar at its old building was costly to operate and that the move allowed them to stay afloat the past few years. All former members of Post 295 are now part of the Lyle Russel VFW Post 1210 in Hastings, which had about 150 members before the influx of South St. Paulites. The Post is also in District 2, the same as Post 295.
The Hastings Post recently relocated to the United Heroes League campus at 1901 Glendale Rd., Hastings. The League provides sporting equipment and other sports-related funding opportunities to children of service members, so Pieper is hopeful that being there will help attract younger members to the Post. The League plans to open a new building in Hastings in the next few years, and the VFW is slated to be housed in it. Even with the merger, the problem of attracting new members remains.
“The biggest struggle is getting younger members that have family,” said Pieper. “We’re not asking them to jump right in and be the chairs for post commander or be part of the color guard…. When we decided to consolidate with another Post, we wanted to be with one that was very active in the community, and the community was very supportive.”
Find Post 1210 on Facebook by searching “Lyle Russell VFW Post 1210.”
