New Auxiliary to aid Havre's rebounding VFW

After a long absence, Havre's Veteran's of Foreign Wars Post 497 established a new auxiliary Sunday.

The VFW Auxiliary Post 497 elected new officers at the event at the Havre Elks Lodge.

All of the auxiliary offers were elected by acclamation. New Auxiliary President Debra Herd will serve alongside:

• Senior Vice President Brandalyn Kurtz

• Junior Vice President and Secretary Cindy Prindiville

• Treasurer Laura Gomez

• Chaplain and two-year Trustee Doris Jess

• Conductress Tammy Lafond

• Guard and one-year Trustee Clyde Thomas Jr. of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 497

• Historian and three-year Trustee Loretta Widdekind

Both Debra Herd and her husband, VFW Post Commander Dale Herd, said they were unfamiliar with why Havre has been without an auxiliary for the past several years. They said they were pleased to get things moving after the establishment process was prolonged by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aside from the pandemic causing a delay, the auxiliary first needed 15 members before the application process could begin.

"It took about a year. Now, remember, we've had COVID, in between and most auxiliaries meet once a month. For things to pass, the VFW had to do their part and vote yes, we want an auxiliary. Then we had to apply for our charter, and that sort of thing," Debra Herd said in a joint interview with her husband after the meeting.

Once the auxiliary had 15 members, the application gradually made its way to the national level and was approved.

Auxiliary's 2021 goals outlined

Now established, the auxiliary is looking to become a part of the community by providing support for veterans and their families.

"The first thing that we're going to do is we will be at the Memorial Day service on the 31st. And so we will lay a wreath on behalf of the auxiliary. We will be working with our partners, the Legion is actually sponsoring or hosting the Memorial Day service they do every year. We will be helping with serving a little luncheon after. I believe we're going to have a chili feed," Debra Herd said.

Beyond the Memorial Day service, Herd said, the auxiliary will look into volunteering at hospitals and sponsoring scholarships for youth in the community.

Along with volunteering and youth engagement, "the VFW Auxiliary lends its voice to the call for needed and deserved benefits for veterans, active duty military and military families. Members personally contact legislators on veteran related issues and respond to VFW Legislative Alerts," a pamphlet said.

The auxiliary also promotes patriotism through events at schools and elsewhere. Nearly 325,000 U.S. flags are distributed annually by auxiliary members. The organization also packages items for troops stationed oversees and helps to raise awareness about military and veteran suicide.

Both Debra and Dale indicated they is very proud of her new role as auxiliary president because not only are Dale a veteran, but the couple's son has been deployed to Afghanistan.

"There's a lot of experience dealing with the home front and all the issues that go along with that," Dale Herd said. "I say, our wives, because in this case it is my wife, but there are a lot of spouses out there, especially here in Havre that go out and support the VFW with everything they do."

"Now that they have the auxiliary, they can actually further work that and make it so they have a little bit more influence in the community and be able to do more things versus just being a spouse. They support the VFW and they also have their own initiatives and programs that are separate from the VFW they can work on to help out service members and their families," he added.

Havre VFW hopes auxiliary will add to recent growth

Herd reiterated that while he's not sure why Post 497 lost its auxiliary, he said the VFW as a whole, and similar organizations, had been struggling to grow. He said World War II veterans were passing and there weren't many options for veterans of the Vietnam and Korean wars, for example.

"The VFW had a huge club here in town. And they lost the club, they closed the doors and sold it somewhere around mid-2005 to 2009, somewhere in there before my time," he said. "When they lost that club, they lost a lot of membership, a lot of dues and a lot of enthusiasm. When I got here five years ago, there were only four or five people in the VFW that actually showed up to a meeting. Some days or some weeks or months, there were only three people showing up."

Herd said between 10 and 12 members now attend monthly meetings and he feels things are starting to pick up speed

"I think it just took some time and, you know, everything goes in cycles. You have generations that skip and you have generations that become involved. If we can get some of the younger groups, the Afghanistan and Iraqi veterans into the VFW and then get their spouses, both male and female, into the auxiliary, I think we can get things going," he said.

The VFW hosts meetings every third Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. at the Elk's Lodge on Second Street in the back room. Debra added that the auxiliary will have the same meeting schedule but it will meet in the lodge's pool room.

VFW and VFW Auxiliary membership is not just limited to military spouses. Information from the auxiliary says parents, grandparents, grandchildren, spouses, widows and widowers of veterans of foreign wars are all eligible.