“A veteran is somebody who at one point in their life made the decision to write a check payable to the United States of America for any amount, up to and including their life.”
Rhonda Spear cites that quote as her motivation for spending the past 25 years honoring and helping veterans as a member of the American Legion Auxiliary Post 245 in State College, including as president of the organization for the past 18 years.
“That is why I do what I do—to try to give back to the people who were willing to make that sacrifice,” she says.
That respect for, and desire to help, U.S. veterans is one of the main tenets of the American Legion Auxiliary (ALA), a national organization made up of over 8,000 units across the country.
The organization was founded in 1919 as the American Legion Ladies’ Auxiliary, at a time when women were looking for ways to continue to support service members, veterans, and the nation as they had done during World War I. To qualify for membership, women had to be a daughter, granddaughter, or spouse of a veteran or active-duty service member.
After a century, the organization dropped “Ladies” from its name as it expanded its membership to include female veterans and service members as well their husbands.
Most Auxiliary units are affiliated with a local American Legion as one of four sub-groups, including the Post, made up of U.S. military veterans who have served at least one day of federal active duty during the current war period dating back to World War II; Sons of the American Legion (SAL), made up of sons or grandsons of U.S. veterans; and a Club or Social membership, open to anyone who does not fit into the other categories. Members can take part in more than one sub-group at a time—for example, a veteran who is married to another veteran can join both the Post and the Auxiliary.
Although some membership qualifications have changed, the overall mission of the American Legion Auxiliary remains the same: “To honor the sacrifice of those who serve by enhancing the lives of our veterans, military, and their families, both at home and abroad.”
Officers from three local Auxiliary units recently shared details about their efforts in Centre County.
Auxiliary Unit 245: State College
Along with her husband, Spear first got involved with the Legion because her father was a veteran of the Korean War, her daughter is a veteran of the U.S. Army, and her father-in-law was a World War II veteran. She now leads a very active Auxiliary of 430 members.
“We are very fortunate being in the State College area that we have a large membership base,” she says. “Our district president comes once a year to install officers, and she is always very impressed with everything our Auxiliary does.”
ALA 245 does a lot of outreach with veterans in the Hollidaysburg Veterans’ Home, Spear says, including donating to the home, hosting bingo events at the facility, and busing residents to the State College Legion location (1950 Pine Hall Road) to watch Penn State football away games on TV.
They also host an elegant dinner for veterans each Veterans Day at the Legion, complete with formal invitations, decorations, linen tablecloths and napkins, and live entertainment. It’s an event that serves a higher purpose than simply providing a free meal, Spear says.
“Just to see that they are appreciated and to have someone take the time to sit and talk with them—you can just see how much it means to them,” she says.
Spear says the ALA’s mission extends beyond veterans and into the community. ALA 245 supports Boy Scout Troop 245; donates to causes like Centre Volunteers in Medicine, Toys for Tots, and Centre Safe (formerly the Women’s Resource Center); hosts an Easter egg hunt and a children’s Christmas party; and sponsors numerous athletic teams.
To help raise the funds needed to support these various causes, the ALA hosts what they call “Home Show Bingo” events twice a year, offering prizes from private consultants like Tastefully Simple or Mary Kay.
Auxiliary Unit 779: Penns Valley
At 28, Andria Wasson is one of the youngest members of ALA 779. She got involved after working as a bartender at the Legion, located at 2928 Penns Valley Pike in Centre Hall.
“I just fell in love with all the veterans and what the Legion does for them,” she says.
When she realized that, as the granddaughter of a POW from World War II, she qualified to join the Auxiliary, she signed up, and is now in her second term as the organization’s president.
Currently, ALA 779 boasts 125 members, and they support veterans and service members in many ways.
Every other month, the group gathers to put together care packages for troops, mainly focusing on service members from the Penns Valley area, sending out boxes filled with things like personal hygiene items, snack foods, magazines, and word search books.
“That’s probably the biggest thing we do,” Wasson says.
They also sell the ALA’s iconic red poppies to collect money for the Poppy Fund, designated for veterans in financial need.
Auxiliary members serve in the Post’s honor guard for veteran funerals, march in the Grange Fair parade, and hand out American flags at the Legion’s annual Memorial Day ceremonies.
When the Post holds its annual Veterans Day Oyster Feed offering veterans a free meal, the Auxiliary provides supplemental food and does a basket raffle during the event.
The group’s community outreach includes working with the YMCA Backpack program, putting together backpacks filled with snacks to send home with local school kids to make sure they are fed during school breaks. ALA 779 members also host an Easter Egg hunt, collect and shop for the Toys for Tots program, support the Centre Hall Grange’s Children’s Fair, and help to sponsor school groups such as the Penns Valley High School Shooting Group.
As at the State College Auxiliary, a bingo event has become one of their most successful fundraisers, with the proceeds going toward the various causes they support.
Auxiliary Unit 33: Bellefonte
Although Amy Allison’s father and grandfather were both veterans, for a long time she had no real interest in getting involved in the Legion, she says.
“My dad was a member here for years, but I just thought of it as a place for older people to hang out,” she says.
However, after the death of her husband, her daughter pushed her to get out of the house and socialize at the club.
“So I started coming and it got me hooked,” she says.
That was just four years ago. Today, she is president of the Auxiliary. Allison took over for Sally Wetzel, who served as president for 20 years.
Like Wasson, Wetzel’s involvement began when she was a part-time bartender at the Legion. An Army veteran herself, she now has a dual membership in both the Post and the Auxiliary.
“It just gets into your blood, it truly does. I tell all the bartenders when they start, ‘If you’re here for three years, you’re not going anywhere.’ There’s just something about it that is hard to explain. You don’t want to turn your back on any of it,” Wetzel says.
Today, she serves as vice president of ALA 33, which is made up of about 81 members.
While the organization has always been active, Wetzel says COVID and dwindling membership numbers have slowed down some of their efforts recently.
Still, the ALA supports the Legion’s veterans in many ways, including through meals they host at the Legion (121 E. Howard Street) following Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies at the Centre County courthouse—at which they have handed out things like hats and pins for veterans.
Every year, they help to replace the American flags at local veterans’ graves.
“Some of these people have been gone for hundreds of years, and they are still remembered; they get a brand new flag every year,” Allison explains.
Some ALA members also serve in the Legion’s color line and honor guard. The group also donates money and puts together packages of necessities for members of the Hollidaysburg Veterans’ Home.
“We try to cater to veterans in every way,” Wetzel says.
This includes helping individual veterans in need, like the time they joined up with members of their SAL and Post to help build a wheelchair ramp at the home of a veteran, or the time they donated to a Post member who was very sick and unable to work.
In the Bellefonte community, the ALA seeks out families in need at Christmas time and provides them with a meal, gifts, and a visit from Santa (often played by Wetzel’s brother). They have also provided Christmas visits and gifts to residents at Centre Care (formerly Centre Crest), but Wetzel says COVID has limited that. They donate to organizations like the Food Bank and they sponsor an Americanism essay contest for Bellefonte Area Middle School eighth-graders.
Auxiliary members also come together with members of the SAL, the Post, and the Club to form a particularly competitive softball team for the “Clubs Connect for a Cause” Charity Softball Tournament in October.
Wanted: Young Blood
While each local ALA is distinctly different, they do share some common challenges.
For one thing, although some Auxiliaries have a lot more members than others, leaders of each Auxiliary say they struggle to draw more than a core group of officers to their monthly meetings.
Another common challenge among ALA groups is that of bringing in younger members.
“A lot of our veterans are dying off, and younger ones aren’t joining,” Wetzel says. “Young kids coming out of the service don’t want to come out to an ‘old guy’ place, or whatever they think it is.”
“One of my goals is to get younger blood in here,” Wasson says. “If there’s not somebody to take over in 10 or 20 years when these older members can’t do it anymore, it won’t be here anymore.”
All of them believe if younger people just gave joining the Auxiliary a try, they would find the experience worthwhile.
“It is just really rewarding to be part of something that gives back so much to the community and will help anyone who needs something,” Allison says.
“For me, it’s a feeling of satisfaction and a sense of pride,” Wetzel adds.
“With everything that these veterans have had to deal with in their lives, it feels good to be able to take a little bit of time and do something for them,” says Spear. T&G
This story appears in Town&Gown’s November 2022 Salute to Veterans.
