Post 973 is growing, gaining attention

Post 973 is growing, gaining attention

Having served in the Air Force for six years, Brent Webb found himself having trouble getting used to the civilian world. But after visiting American Legion Hollywood Post 43 in Los Angeles, he “felt like I finally found people I could connect with,” said Webb, now 28. “I felt like I had an outlet to be able to help support my community and take care of people that were important to me.”

Webb ended up moving to Chicago but before he did, he received some advice from fellow Post 43 members. “(They) were like, ‘Find a post and get as involved as you can and see if you can make something really positive out of it,’” Webb said.

Webb has done just that. He joined Tattler Post 973 in Chicago and soon became post commander. In that role, he and other Legionnaires have helped turn things around at the 71-year-old post, making it a community centerpiece once again.

Webb said the first time he came to the post he met CJ Seestadt and Ken Madsen. Seestadt and Madsen, already leading a movement to revitalize the post, urged Webb to consider taking the post commander role, which he did a few months later.

Seestadt, 48, knew turning things around required getting the post’s older membership to buy into the plan and then find someone willing to lead. Knowing Webb’s age might be a concern to some members, Seestadt pulled out a history lesson.

“I told them, ‘Hey, how old were these guys when they came back from World War II and were running the place?’” said Seestadt, the post’s junior vice commander (entertainment). “There was a transitional period, but it’s all been positive. We’re growing at such a pace now that we’ve gotten people’s attention.”

The revitalization effort included revamping the social area of the post to make it friendlier to potential members. New events conducted by the post include a comedy night, a movie night and a jazz night – events “that would attract people … young veterans,” Seestadt said. In addition to raising the post’s profile, it’s also created a larger revenue stream. The post went from making $300 a year to around $3,000 a month.

The post also began establishing relationships with other organizations in Chicago, including fellow veterans organization Chicago Veterans. Kevin Barszcz, one of the founders of Chicago Veterans, now serves as Post 973’s senior vice commander (membership).

“I think it’s important … for the city of Chicago,” Barszcz said of the relationship. “I think that all veterans organizations … should have to come together. At the end of the day we’re here for one reason: to support our veterans. I always see it as one team, one fight.”

Madsen, Post 973’s junior vice commander (house), said the post’s upswing is “absolutely fantastic. But the one thing that I’ve liked is that it hasn’t been an exclusion to the people that were here before, nor do we exclude the people that are coming in. It’s been a great meld of the old and the new.”

Peter Kukurba, a 21-year member and past post commander, said membership and activity dropped before the recent revival. Through mid-June, the post was at 162 members – three more than this year’s goal.

“A lot of the old-timers were passing on, and we needed a tradition for the new guys,” Kakurba said. “(Webb) had good ideas. They started drawing the people in, and little by little we started getting members in. New blood and new excitement.

“Whenever people come in, we try to make sure that we’re really welcoming, and we do show them that we have our older members here, and you can learn a lot from them. But we are also here with a lot of young people. A lot of people respond to that.”