Post 331 in Stone Harbor, N.J., annually provides $50,000-$75,000 in financial support to various facilities and groups.
For years, Stephen C. Ludlam Post 331 in Stone Harbor, N.J., has provided financial support to various entities in its community. That includes $7,000 to $8,000 annually given to the Navy National Defense Cadet Corps at Middle Township High School. The funds are used by the Corps for visits to service academies, military installations and other military-orientated field trips.
Yearly donations total between $50,000 to $75,000 and go to various groups and facilities in the area that support veterans and the military. “We like to keep it local. We keep it as close to home as we can,” Post 331 Trustee Jon Ready said. “We make a bigger impact that way.”
The post recently made a big impact at Veteran’s Haven South (VHS), a New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs homeless veterans facility that provides transitional housing, as well as long-term psychological, social and vocational rehabilitation to transition the veterans into permanent housing. On June 24, the post handed over the keys to a two-year-old minivan that will be used by VHS to transport residents to and from employment and medical appointments and various other activities.
Immediate Past Commander Tom McCullough said the post has had a close relationship with VHS for years and began donating items directly, rather than presenting a check, in order to cut down on red tape.
“We started buying things outright,” McCullough said. “Let’s just say ‘we’re going to donate $10,000. Prioritize your needs, and we will buy the first item on the list.’ There’s been clothing. There’s been furniture. There was bedding. A commercial refrigerator/freezer valued at about $12,000, $13,000. We’ve been doing that for years.”
McCullough said the post approached VHS last November with a plan to spend $17,000 on whatever the facility needed. The facility already had around six vans with high mileage, and when one was no longer usable, VHS Superintendent Brig. Gen. Patrick Kennedy mentioned the need to Post 331.
“We went back to our membership in December, and we asked them for another $5,000,” McCullough said. “The fleet manager at Veterans Haven South contacted a friend of his at Chapman Ford in Egg Harbor Township. They gave a fantastic price on a two-year-old van with 50,000 miles on it. We cut a check immediately.”
“The dealership wanted to support veterans,” Ready added. “They went out of their way to make it happen.”
The post’s primary fundraising mechanisms are 50-50 drawings and the sale of a yearly ad book. The post also hosts breakfasts, as well as receiving financial support from both the Boroughs of Avalon and Stone Harbor.
Post 331’s generosity has also included providing the seed money – around $30,000 – to spearhead the start of a project to build a patio at the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home at Vineland, the oldest veterans home in the state. Once started, the project was finished by the Home Depot Foundation.
“We were recognized by Vineland’s veterans home last year as the top project in the last five to 10 years,” McCullough said. “It was the Project of the Year Award.”
Working with the Home Depot Foundation has led to Post 331 using the grant program to fund indoor and outdoor renovations to the post – a deactivated U. S. Coast Guard station that also houses both life-saving museum and military museums – that totaled more than $200,000.
But Post 331 prefers to be on the giving side of support and assistance. “My motto, starting seven years ago (as post commander), was ‘American Legion Post 331 – Veterans Helping Veterans Less Fortunate Than We Are’,” McCullough said. “We are all in good health. Yes, we face some challenges. But we have a lot of veterans out there that are less fortunate than we are. We like to give. We like to support our comrades, and we like to give back to our veterans.”
- Community