Post 159 in Venice is financially stable, is growing in membership, offers quality meals and more thanks to two Legion members who moved to the area.
Clay Sutherland and Jacqueline Meemken-Sutherland moved from Illinois to Venice, Fla., in their retirement where they joined the local American Legion Post 159. Since becoming members of the post only three years ago, the husband and wife have helped revitalize the post by creating financial stability, recruiting new members, building a Legion Family environment, offering fresh and frozen homecooked meals, and more.
Clay, a Navy veteran, has served as the post adjutant and is currently second vice commander and the district chairman for Florida Boys State. Jacqueline, a Navy, Navy Reserve and Minnesota Army National Guard veteran, has held the positions of post adjutant, veteran service officer, second vice commander and is now the post commander.
When Jacqueline was running for post commander and Clay second vice commander, Clay looked back at previous post leadership election turnout and saw that about 40 members would vote. Upon their election at the post, 114 members attended to vote.
“So, I guess we're doing some good things around here because, you know, the membership spoke,” Clay said. “People have seen us for the past three years donating sweat equity into the building.”
Clay and Jacqueline spend seven days a week at the post, even in their retirement. Why?
“We want to make the post a better place than when we found it,” Clay said.
For Jacqueline, it goes back to when she got out of the Navy.
“It was different being a female veteran,” she said. “There's a lot of times you can identify another male veteran, and it's not always easy to identify a female veteran. There are times I didn't get that same maybe respect, that reach up or that that handshake or whatever. So I find it important to give back, and it's not just for other female veterans, it's for all veterans.
“I like helping and there's so many people that don't realize what The American Legion can do for people, what the VA can do for people. So it's about giving back”.
The following are a few ways Clay and Jacqueline have revitalized Post 159.
Financial stability. Clay said that when he and Jacqueline joined Post 159, it was running at a negative cash flow every month. “Now, with the revitalization (of the kitchen meals served, bar service updates, changing of 800 light bulbs to LED and more) and everything we're doing, we have a positive 13% cash flow average every month. So we're really bringing the bottom line up.”
“We basically took all the financial records and everything and we made them transparent to all the members,” Jacqueline said. “Transparency has been a big thing because we have post members who say, ‘We don't know where the money is being spent.’ Now it goes up on a spreadsheet every post meeting. It's total transparency.”
One revenue stream has been pizzas. Clay was in the restaurant business when they resided in Illinois that included a chain of 27 restaurants that he owned. The post has a restaurant-style kitchen that he’s in for 30-40 hours a week cooking. About a year ago, Clay and other post volunteers began making 10-inch pizzas to freeze for purchase. In the first month, 40 pizzas sold. Now, the post is approaching 800 pizzas sold a month.
“We’ll make 100 at a time, twice a week, and they just fly out the door. That's a huge revenue, you know, 800 pizzas at $10 apiece, that's $8,000 in pizza and our cost is only 30%.
Legion Family support. Once a week, a Legion Family meeting is held at the post to discuss entertainment and events. The meeting initially started with four to five people and now over 20 attend. “That's everybody from the Riders, the Auxiliary, the Sons of The American Legion, and the Legion,” Clay said. “It’s just an overwhelming support, and we give everybody a say in the post and we listen to them.”
The last Sunday of the month at 8 a.m. with coffee and donuts, Legion Family members conduct whatever needs done at the post like yard work, painting or cleaning. Normally about eight people show up but recently during a Sunday event, 42 showed up to help create 300 homemade, nutritious freezer-ready meals like meatloaf, chicken parmesan, pulled pork and mac-n-cheese that are housed in the post’s walk-in freezer. Stickers with cooking instructions were placed on each one. “They’re available for any veteran in need financially or if their spouse has something going on, come in, no questions asked,” Clay said.
VA claims support. Jacqueline is a veteran service officer and since arriving to Post 159, she has helped veterans go from zero percent service-connected to 100%. “I've seen people come in, they just cry. They give her a hug,” Clay said. “It’s life changing. A lot of them, all they care about is getting into a national cemetery. She helps them get into that. And we didn't have that program before at the post.”
Membership recruitment. Venice Main Street sends out email blasts to 40,000 residents that now includes information about Post 159 and how to join. And post members have been leaving behind membership door hangers and will soon have a membership booth at the local farmer’s market held every Saturday.
District connection. For the past several years, Post 159 had not been involved at the district level. “Since we've came in, we go to every district meeting, we go to every convention, we go to every conference. We got the post back in,” Clay said.
“We're bringing back the Legion back to the Legion, is what we're doing,” Jacqueline said. “It’s important. We want this to be a safe place for all of our, not just for our veterans but for all of our members.”
Community support. Post 159 conducts a Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremony at Patriot’s Park in Venice; retires thousands of flags; is the lead for the Venice holiday parade through historic downtown; is involved with the Chamber; participates in the Legion’s School Award Medal Program; sends rising high seniors to Florida Boys State; conducts a golf outing to support a charity of choice such as the Southwest Florida Honor Flight; serves Thanksgiving meal to veterans in the community; and more.
Buddy Checks. Jacqueline and others started making Buddy Check calls to post members a few months ago. She took the membership list and tried to match callers with the war era of the member to create connection. Learn more about Buddy Checks here.
Succession planning. Jacqueline and Clay are putting policies in place and creating job descriptions. “This is a large post, and there are a lot of things that go into these positions,” Jacqueline said.
- Dispatch