KANNAPOLIS — On Feb. 24, 1951, the United States had just come out of a war from which it had not fully recovered and entered one for which it was not prepared.
But on that day, the Ladies’ Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars of United States Post 8989 would organize to prove that, for the next 50 years, their influence on their soldiers and community would be as strong as any world superpower.
Saturday, Poston-Perkins Auxiliary Post 8989 will celebrate its golden anniversary, with honors coming from the VFWAuxiliaries’ state president and state commander, the past department president and Mayor Ray Moss and his wife. Though all 22 charter members are deceased, the current group (236 members strong and growing) has unfailingly carried on its legacy.
Evelyn Cline has presided over Post 8989 since about 1994 — a job that, she says, has only one perk:“Trying to keep everything going.” And “everything”is no short list.
This Valentine’s Day, the auxiliary delivered hundreds of cards to veterans, 500 from their post alone. They got help from some creative school children and local ROTC groups.
“You had never seen so many valentines,”Cline says. “There were shopping bags full.”
Loving greeting cards are a wonderful gift ,but the women know that the true way to a vet’s heart is through his stomach. The third Tuesday of each month, they visit the veterans at the Hefner VAMedical Center in Salisbury, bringing with them a good game of bingo and a meal.
“Sometimes they get cans of stuff that’s not even heated, and they don’t like that,”Cline says. So the auxiliary members will make and take food to them, including Cline’s ham salad, or they’ll treat the vets to goodies from a nearby fast food restaurant. That, Cline gladly reports, they do like.
“They always thank you for being there, tell you they enjoy it and appreciate it,”she says of the veterans. “And when they announce ‘8989,’ we really get some applause.”
Cline and her members applaud local law enforcement officers, firefighters and outstanding students by honoring the Policeman of the Year, raising money for coloring books and treats to give children visiting the fire station and sponsoring the Voice of Democracy Program, a national audio and essay competition for high school students to voice their opinions on their responsibility to the country.
“We also teach the children the Pledgeto the Flag, send letters to legislators in Washington (to make them aware)of veterans’ problems, help a needy family each Christmas, give medals to the ROTCstudents at A.L. Brown (High School), send flowers to the (hospitalized), decorate the VFWfor Christmas, sell poppies and buy clothes and groceries for the veterans and have a Cancer Fund,” Cline adds.
These women are used to “keeping everything going,”as Cline says. They were the ones who, alone, held down the homefront while their husbands were fighting in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. They balanced budgets, trained toddlers and maintained a sense of dignity even when their spouses faced humiliation.
“You just knew you had to do your job,”says Cline, whose husband was in the Marine Corps for 21 years.
Their experiences, good and bad, are what connect the women and make them, auxiliary conductress Sybil Moseley says, “like sisters now.”
Moseley was introduced to the organization by a friend about a dozen years ago. “Everybody made me feel so welcome,”she remembers.
And when auxiliary guard Hazel Cline’s husband died, members cooked for her and sent her cards and flowers.
Many of the members, who are well into their golden years, are unable to be active in the auxiliary now because of health problems. “When they can’t come out, you just make them feel good by letting them be part of (decisions),” the president said.
“We’ve been lucky to maintain our health,”Moseley says, adding that members are fortunate to have, as part of their membership, insurance coverage for diseases ranging from cancer to leukemia to scarlet fever.
Of all the work they do and all the membership benefits, the women agree that the best part of being members of the auxiliary is the feelings they get when they are together:satisfaction, enjoyment and a feeling, Cline says, that is like having “an angel on my shoulder.”
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