Together WE will rebuild!

On September 12, 2020, during the COVID-19 epidemic, Hurricane Sally hit our Post and rendered our primary building unusable, making our “home” uninhabitable. A little over a month later, on October 28, 2020, Hurricane Zeta struck our Post and destroyed our dock and degraded our grounds.

Shortly after Hurricanes Sally and Zeta, under COVID-19 conditions and restrictions, our membership met to formulate a plan. We agreed to restore our Post’s grounds and buildings. Our primary building consisted of a once beautiful three-story historic building. To establish a temporary headquarters during this unknown timeframe, we rented a small 1,500 square foot modular trailer. Because our temporary Post was not big enough for our membership (over 700 members), we met at the local Elks for our monthly meetings.

We engaged an architect to draft building plans and began fundraising for our building restoration. We solicited bids from builders to rebuild our building. Our membership was energized, motivated and hopeful. However, during this time building costs increased exponentially as the COVID-19 epidemic and economy worsened. We re-bid our project multiple times only to find estimates growing out of reach. We explored financing only to find rates that were unsustainable. All the while, revenue was down, and the rent was due…

During this time, in what we call “the degraded mode”, we managed to continue operating as the skeleton of our former Post. We continued to deliver American Legion programs to Veterans and others by fulfilling our obligations under the 4 Pillars of the American Legion: Veteran Affairs & Rehabilitation, National Security, Americanism, and Children & Youth programs. Believe it or not we even enhanced our ALERT program (American Legion Emergency Response Team). Despite being unable to fully recover from disasters ourselves, we assisted other disaster victims in Kentucky, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. We now have one of the finest ALERT programs in the region. Our local and national programs do not stop there.

However, after almost four years of doing our best to rebuild our Post, we saw the writing on the wall. We are still in that small, rented trailer and we still have our member meetings at the Elks. As a result, toward the end of December 2023, our membership, which is now almost 700 Veterans, agreed to modify our plans.

Post 199 - The Vision:

First, up front, we have not lost sight of our original vision for the historical main building to be retained and restored, as desired by not only our membership, but the community as well. Since the early 1900’s, the building has been a landmark and of vital importance to the essence of the Eastern Shore. We haven’t and will not quit. We will realize the vision of a beautifully restored historic building. However: We are breaking our vision down into a much more attainable manner.

The Post 199 Revitalization Plan has been adjusted to reflect the membership’s goal to fulfill our immediate and future needs in a phased approach:

• PHASE I: NEW SINGLE-STORY BUILDING will enable the revenue stabilization of our Post and achieve PMC (Partially Mission Capable) for our core and enhanced missions.

• Phase II: HISTORICAL BUILDING REVITALIZATION will enable our post to become FMC (Fully Mission Capable) and fully support our “Enhanced Mission” as well.

Rationalized Need:

• Our Post is currently the 3rd largest post and one of the fastest growing in the state of Alabama, with approximately 700 active members.

• We have experienced continued growth over the last 3 years as a result of our continued involvement with veterans and community. Recognized by the Department of Alabama for steady growth and setting records!!

• We have a growing community with over 18,000 veterans in Baldwin County alone. The range and demand for veteran support and advocacy will continue to grow rather than diminish.

• The need for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder services is direly needed to abate the loss of veterans to suicide, approximately 22 a day. This includes a location for hosting prevention clinics, treatment and counseling.

• Veterans’ rehabilitation services to help treat addiction and recover homeless veterans working with other organizations, by instituting and or supporting addiction recovery clinics, job training program, and job placement after recovery to integrate them back into society.

• We must develop and maintain a sustained and robust support capacity and network for Veterans from all wars with a long-term focus on Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

• Our region is prone to natural disasters i.e. hurricanes, tornadoes etc. Our ability to assist and support veterans in our community at the local and regional level remains a core capability.

• Veterans of Post 199 provide a centralized source of experienced personnel needed to augment emergency services locally and regionally. This includes communications specialists, logisticians, operations planners, etc. The Post 199 ALERT is becoming a recognized component of community emergency services support.

• Retain the food trailer after the new building is completed to maintain the ability to continue a “Meals on Wheels” at the local and regional level when needed.

Our goal is the completion of both Phases I and II in our Post Revitalization program. The realization of the program is of the utmost importance not to just give us a home, but to develop sustainable revenue streams for all Post Operations. Bottom line, part of our increased capacity will be used to support revenue generating activities that support all our service programs. In other words, we want to be able to support ourselves indefinitely. This enables us to support and maintain current and future veteran programs deemed critical to fulfilling our core mission as well as our enhanced mission.

A nation is only as great as the care they show for their veterans.

“To care for him/her who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan” --Abraham Lincoln

Your contribution to our organization is tax deductible. We are a nonprofit Veteran’s Service Organization recognized as tax-exempt by the IRS under Section 501(c)(19). Our federal tax identification number is 63-0254163.

As of November 20, 2024, all new contributions received by our Post for our Phase I Construction Project will be matched, up to $75,000, by an anonymous Veteran donor. Take advantage of this new matching program!!!

We truly appreciate your consideration and support of our Post and its programs.