Five officers of the Falls Veterans of Foreign Wars — Peter Graham Post No. 2948 were recently elected to serve additional posts with the Eighth VFW District.
The officers were elected in May at the VFW Loyalty Days district convention in Grand Rapids.
Post 2948 Commander Terry Randolph was elected Eighth District commander and will oversee 30 VFW posts in 29 cities of northern Minnesota. Linda Chezick, president, VFW Post 2948 Ladies Auxiliary for the past four years, was elected president of the Eighth District Ladies Auxiliary. VFW Post 2948 Chaplain Wayne Thompson and Ladies Auxiliary Chaplain Irene Anderson were both reelected to their respective Eighth District chaplain roles. Margarete Kostiuk was reelected as the district color bearer. She also sings at the annual VFW and Memorial Day events.
Randolph is a lifelong member of the VFW and was elected post commander in 2004. He served as the district junior commander prior to becoming commander.
With all but a few of the district posts showing light to heavy drops in membership as more and more aging veterans pass on, the VFW challenge is to get younger generations of returning war veterans to step in and carry the torch.
“At the district level I will try to assist the posts with membership in any way possible,” said Randolph.
As for the district commander position, Randolph said this is a job where you “get out of it what you put into it.” He described it as an opportunity to work directly with the “good people” that he has come to know from the other posts over the years.
Randolph said that his role is also as a local post resource for VFW policy and procedure issues. His office will help oversee local post operations and in support of youth sports tournaments and academic scholarships.
Randolph is also a member of the Vietnam Veterans Association. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1965 to 1988, including the Vietnam War from 1966 to 1969. After his naval career, Randolph returned to the Falls and began working at ARC Recycling.
Randolph supports the Katie Valentine’s Quilter’s Guild that makes quilts for the veterans at Walter Reed Hospital. He visits veterans in the adult day care centers and health facilities. He also visits local schools to talk about veterans and service in the military.
Chezick has served in two prior district posts and for the past two years took the initiative to go along on District VFW post inspections to get an idea of how the auxiliary units of each post were performing.
In her observation, Chezick found that many of the auxiliaries were meeting outside of the VFW posts and do not have much contact with the membership.
“I think that many have gone their own way and we are lucky to have big building and meeting together,” she added.
Chezick has already visited 15 of the 24 posts with auxiliaries in her junior leadership role. She plans to meet with the rest as president and revisit others to see how they have progressed.
“They need to be working together to be effective and communicate better,” said Chezick. “This will eventually lead down the path of better serving the veterans.
Thompson is a past post commander and has served as the district chaplain for many years. Anderson is the current Falls Auxiliary senior vice president, and will begin her second term as district chaplain.
The first official activity of the new officers will be meeting other post officers at the statewide VFW convention on June 25-28 in Moorehead.
There are nine VFW districts in Minnesota. The Eighth District headquarters is in Duluth, and encompasses the VFW posts in Baudette, Virginia, Eveleth, Hibbing, Babbitt, Grand Rapids, Cook, Bigfork, Ely, Deer River, International Falls, Carlton, Meadowlands-Cotton, Northome, Cloquet, Bovey, Two Harbors, Gilbert, Mountain Iron, Keewatin, Silver Bay, Hoyt Lakes, Floodwood, Hibbing, Pengilly, Littlefork, Aurora and Jesse Lake.
The officers will assume duties on June 28 and serve until the 2009 Loyalty Days to be held in the Falls on May 1-3, 2009.