Every first weekend of December we celebrate the founding of VFW Post 1 in the basement of Colorado’s State Capital. I’ve now been part of 18 of them going back to the early days of my involvement with the VFW. Funny to look back at all that has happened and how the Post transformed from a VSO reflected the traditional look and feel of a Post - smoky bar, cheap drinks and some older at the bar early to a thriving Post on the cutting edge of demonstrating what a VSO can do.

Today, Post 1 is an art gallery featuring work by veterans as well as members of the community, we host yoga and Healing Warriors, we offer classes on photography and film and we’ve really become an anchor of the Santa Fe Street Art District. When many traditional VSOs have declining membership due to old age, guys like me are now the old Veterans at our Post with many OIF/OEF Veterans participating along with the largest number of female Veterans of any VFW.

Early on when I and others got involved after the State VFW suspended our charter, we were not exactly sure what we should do. At times it was tough to get others involved and there was a time when we had a hard time getting a quorum for meetings and a quorum was six! Today, we typically have 40-50 people at meetings - even when on zoom because of Covid - and the dynamism of the Post is very evident. I’m very proud of how far we’ve come and I’m proud of my part in making it happen.