Eastpointe VFW in need of new sign after windstorm

EASTPOINTE — When windy weather blew through town a few weeks back, it knocked over the sign in front of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Shafer-Rachelle-Latham Post No. 6782.

The members of the post are making plans to get new signage.

Quartermaster Cliff Wilson has created a GoFundMe page to raise money to replace the “historic and locally recognized” sign. For anyone who wants to make a donation, the link is gofund.me/3337d10e.

“We’ve started a GoFundMe to defer the deductible and incidental costs for taking care of the old sign and getting the new one,” Wilson said via email.

VFW Shafer-Rachelle-Latham Post No. 6782 is located at 17645 Nine Mile Road, between Kelly Road and Gratiot Avenue. At press time, $790 had been raised. Post Commander Michael Oleksiak said the post is in touch with a company willing to work with the post for a new sign.

The VFW post formed in 1957. At one time, the group had 600 members, and now there are 160. The post is always looking for military veterans to join, said Oleksiak, a veteran who served in the army from 1965 to 1968, including time spent in Vietnam from 1966 to 1967.

Currently, there is no auxiliary group because there are not enough members. A post needs 20 members to compose an auxiliary group, which works to support veterans, service members, their families and the community, and the post only has about 10 interested parties at the moment. An auxiliary is made up of people who are related to a veteran who “served overseas in a location of foreign conflict, earning the campaign medals eligible. That veteran can be a living or deceased spouse, parent, child, sibling, grandparent or grandchild.”

The hall is available for rent. For more information, call (586) 777-4040.