As New York City marks Veterans Day, some local veterans say their community spaces are at risk of disappearing.<\/p>\n
Commanders at three Veterans of Foreign Wars posts in Queens say they are struggling to stay open and attract new, younger members.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cJust trying to keep the doors open is a big struggle,\u201d said Sean Baltrusitis, an Army veteran and commander of VFW Post 551 in Middle Village.<\/p>\n \u201cWe we constantly have to worry about make sure the lights stay on,\u201d added Ryan Graham, a U.S. Air Force veteran and commander of VFW Post 150 Corona.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s VFW posts rely on membership dues, the rental of their space, fundraising and donations to pay operating costs. Baltrusitis said that often means members cover expenses themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of members up in here \u2014 if it wasn\u2019t for them, the doors would be closed,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody goes into their own pockets.\u201d<\/p>\n In the 2025 City Council budget, more than $3.3 million was set aside for veteran service initiatives, according to city records. More than two dozen nonprofits received discretionary funding, but fewer than six of those were veterans service organizations such as local VFW posts.<\/p>\n Some commanders say the city\u2019s grant system is usually only available as reimbursement, but for most posts, that\u2019s not an option.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you apply for the grants, you have to spend the money first and then submit the bills,\u201d said Neil Jordan, an Army veteran and commander of VFW Post 1896. \u201cWell, if I had the money to spend, why would I need a grant?\u201d<\/p>\n Others point to the complex application process as another barrier.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s passport portfolio that you have to have upload all this all this information, and to me it\u2019s kind of biased in a way because I don\u2019t even know what I\u2019m doing,\u201d Baltrusitis said.<\/p>\n There are 31 Veterans of Foreign Wars posts remaining across the five boroughs, including 17 in Queens. Leaders estimate more than a dozen have closed over the last decade, leaving fewer gathering spaces for veterans and their families.<\/p>\n The VFW says it has helped more than 593,000 veterans nationwide receive a combined $14.6 billion in VA disability benefits. In Queens, Graham said his post provides free assistance to veterans filing benefits claims.<\/p>\n \u201cWe pull out our laptops to just help a couple veterans or their spouse or their families in filing claims, and we do it for free,\u201d said Graham, who also serves as a VA-accredited service officer.<\/p>\n Graham and post quartermaster Edie Argueta have managed to grow their membership from 27 to 117 members over the last two years through outreach and new programming, changing the reputation of what many veterans understand the posts to be.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re looking at taking some of the old-school stuff, ideas, and infusing them with new ones that cater to us as post-9\/11 vets,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n But most local VFW posts have not had the same success with recruiting new and younger members.<\/p>\n Nationwide, VFW membership has declined sharply over the past 30 years \u2014 from more than 2 million in the early 1990s to about 1.4 million in 2024.<\/p>\n Though, commanders in Queens are hopeful their recruitment efforts will appeal to younger veterans.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will be a time when they are going to need us,\u201d Baltrusitis said. \u201cEspecially when it comes to processing claims or any additional veteran benefits, you are going to wish you had that membership where you can learn and grow from other generations of veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As New York City marks Veterans Day, some local veterans say their community spaces are at risk of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":372017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[179197,5229,31018,7448,210,405,403,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,52,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,179196,5284],"class_list":{"0":"post-372016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-alyssa-paolicelli","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-app-health","11":"tag-app-top-stories","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa","27":"tag-veterans-month","28":"tag-vod"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115532279639305288","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n