Legion post turns 25

CASEY RESSLER

Frontiersman Valley Life editor

A band of brothers is celebrating a quarter-century of community service in the Valley, as American Legion Post 35 officially turns 25 this weekend.

The legion post is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its charter, and many of the charter members are still active. In 25 years, the membership has grown from around 30 members to almost 600 today.

"It actually started out as a Houston post, but that didn't pan out so we applied for a charter as the Susitna Valley Post 35," said Ted Cremer, a Korean War veteran and one of the original members. "We had a charter, but we didn't even have a building. We cleared the lot, dug a hole and raised a flag to celebrate it."

During the early years of Post 35's charter, Cremer recalls meeting in the board room of a bank, at the National Guard Armory and even in his shop.

"That's how I got it cleaned up," he said with a chuckle. "We had a piece of plywood over two horses, and that was the head table."

American Legion Post 35 actually has three "arms" of the legion - the American Legion itself, of which its members are current or former active duty military personnel; the American Legion Auxiliary, which includes wives, moms, daughters and granddaughters of current or former active duty members, and the Sons of the American Legion, which is for sons and grandsons of current or former active duty members. According to Barbara Montagne, American Legion Post 35 has "well over 600 members in all three arms."

Almost all of the charter members of Post 35 were former members of other American Legions. Cremer was a member of Post 1, located in Anchorage, but transferred his membership after the Valley post was established.

"I was a member at Post 1 from the late '50s and early '60s," Cremer explained. "I moved out here in August of '75, and I waited until we got a charter. Most of us were past members of other legion posts."

June Scheely is a charter member of the American Legion Auxiliary. She said she remembers the early days of the post as a time of banding together.

"There were about 13 of us girls, and as soon as they had the 20 or so men together so they could get the charter, they did it," Scheely said. "The men got it started, and then the auxiliary got going."

Like Cremer, Scheely was a member of American Legion Post 1 in Anchorage. She started her membership in 1942, giving her 63 years of membership in the auxiliary.

Throughout the years, American Legion Post 35 has been performing community service in the Valley, as well as offering numerous programs for students. Nationally, American Legion baseball is one of the most popular youth sports programs in terms of participation numbers. Locally, the baseball team is a summer standard, but Cremer said he remembers back when the legion post was involved with youth hockey teams as well.

"I coached one of the first hockey teams the school had back in '78 or '79," Cremer said. "We had a scrub team, but we had a lot of fun."

The legion also sponsors numerous community events and scholarship programs for local high school students.