(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4051 (Post 4051) has been without a permanent place to call home. However, change is in the air as renovations are underway at 6523 North Academy Boulevard, which used to be Silver Pond Gourmet Chinese Restaurant.
“The two years we have been in kind of dormant stage, this is a very large and active post when it’s up and fully running,” said Post 4051 Member, Duane Knutson. “We have programs all across the county and with the other posts in the county.”
A sign can be seen off North Academy Blvd of thew new space for Post 4051.
During the past years, the group was able to work with another veteran organization to be able to continue to meet.
“Actually, we were blessed,” said Post 4051 Commander, David Anthony. “We hooked up with a local American Legion here, 209 and it was awesome…so they really helped us out, which is another great veteran organization out there and had it not been for them, I don’t think we’d be as far along as we are today.”
While these individuals may no longer be serving our country, they are able to share past memories and find a new form of comradery.
“This gives us space to do some of the programs we think are really important for the veterans,” Knutson said. “We are creating an inside space and the outside space for barbecues and we hope we have the ability to go back to dancing on regular evenings.”
The new meeting room is set up for the group to meet with each other.
In exchanging past service stories, the group is able to help each other no matter the age.
“We just had somebody that came in, there was a graduate from West Point that was living out of her car, received a traumatic brain injury and was here and came in crying and walked out laughing,” said Anthony.
While the inside of the building is going through renovations, members of the group are excited for future plans to interact with the community.
“We hope once we have a kitchen back in here, a new one, we will be able to start our Auxiliary dinners, which we have used to support all the programs within the VFW and the Auxiliary,” said Post 4051 Guard, Carol Knutson. “So, we have a national home in Michigan, which we support greatly.”
Post 4051 is actively supporting youth programs and hoping to encourage the younger generations to serve our country. The Knutsons have actively been involved with Post 4051 and supporting youth in the community.
“My wife and I have been very active in supporting the youth programs for the last 25 years, Duane Knutson said. “That’s the Voice of Democracy and The Patriot for high school students and Patriot Pen for middle school students, and this gives them a chance to demonstrate their thoughts about patriotism and why America is such a great country.”
Currently, the group is looking for volunteers to come spend their Thursday afternoons in helping with property renovations.
“We have a volunteer day every Thursday here from 1 to 3 and the more people we get, the quicker we can get this post open,” Anthony said. “And once we get the post up and there’s a ton of stuff we’re going to do out in the community. So, this is just to kind of, to get people used to volunteering again, we didn’t really have a home before and we’re looking forward to it.”
Once the final touches are completed, Post 4051 is hopeful of having barbeques and utilizing the outdoor space.
“I believe that the Post is planning an open house as soon as we have things in line enough within the building that we can do this,” Carol Knutson said. “We have a nice barbecue area outside the building and so hopefully we can include all the veterans and their families and just have an open house and let everybody come and see how great it is going to be.”
