Holley VFW needs more members to ensure future of post

Photos by Tom Rivers: This group are among the dedicated members of the VFW in Holley. Pictured from left include Mark Morreall, the acting commander; Greg Miller; Will Silpoch, the quarter master; and Dave Rearick, the adjutant and a leader in the district.

Small band of active members says the VFW provides important community service, camaraderie

HOLLEY – It was nearly 53 years ago when the VFW established a post in Holley with 36 charter members.

The group took over a former railroad freight station and created a safe haven for veterans of foreign wars to share in camaraderie and community service.

The post only has a small core of active members, and those who remain the backbone of the local VFW say they need a new generation to join and keep the post going.

“It’s very worthwhile,” Mark Morreall, the acting commander, said about the local VFW post. “We’d like to pass the torch.”

The VFW’s current commander, Todd Klatt, is a younger veteran who is deployed to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Klatt is a mechanic in the National Guard.

The VFW hosts a number of fundraisers – chicken barbecues, raffles and other events – to raise money to keep up the hall and give to veterans.

About three or four times a year Morreall goes to the NYS Veterans Home in Batavia distributing gift cards, pizza, chocolate and other presents for the veterans. He usually goes around Christmas, the Super Bowl, Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

Morreall, age 69, joined the VFW 14 years ago when there were several members who were World War II veterans and others who served in Korea and Vietnam. But Morreall said many of those members have since passed away, and veterans from more recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan haven’t been joining the post.

“Our numbers are thing, very thin,” he said during an interview last week at the post at 8 Veterans Drive, just south of the railroad tracks off South Main Street. “It’s not just here. It’s the Legion, too.”

The Holley VFW Post includes a memorial by the front door to the nine soldiers from the Holley community who were killed during the Vietnam War. Those young men include: John P. Davis, age 30: David Duane Case, 20; Ronald P. Sisson, 23; Howard L. Bowen, 20; Gary E. Bullock, 24; Gary Lee Stymus, 26; George Warren Fischer Jr., 23; Paul Scott Mandracchia, 18; and David States, 21.

Dave Rearick, 78, has been active in the district leadership for the VFW, including as a commander. The district includes Orleans, Livingston, Wyoming, Genesee and Niagara counties. It has seen 10 posts close, going from 29 to the current 19, Rearick said.

“It’s happening all over New York State and the country,” Rearick said about posts struggling to have enough active members.

Membership at the post costs $30 a year and an application can be picked up by stopping by the VFW. The organization has 120 people on its membership rolls, but a small group of less than 10 does most of the work keeping the post going.

Will Silpoch, 72, has been the quartermaster for more than three decades, handling the duties of treasurer. He also served a two-year stint as commander of the post.

He said the organization needs more fundraisers to keep the finances in the right direction. The VFW has a chicken barbecue planned for June 14.

Mark Morreall, left, and Greg Miller check on a Vietnam era tank that has been outside the post since 2009. Shells around the perimeter need to be repainted and the site needs some landscaping. Morreall said it is getting more difficult for the aging members to keep up with all the work at the post. A plaque by the tank states “In memory of our brothers so they are not forgotten” and lists the nine young men from Holley killed in the Vietnam War.

Greg Miller, age 67, recently became more active at VFW and assists at many of the fundraisers and also in part of the honor guard that attends funerals for veterans including Tuesdays at the National Cemetery in Pembroke.

“I’m the youngest guy on the honor guard,” Miller said. “We’re trying to get a younger generation.”

Miller served 22 years in the navy, enlisted at the end of Vietnam. He also worked with Kodak and Gleason Works, jobs that took him all over the world.

He said he formed stronger bonds with his friends in the military than those at Kodak and Gleason Works.

“There is a certain camaraderie that you get in the service that you don’t get in the civilian world,” he said.

A display inside the VFW includes rifles used in war from the Civil War, World War I, World War II to Korea.

The post was established April 23, 1972 with founding members Charles R. Aldrich, David F. Arnold Jr., John E. Baker, Lewis B. Bowen, Edward F. Carlo, Anthony C. Fallato, Thomas J. Finnefrock, Donald C. Gaines, Charles L. Gunter, Raymond J. Hampson, Kenneth A, Ioannone,

Ivan S. Johnson, Roy S. Kerstetter, Peter P. Korn, Nicholas Mastramano, John V. McAllister, Robt. J. McAllister, Samuel S. McMillion, Frederick J. Newton, John A. Pera, David W. Perrier, Wayne C. Porter, George J. Robertson, Albert J. Sailus,

Roger E. Sargent, Frederick A. Smith, Ralph L. Smith, Dominick Tiberio, Donald J. Lavender, Richard E. Weader, William P. Rase, Harold M. Pratt, Jack W. Wilcox, George H. Bartlett, John W. Wilcox and John P. Bowen.

The VFW and two of the former Marine Corps League members are shown inside the hall at the VFW, which can be rented for $125 for events. From left in front include Ray Madigan Jr. and Tom Sietman from the Marine Corps League, and VFW leaders Mark Morreall and Dave Rearick. In back are Will Silpoch and Greg Miller.

One veterans’ organization based in Holley turned in its charter last year. The Marine Corps League was also based at the VFW. That group started about 20 years ago with 15 members but was down to three.

Ray Madigan Jr. and Tom Sietman, two of the last members, said the group wasn’t able to bring in new members to keep the organization going. Madigan said it became too difficult for the few members to keep up with all the tasks of running the organization, especially now that they’re older.