COMMUNITY
The AMVETS Post 104 of San Marcos will hold a Chicken and Sausage Fundraiser on Saturday, Aug. 3 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Maurice T. Suttles VFW Post 3413 located at 1695 Hunter Rd.
The fundraiser will help the VFW Post meet new city building code requirements, allowing the organization to continue in its mission to serve veterans within the community.
“In 2022, the city passed an ordinance to bring all buildings up to the IFC, NEC code (International Fire Code and the National Electrical Code),” Aaron Brown, VFW Post 3413 Quartermaster, said. “We had already decided we needed to do some upgrades around here. Now we need to install a fire suppression system. In order to put in a fire suppression system, we have to upgrade the electric system. That has to come first.”
Though the city has set aside funding and pledged to assist the VFW Post in defraying the costs of updated electrical wiring and the new fire suppression system, Brown says they have a long way to go before reaching their monetary goals.
After pivoting post-COVID, Brown said that the post moved toward a business model that would sustain it as a vital gathering space for the community as well as for veterans.
“We’re an all volunteer- based organization,” Brown said. “We tend to operate on rentals as our capital. Luckily, we’ve had a lot of rentals. That keeps the light on.”
However, a series of financial setbacks have kept the post from moving toward its endof- 2025 deadline for its required upgrades. The first major hurdle was COVID, from which — like many businesses and organizations — the post is still recovering. Next came Winter Storm Uri in 2021.
“While we are a VFW hall, we have opened for every major disaster for the last five years,” Brown said. “For Winter Storm Uri, we had a FEMA drop. Hays County Food Bank brought in food. [We supplied] 4,000 gallons of water, 1,000 of that boiled and 1,000 pounds of food. We made it through Uri relatively unscathed, but then on May 9, we got hit with that storm. The whole south exposure got peeled back.”
Then, right before the VFW Post’s July 4th celebration, the hall’s AC units went out.
“We just can’t catch a break,” Brown said. “So we’re still working through that.”
Brown and his wife, Stephanie — who serves as the Post Commander — took over VFW Post 3413 in 2018. Their primary goal for the VFW Post is to continue the VFW mission of creating a space of fellowship among veterans, but in addition to that goal, the Browns want to return the hall to a community space accessible to families.
“It’s a decent-sized space for a birthday, a quincenera or a reunion,” Brown said. “People ask why we don’t raise our prices. We haven’t raised our rental prices because we can’t serve the people we need to serve if we do that. Nine not-for-profits operate out of here including the San Marcos Police Association, the Firefighters union, AMVETS as they need it, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, Broke Thespians… We’re trying to have a community space the community can actually use. We want to reintroduce karaoke nights, pool tournaments. But we’ve got to get through the repairs and damage to get to that point.”
Saturday’s event hosted by the AMVETS is a fundraiser to help the VFW Post achieve these goals. And while endof- 2025 deadline seems a long way off, these things take time.
“We’re a voting board,” Brown said. “We have to the end of 2025 to get these repairs done, but realistically I have 12 meetings. So we may as well do it now.”
The Maurice T. Suttles VFW Post 3413 building was erected in 1972, but the post itself was established Dec. 5, 1935.
“If we can make it to Dec. 5 of next year, we’ll be here 90 years,” Brown said. “The post has a history in this community. It’s just been forgotten. That’s why we had to start asking for help. We’re the command staff trying to hold this place together until our brothers and sisters can come here when they need us.”
Stop by the Maurice T. Suttles VFW Post located at 1701 Hunter Rd. on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. or until plates are sold out. Each plate is $12 and will contain a portion of chicken, sausage, beans and cowboy potatoes. For more information, visit the event page on Facebook under facebook.com/amvets. san.marcos.
Above, the original charter for the Maurice T. Suttles VFW Post 3413 has been preserved and framed for display. The San Marcos post dates back to Dec. 5, 1935. Below, this 48-star flag was carried by Captain Charles Clayton Pervier45th Infantry Division throughout his service during WWII. The flag remains on display in the main hall of the Maurice T. Suttles VFW Post 3413. Daily Record photos by Celeste Cook
