The National Emergency Fund, and the support of the Legion Family, helped Florida’s Post 303 and its members get back home.
If there’s a Legion Family that knows all too well just how effective the National Emergency Fund is, it’s the Legion Family at John F. Murphy Post 303 in Bonita Springs, Fla.
Hurricane Ian flooded the post with eight feet of brackish seawater in September 2022.
“When I first came in here within days, less than a week after the storm, there were dead fish in their windowsills, eight feet of water was in this building and it stunk to high heaven from the rotten saltwater and the seaweed and all the muck,” said current Department of Florida Commander Chris Hamrick. “They were mucking the place out, there was mold already growing; it wasn’t even safe respiratory wise to come in.”
Just over two years later, Post 303 celebrated its reopening with a Veterans Day event that drew Legion Family from across the state, including Hamrick.
“To come in and look at this now, a little over two years later, it’s phenomenal what they’ve done. They’ve done a couple modifications, but it’s bigger, better, stronger.
“Just goes to show how the different posts have helped each other. There’s like four or five posts just in this district that took the same amount of damage, and they all lifted each other up, the district, the department lifted these posts up just like we’re doing after (Hurricane) Milton,” Hamrick said,
A major factor in the rebuild was the NEF grant Post 303 received.
“(The NEF grant) was very helpful,” Post 303 Commander Adam Prentki said. “We received that grant actually very early on before we started out capital campaign, that gave us some funding to start the process. We had to get engineering reports and that type of thing.”
‘We need our home back’
When Prentki first returned to the post after Ian, he was briefly encouraged by what he saw.
“Driving up, you didn’t see the devastation inside. We saw debris, there was a lot of debris in the parking lot and on the property. It wasn’t until you actually walked in and it looked like somebody just picked up the building and shook it.
“Just the smell. The floor, everything was just covered in mud. Dead fish on the windowsills. It was incredible. And what I think was the most difficult was seeing the stuff we had, the memorabilia and the history; we lost a lot of artifacts from World War II. We had a bomber jacket that just disintegrated when we picked it up. And the Aisle of Flags, the 100 flags we use for Memorial Day and Veterans Day that are burial flags off individuals’ caskets … two thirds of them were destroyed. It was heartbreaking to see it,” he said.
“Many people kept telling us it was going to be at least four years until you’re back in your building, and we just looked at everyone and said, no. We need our home back, and we are going to fight and get it,” said Jan Farrington, American Legion Auxiliary Department of Florida membership chairman and a member of Unit 303.
Complicating plans to rebuild Post 303 was the fact that a past post commander had failed to file tax returns and the post was not financially viable.
But post leadership, including 1st Vice Commander Steve Lee, 2nd Vice Commander Brian Brinkman and then-Post Adjutant John Rodriguez Jr., moved quickly to address those issues.
“We had an amazing team in place, and that team really kept everybody informed,” Farrington said. “And it allowed us to do some incredible fundraising and some incredible publicity to be able to rebuild. Because we realized it wasn’t going to be cheap; it was an expensive endeavor.”
‘This is money that is out there to help you’
Brinkman spearheaded a fundraising campaign and took on the task of handling the contractors for Post 303’s renovation — even as he was dealing with Ian’s impact on his own home.
“(My house) was flooded out in Ian, and the National Emergency Fund helped me out,” Brinkman said. “I was destroyed. I had five feet (of water) in my house, it totally destroyed my house. It’s part of living on the river and part of living in Bonita (Springs), struggle bus with hurricanes here.”
The hits have kept on coming for Brinkman and his family, with the house being flooded again by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
“Milton, the last one, I had 26 inches in the house. That was a little rough, so we’re in disarray. Camping again, but I’m used to camping. But there’s so many people who had it worse.”
Brinkman credited the $3,000 NEF grant he received as a Legionnaire, as well as the $2,000 Auxiliary Emergency Fund grant his wife received, for helping when they needed it the most.
“You’re trying to cash flow a rebuild, and you’re living on an air mattress, you’re destroyed, and I would encourage anyone who’s up in the regions (affected by recent hurricanes), reach out and donate, it’s a damn good cause to donate because you 100 percent get it back,” he said.
District 13 Commander Keith Berres echoed that sentiment.
“I would encourage anyone in the country that’s a veteran and a member of The American Legion, if you’re ever in a situation where you have an excessive amount of damage due to a natural cause, that you take the time to fill out the paperwork and get your receipts and get your pictures, and do what it takes to help yourself. This is money that is out there to help you and to help them, and we need to keep getting the word out, and we need the veterans to know that they can rely on The American Legion to help them when they’re in need,” Berres said.
Berres, the former commander of Post 90 in Cape Coral, Fla., also saw firsthand the importance of the NEF.
“(It was) very important to us because we had a $20,000 deductible for the insurance, and we had over $100,000 in damage, and our post is not very large when it comes to finances. And the grant we received from both the NEF and (the department) covered the cost of the deductible, which allowed us to replace all the damage on the outside of the building. And actually, when we were replacing stuff, it allowed us to upgrade to better standards so the next hurricane won’t do as much damage,” Berres said.
Post 303 also “built back better,” with epoxy floors, cement board walls and a cinderblock bar. They also moved an office to allow for larger, ADA-compliant restrooms.
“The original building was built 70 years ago, and for years they just added on and added on,” Prentki said. “We had a lot of issues. You’d plug something in and something else would pop someplace else. … I hate to say that in a way the hurricane was a blessing, but we probably never would have accomplished what we did if it wasn’t for the hurricane. … (The building) functions better.”
While Prentki credited the NEF’s support for Post 303’s rebuild, “it’s more than just the money,” he said.
“It’s knowing that your district and department and national are there to support you. And I think that was the biggest thing, even with the supplies, and even with people just stopping by and bringing a couple cases of water or whatever. It’s nice to know that you’re not alone. And having, whether it be financial or supplies or any of that, having people show up and say, ‘OK, we’re here for you,’ is really what it’s all about. That was very encouraging to us,” Prentki said.
- Emergency