VFW Post 7234 to celebrate 70 years of service May 14
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7234 will mark 70 years of service since the post was founded in 1946 after World War II. An anniversary celebration is planned for 11 a.m., Saturday, May 14, at the post, past the end of Marshy Hope Way in Ocean View. The program will include a ceremony to remember and honor those who established the post, and to recognize those who have led and built the service traditions of the post over the years.
A refurbished memorial to deceased members will be unveiled and dedicated with an accompanying wreath-laying ceremony and honor guard presentation. Each attendee will have an opportunity to place a flower at the memorial in honor of a deceased loved one. The ceremonial part of the program will be followed by a barbecue lunch.
VFW Post 7234 was established in Selbyville in 1946 by 92 veterans from Sussex County. It was named the Mason-Dixon Post because of the proximity to the Mason-Dixon Line. The following year, the ladies auxiliary, now renamed simply the auxiliary, was formed. The post moved to its present location in the Quillen Point area of Ocean View in 1953. In the years since 1946, the post has grown to approximately 1,320 members today, with an auxiliary of over 700 members.
Ever since its beginning, VFW Post 7234 has provided support and assistance to veterans in need and a wide range of worthwhile causes. Through dues, donations and fundraising events and activities, including the popular chicken shack on Saturdays and breakfast buffets on Sundays during the summer season, auxiliary dinners and other events, the post has raised money to support and assist veterans clinics and patient assistance programs, local veterans in need; VFW National Home for Children and other national services, Homes of the Brave, Operation SEAS the Day, Fisher House at Dover Air Force Base, USO; Operation Uplink (phone cards for active service personnel), local area volunteer fire companies, local area school programs and student scholarships, post programs for children, Pyle Center public assistance services, CHEER Center services for seniors; cancer, Alzheimers and muscular dystrophy research programs and other worthwhile causes.
Post Commander Fulton Loppatto said, “All of us at VFW Post 7234 are grateful to those who founded the post when they came home in 1946, some of whom are still active members today. And we’re grateful to all the others who have contributed so much over the years to continue our proud tradition of service to veterans and the community that the original members began. So, we’re looking forward to celebrating our anniversary and history, honoring those to whom we owe so much, and welcoming everyone to the post on that special day.”
