WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Waddington’s American Legion has been around for a century but its members are growing older too, leading to smaller numbers. Now the post hopes an expansion will help draw in new members.
The Waddington American Legion Post 420 is marking its 100th anniversary this year.
While there hasn’t been a celebration yet to mark the occasion, the Sons of the American Legion decided to donate and build legion members a new interior lounge.
Michael Badlem, a member of the Sons of the American Legion Post 420 who helped build the expanded area, says the new space will be used alongside the banquet hall where a lot of legion events happen.
“I just thought it would be nicer to open it up and get some air. So then we bought the French doors for both ends so we could open it up and walk around and now we can hold a bigger event now. A lot more people and it’s more beneficial to the community. We saw that at Halloween when we had more than a hundred kids in here Halloween night,” said Badlem.
The expansion was Post Commander Michael McIntosh’s idea. He came up with it after realizing older members had difficulty sitting at the bar.
McIntosh hopes the expansion brings in younger veterans.
“Even me now, I’m getting there – I can’t sit at the bar. I can sit from here, talk to my friends, maybe have a coffee pot here, socialize, and everything else. And I thought maybe I do that and maybe get some of the younger veterans that have been in the service for the last 20 years, get them interested and maybe they’ll start joining,” he said.
In the spring, members of the Sons of the American Legion plan to build barbeque and horseshoe pits to add more areas for the community to gather.
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