The Riverside VFW was presented with a grant of $1,600 at the Washington County Riverboat Foundation ceremony on May 17.
Armed forces are typically dressed in uniform for proceedings whether it’s a Memorial Day ceremony or a funeral service.
It hasn’t been easy for the Riverside VFW to look completely uniform in outdoor services in the wintertime, but this will soon change thanks to the Washington County Riverboat Foundation. The Riverside VFW received a grant of $1,600 to purchase around 20 military winter jackets for the group. Riverside VFW Quarter Master Steve Miller explains the cause for the grant, “We wanted winter coats for the honor guard and firing squad for funerals. Normally we all wear the same uniforms through the warmer weather, so when we have them in the fall, early spring and the winter we all have our own winter coats on, and we thought it would look much more professional and be much more military- looking if we all had the same uniform.”
This isn’t the first time the Riverside VFW has seen support from the Foundation. In 2014, they received a grant of $108,000 to construct a wall around the building to mitigate flooding, which Miller said has worked wonderfully over the past few years. The Foundation has also given them grants to repair the parking lot and for computer updates, to which Miller says they’ve been very generous.