By Staff
Our View
When Hurricane Ivan ravaged Atmore, one of the buildings heavily damaged was the landmark American Legion building.
It was actually built by the Masons in 1948, but nearly since the first day, it has been known here as the American Legion building.
Like other buildings in Atmore, the roof was blown off, and water damaged all three floors of the building. The large windows on the first floor were almost completely destroyed.
Since then, some patch-up work has taken place, but it will be a long road of recovery.
Of course, the building is known as the American Legion building because of the people who have operated in that building all these years, the American Legion, Post 90.
The American Legion is the largest veterans organization in the world. A community-service organization which now numbers nearly 3 million members – men and women – in nearly 15,000 American Legion Posts worldwide. These Posts are organized into 55 Departments – one each for the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, France, Mexico, and the Philippines.
They provide support services to veterans and their families, provide scholarships for our youth and involve themselves in our communities.
Our veterans serve their country and many returned home to serve their communities as well.
Atmore's American Legion post wants to do more than just patch a roof and replace a few windows in the Legion building. A committee is now in the earliest stages of planning a resurection of sorts for the three-story building.
The idea is to create a show-piece and valuable center for the community's use, said Doc Sutton, the post's commander.
As this committee moves out of the idea stage and develops plans for the building, the Atmore Advance will report to you the progress.
But the American Legion post will need our help. It will be a great opportunity for us to say "thank you" to veterans who've done so much for us as a nation in the past and continue to do so much for us as a community today.