HANSON – They’re raising the roof – or at least repairing it – at the American Legion Post 226, with the help of Mass Tech Roofing, the owner of which is ensuring that the work at no cost to the post.
“They’re doing great things. It’s not just the roof,” said Kathleen Mann of Pembroke, whose husband Michael is a disabled Marine Corps veteran and a member of the Hanson Legion. “We’re getting a dishwasher [that’s] going to be donated in there, we’re getting a new surveillance system we just got put in there, donated … But the biggest thing was this roof project.”
Her letter to the company touched on the condition of the roof and the lack of funding in the budget to on repair it. A local Boy Scout has also provided some inspiration.
Scoutmaster Gary Martin said the great thing about Hanson Scout Jack Rasa’s project at the Legion hall is that once he got involved and began reaching out to help, people did start to offer their assistance, as well as inspiring company’s to offer materials and labor for some projects, and to do work themselves with others – including the new roof, a sign out front and gutter repair services.
“It’s one of those projects that took on a new life with him working it,” Martin said of Rasa’s project.
Mann said her husband is one of a group of new members with a goal in mind.
“He recently joined the Hanson Legion post with several other younger fellow Veterans,” she said in a recent email to the Express. “Their goal is to revitalize the American Legion Post and bring it back to the bustling energized engaged Post it once was. They want it to become a staple for the local community and for Veterans and their families to enjoy. They have many ideas and much grit determination to bring their aspirations to life.”
On behalf of the Post members and the board, Mrs. Mann reached out to Mass Tech Roofing in Pembroke, writing a heartfelt email about the condition of the roof and the lack of funding in the budget to repair it.
“I spoke of how important the Post is to these veterans as a place to gather, share stories, and heal,” she said. “I almost fell off the chair when this company called back six hours later and, just by virtue of his reading the email I had sent out. He was all-in.”
Even when, on closer examination, the work turned out to be more expensive than he thought, it didn’t change his mind.
“We’re doing it,” Mrs. Mann said they told her.
Work began with the new year, on Wednesday, Jan. 3.
“Everything is fast and furious,” said Army veteran and Post Vice David George.
He noted that new members Mann and Paul Riely have already been at work on the roof, removing damaged areas, including a rooftop air-conditioning unit.
“Getting new members is a key,” said Legion member and Army veteran Drew Kitchen, who has been working to repair and upgrade the basement-layer kitchen. “We’ll get [the roof] done and be up and running. Get rid of some people who’ve been causing the issues.”
George said he has also been working on the kitchen.
“It took us a good two weeks of coming in most every day getting out the smell of smoke,” Kitchen said. “I get it, in Legions you can smoke because it’s a private club. Now that there’s a lot more members involved who are physically able to do work and to get stuff done, it’s going to be better.”
“We brought a lot of good people in,” George said of the membership drive recently conducted by the post.
“The younger generation of vets have to start helping [the Legion] and getting them through all that,” Kitchen said of the demands veterans’ groups are confronted with by new programs and technology.
Much of the more involved work was inspired, at least in part by the Eagle Scout project of Jack Rasa, who lives not far from the post and wanted to include veterans in his project in memory of his late brother who had been deployed to Afghanistan while in the Army.
“It was one of those projects that took on a new life,” said Rasa’s Scoutmaster Gary Martin of Troop 38 of the Cranberry Harbors District in the Mayflower Council.
“We got the new roof for real short money,” George said.
“It’s definitely a shot in the arm, for sure,” Mrs. Mann said.
“We didn’t expect it,” Pam Rasa said. “We just thought we were going to go in and help do the façade kind of stuff out front. It turned into a much bigger project.”
“It definitely motivated them to get a lot of stuff done,” she said. “That place was sitting there doing nothing. … I think when their license was revoked, that woke people up and they started [working on] the interior and then it just kind of snowballed from there.”
The post I also starting to advertise the hall as a function space again.
“It’s nice,” she said. “I went in there. They’ve got it all cleaned up and the tables are nicely spaced,” Pam Rasa said.