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Mostly Cloudy VFW hosts Covid test giveaway near post still in need of repairs
VFW hosts drive-through Covid home test pickup
The James E. Donohue Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 347 headquarters in Glen Cove has been closed since August 2021, when a fire destroyed the second floor of the building on Hill Street. The facility was also a base of operations for the North Shore Soup Kitchen. Over five months later, the veterans remain in desperate need of donations to help rebuild.
“The main floor, upstairs, where NOSH was, that was pretty well burnt up,” Howard Stillwagon, a Vietnam veteran and a VFW member, said, referring to a soup kitchen program that was initiated during the coronavirus pandemic. “They pretty much lost everything. That whole part has got to be rebuilt.”
The downstairs area of the century-old building, where the post held meetings and displayed its memorabilia, sustained water and smoke damage. Neither the heat nor the building’s plumbing has been operational since the fire.
“A lot of people in Glen Cove probably don’t know the situation there,” Stillwagon said, “how dire it is right now to get it back up.”
Despite the lack of access to the building, the post has continued to help the community. On Jan. 22, members partnered with the North Shore Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to hand out home Covid tests to residents.
The pop-up drive-through test distribution was announced early Saturday morning. There was uncertainty about whether there would be enough tests for community members after they were given out to chamber and VFW members, but the organizations distributed 180 test kits to residents.
The cause of the fire has still not been determined. Most of the interior renovations are on hold until the details of an insurance settlement are worked out. IBEW Local 25, an electrical union, donated its service to help set up temporary lighting.
“The whole thing is a fiasco,” said Joseph Moores, a post trustee and a Vietnam veteran. “There’s nothing but frustration. Nothing’s been done since August. You can’t use it. It’s colder inside than it is outside.”
Post Commander Henryk Nowicki, another Vietnam veteran, has been told by the insurance company that the post would receive roughly $100,000, but when he hired an adjuster, Nowicki was told that it would cost over $400,000 to renovate the building. So far, the post has been able to raise about $44,000 in donations.
In the meantime, the Glenwood Landing American Legion has lent itself out for Post 347’s monthly meetings. “It’s not home,” Stillwagon said, “but they’re nice enough to let us use it.”
Like the headquarters renovations, post celebrations have been put on hold. “We don’t have a place,” Stillwagon said. He and Nowicki are hoping that the post will have enough money by May to renovate the downstairs facilities for the annual Memorial Day barbecue and picnic, an event it planned to open to first responders as well as fellow veterans.
“We do a lot for the community,” he said. “I mean, every month at our meetings, we donate. We sponsor Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Little League.”
The building was constructed in 1920 by VFW members who were World War I veterans. It was named after James Erwin Donohue, who was the first casualty to return from the war, according to Glen Cove Library records.
“It is very sentimental to a lot of families here in Glen Cove,” Stillwagon said. “Their grandparents built it. We are trying to save it.”
The Glen Cove community has been working to help raise funds. Kiwanis Club Vice President Ron Beiber, former President Phyllis O. Burnett and Tony Jimenez, a Kiwanis board member and the city’s director of veterans affairs presented a check to the post on Jan. 10.
The Long Island Bagel Café, in Glen Cove, had a jug on the counter for customers’ donations in December.
To donate, checks can be made payable to VFW Post 347 and mailed to James E. Donahue VFW Post 347, 15 Hill St., Glen Cove, N.Y. 11542.
