Arriving at the American Legion building, I saw teenagers and adults working a big saw and cutting boards. Everyone nodded and smiled and when I asked who was in charge, they said Mickey. Just Mickey, no last name. I moved through the crowd of people and was finally pointed to the back door where I did find this elusive Mickey - Mickey Craven, that is. He told me the following story.
Mickey Craven from Ten Mile Creek Baptist Church and Mike Dyal from First Baptist Baxley had talked back in February. During the conversation, Mickey said, “Let’s do something for the American Legion.”
He had known Dennis Norris when he was commander, but he died a few years back. He took care of the place as much as he could before he got sick. Someone told Mickey that Aaron Carter of Alma is now the commander, so he contacted him. He was excited to have them work on the building.
Not knowing much about the Legion, as it is commonly called, Mickey did some research and found the following information. The American Legion was chartered by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veterans’ organization. Focusing on service to veterans, servicemembers and communities, the Legion evolved from a group of war-weary veterans of World War I into one of the most influential nonprofit groups in the United States. Membership swiftly grew to over 1 million, and local posts sprang up across the country. Today, membership stands at nearly 2 million in more than 13,000 posts worldwide. Over the years, the Legion has influenced considerable social change in America, won hundreds of benefits for veterans and produced many important programs for children and youth. Aaron simplified their mission when he said they are charged to take care of wives and husbands of veterans, to look after each other.
Mickey said to himself, “Take care of each other? That sounds like the church. It would
be good for the church to meet the vets and the vets to meet the church.”
He also wanted the youth of Ten Mile to meet them. If the youth aren’t taught, they won’t know the important role these vets have played in this country’s past and present.
Usually, a group from Ten Mile goes in June to Ducktown, Tennessee, to do mission work, but COVID shut them down for the past couple of years. They worked with a group from Ray City First Baptist. Mickey called them and explained his proposal. They would move some trees, work on the outside appearance, and whatever else they could do. Ray City said to count them in. They were coming to Baxley.
“Usually, when you start a project like this and people see what you’re doing, they’ll help,” Mickey said, “and that has happened here. Our workers range from our oldest at 74—Harry Lee from Ray City, and our youngest—Jane Hall from Ten Mile. Lots of people have gotten involved—some retired, some still working, some cooks, some carpenters, a construction crew, a stump grinder, and lots of others. A college kid came by and worked for a while. Someone else dropped by to work, and I didn’t get his name. It’s turned into a community effort, but we’re working under the auspices of Christmas in action.”
Danny Johnson donated the sheetrock and installed it to make the place look better, and it does. The man who ground the stumps down for $50.00 per stump told us when he finished that he was donating his time and we could use his pay for windows. Air Management is working on one of the air conditioners, which they’ve discovered can be repaired. The youth group from Ten Mile did much of the painting. David Barber brought his construction crew, and they fixed the door. Handy Andy in Hazlehurst had a door for them. It’s been that kind of effort the whole time.
The building has been sitting there deteriorating for several years, but it’s had a major face lift.
“We’re having a memorial service Thursday night at Ten Mile for Bob Weaver from Ray City. He was really excited about working with this project, but he died back in April,” Mickey said. “We met him on our first trip and have been friends ever since.”
Aaron Carter said he took over as commander two years ago. They’ve had projects going on but didn’t get far because of their limited budget and the great need. Their job is to help people. They help other families as well as veterans’ families, especially at Christmas time and Thanksgiving. On that hot day, he was helping his volunteers cool off. He’d asked the man who sells shaved ice from his truck to park outside the building for an hour and provide all the volunteers with something icy to offset the lack of air conditioning they’d been working in.
Standing out against the crowd were the Ten Mile folks. They all wore yellow shirts.
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