02/28/2026
The 2026 Valentine fundraiser event was hugely successful, even exceeding by a lot last year’s previously most successful Valentine event. We raised $17,000 to help homeless veterans with essential household items as they move from shelters to permanent homes. Of that amount, $15,000 was live and silent auctions (almost exactly divided evenly between the two); $1,000 was raffle and 50/50; another $1,000 was cash donations received prior to event. The $17,000 is not the final result as we have some ‘after-event’ funds coming in too. Number of attendees exceeded all previous events too even with guests dining barside and coming to the Hall for the auctions. We had 150 donated items (not counting raffle items) for live and silent auctions (most we ever had) including some unique interesting items such as a kayak, flag that flew at Pearl Harbor on Memorial Day in 1988, six diamond art pieces representing the military branches, xylophone, Tom DeMayo original wood flag, wide variety of creative themed baskets, restaurant gift cards from pizza to the finest dining in town and all in between. We are now in communication with Dole VA Homeless team who is identifying the items most urgently needed for homeless veterans for us to focus on. We’ll update as that progresses. We thank the MANY generous Post 4 members & friends who were the guests bidding on the items, as well as the local businesses that generously donated the many items, and the hard working members (special shout-out for the outstanding work of auctioneer Mike King) and everyone else who made this event successful.
