Local residents want to start veterans group in Weiser

Weiser has not had a formal veteran’s organization in years.

 A handful of local residents are now meeting to discuss the possibility of forming a group that, in the least, would meet on a regular basis in Weiser.

 “People are not organization joiners, so we just want to build a group,” said local veteran Ron Handel, who served in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 2004. “We thought it would be great to get a group together where vets, people with prior service, could come and drink a soda or coffee, have a donut; Heck, there are actually a couple pool tables downstairs. It would be to just hang out and talk.”

 For decades, members of the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and the American Legion would meet at what is now the home of the Weiser Little Theater, located at 405 E. Second St.

 It originally belonged to the LDS Church, which sold the building to the American Legion in 1940.

 “It housed activities for both the American Legion and the VFW,” said Bob Barber, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and board member for the Weiser Little Theater who is helping to get things going.

 “They had a gun range downstairs,” he said. “They dug out a part of the basement and, in fact, the sand boxes are still there against the back wall. There are at least 16-feet long and full of sand. They installed a metal lid and put targets up. The bullets would hit the metal at a 45-degree angle and go into the sand.

 “It hasn’t been used in decades, but there were a lot of people around Weiser who took their rifle safety and marksmanship training down there.”

 Barber said that in the early 1990s, due to disagreements and leadership, the building began to fall into disrepair and was almost condemned and torn down.

 The Weiser Little Theater came to the rescue when it began paying to hold plays at the location a couple times a year. In the mid-1990s the Little Theater outright purchased the building at the disapproval of many of the VFW and American Legion members.

 The organization left Weiser entirely and moved to Payette.

 The theater, however, continued to allow veterans to meet at the site and even kept the Veterans Memorial Hall sign, which still hangs on the front of the building today.

 For many years, local resident Rose Will opened the building up for veterans the first Wednesday of every month when a representative from the Veterans Administration traveled to Weiser from Boise to meet with any former service members that may have been facing various challenges, such as PTSD or with military benefits.

 Those visits stopped when the pandemic hit.

 Barber said there are a few veterans who still hold events in the area. Every year, for Veterans Day, a group visits Weiser schools to hold a ceremony that includes a color guard. Some of the participants include Steve Fenske, Brad Attebery, Chuck Marvin, Jana Hill, Dick Bergquist, Mike Carpenter, Jim Grunke, and others. Those same individuals participate in the Fourth of July Parade, but few others are involved.

 “We are trying to get it going and have already held one meeting,” Barber said. “We would like to get enough individuals involved where the VA would find it beneficial to bring someone up to Weiser to help people, whether it’s PTSD, benefits, or whatever the challenge may be. We want to be there to ask, ‘How are you doing? Is there anything the community can do to help you?’ Weiser has a lot of young men and women who are returning vets that just kind of disappear and, again, we think it would be a nice idea, when we hear that they have come back, to invite them and thank them for their service.”

 If you would like to help or get involved with the effort, call Ron Handel at (208) 550-7274, Bob Barber at (208) 869-6890, or Alex Chavarria at (208) 602-7138.