The Hibbing VFW Post 8510 announced it was disbanding, closing the once-popular club along Hibbing’s “Beltline,” the main highway through town.
The club had previously struggled with money, but had clawed its way out of the red. The reason for the closure is simply that the VFW post itself doesn’t have enough members to properly run the facility.
The VFW club had suffered the same generational problem that VFWs around the state have faced. Older vets coupled with fewer enrollments of new veterans made for an aging clientele. As the club stuck with more or less the same approach, it ran into cash flow problems.
The closure of the Hibbing VFW Post 8510 is sad, but not unexpected. This shoe has been dropping for the last couple years. Nevertheless, this Hibbing VFW club closure is filled with poignancy. No region in Minnesota had a higher concentration of WWII, Korean and Vietnam voluntary military enlistment than the Iron Range. Most area students knew Post 8510 for its sponsorship of the “Voice of Democracy” essay contest every year.
Fact is, many of the grandsons and granddaughters of these heroes live somewhere else now. It’s one more reason for cities like Hibbing to diversify their economies and develop a strategy of attraction.
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