American Legion Post 60 to host convention

The American Legion in Brawley is hosting their 5th Area Convention in partnership with The Department of Veteran Affairs to help enroll veterans who may be looking for assistance.

Our news crew stopped by Post 60 in Brawley for a quick preview.

“It’s a convention of all districts in southern California,” said Robert Morales, District Commander for The Imperial Valley.

Saturday’s event is also an opportunity for quarterly commanders and officers from the state to meet.

A new installment to the event this year will be a VA bus coming from The Loma Linda VA Hospital.

“Our veterans service officer from El Centro has graciously enough asked them to come down and offer services to the veterans who haven’t applied for any sort of benefits,” explained Morales.

The team on the bus will help identify what benefits veterans are able to apply for and the percentage of help they may receive.

“Most veterans don’t realize that there are veterans benefits there for them and don’t ask. That’s what we’re here for,” said Morales.

The American Legion Brawley post 60 will be kicking of the weekend convention with a steak dinner Friday which starts at 6 o’clock.

And Saturday the rest of the festivities will continue including a chili cook off and meet and greet opportunities with the district 30 service officer and the department of california service officer.

“Sunday will be the culmination of the whole meeting, in which everyone gets thanked for their service and we’ll also have a program for those veterans that are deceased. And that is a pretty emotional time for a lot of the veterans,” said Morales.

“This post and most posts, most American Legions are here for the veterans and not only the veterans but the families also,” added Morales

The VA bus will on site Saturday in Brawley starting at 9 in the morning and continuing throughout the day. For more information on the available services and the convention you can visit https://www.facebook.com/brawleypost60/