C003705

Round shaped coin, pewter in color. 1 1/2 inches in diameter.

Ladies Auxiliary, Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The Auxiliary, which was founded in 1914 to help veterans and their families, is the backbone of VFW volunteer efforts. Promoting patriotism and helping veterans in need are just two of the many ways that the Auxiliary serves America's communities. The Auxiliary also has its own volunteer programs directed at Veterans, State, and Community Hospitals. Today, the Auxiliary is involved in a kaleidoscopic range of activities. While continuing to support the VFW and its causes, the Auxiliary has developed a social conscience of its own. With the paramount goal of helping families in distress, its members perform community service, fund cancer research, fight drug abuse and illiteracy, advocate for the rights of the elderly, and support the VFW National Home, Special Olympics, and other worthy causes.

Membership in the Ladies Auxiliary included not only wives of VFW members but widows, sisters, daughters and grand mothers. The gender-specific eligibility requirement remained for more than 100 years until July 20, 2015, when delegates to the VFW’s 116th National Convention in Pittsburgh voted to amend the dated by-law to extend the same membership opportunity to eligible males. Appropriately, the Ladies Auxiliary VFW has changed its official name to the VFW Auxiliary.