The Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4765 in Athens, Ala., has recently started working to promote themselves in the community. Most recently, they hosted a Valentine’s event that sought to highlight Veterans involved in marriages that have lasted. At this event, the post awarded the entering couple that had been married the longest the first choice of donated gift certificates from local restaurants. The other couples involved were placed into a drawing to see what order they got to choose in. The winners of the event were Gene and Vonette Hartsfield who have been married since 1967. The couple chose a gift certificate to Las Trojas. Other gift certificates donated were from Logan’s Roadhouse, Applebee’s and Catfish Cabin.

Keith Smith, the event committee coordinator for the post, said that he thought up the idea for this competition because he is disappointed in the amount of divorces he’s seeing around.

“I know when I got married in ’81 the statistics were 50 percent of marriages would end in divorce within 5 years. … Has it been perfect? No, but it’s been fun. So, that was what I was trying to get and show the younger generations, that you have to work on things to make it last,” Smith said.

Since October of 2021, the post has participated in Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas events. They hope to have events for Saint Patrick’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in the coming months and invite veterans to enter their Mother’s and Father’s Day competitions and the community to join them for their Saint Patrick’s and Easter events.