Launching From Planet Extreme

BY GEOFF HAMILL

“Role model” can describe individuals, but can also describe groups. Chapter 628 in Princeton, West Virginia, known as the Blue-Gray Chapter, has become a role model for community organizations in the southern part of the state.

Princeton, a small town with a population of about 6,500, lies just eleven miles from the small city of Bluefield. The Blue-Gray Chapter includes members from both communities. The town is part of the National Coal Heritage Area, in which thousands of hard-working miners dug the coal that powered America’s industrialization. Residents of the region always have responded to the nation’s calls to service. West Virginia has the highest number of veterans per capita in the country.

The Blue-Gray Chapter has completed several community improvement projects, including the renovation of a youth center; restoration of a historic armory building; and many service projects for veterans, active-duty service members, and first responders.

Twenty years ago, chapter members raised funds to buy a run-down building on Princeton’s Main Street, which they turned into an attractive meeting hall. The former downtown eyesore now features a striking military mural on one outside wall. Impressed with the work, Princeton dedicated a Veterans Memorial Park—dominated by the powerful mural—next to the meeting hall.

In 2013, recalling Blue-Gray’s good work on the downtown building, the Princeton town government approached the chapter with a proposal involving another Main Street building.

Just outside the downtown area, a community youth center called Planet Extreme was operating in a former armory building that had fallen into disrepair. In exchange for Blue-Gray Chapter’s help with renovation of another building for a new Planet Extreme, the town offered a long-term, no-cost lease for the armory. Seeing the armory’s potential as a new headquarters, but fully aware of the challenges, the chapter accepted the proposal. Two years later, the Blue-Gray Chapter cut the ribbon at its new headquarters in the remodeled armory building.

“These guys are just absolutely fantastic,” said Princeton Mayor Tim Ealy. “We set up a deal where they would have Planet Extreme move out of this building and VVA would redo another building. They would do the electricity, rewire it, and get it up to code. Once they got down there, they did the wiring, then they said, ‘Hey, the heating and cooling system is no good in here.’ So they put in a new heating and cooling system. They put in two new bathrooms. They retiled the floors. They took walls out. They painted. They put water fountains in. And this was all on them, at no cost to the city and at no cost to Planet Extreme.”

As for the armory, Ealy said: “Planet Extreme was renting this building from the town. If I had seen the bad shape this building was in, I would have had the building inspector condemn it. Some of the floors were falling in. The toilets were not operational. The main space was an absolute mess. The VVA guys came in here and asked the city for nothing. We gave them a one-dollar lease for ten years. They redid the bathrooms. They redid the floors. They redid the electrical. They redid the lighting. They just did an unbelievable job on this place. It gave them a place they can be proud of, and the city is very proud, too.”

In addition to building renovations, the Blue-Gray Chapter takes on a wide range of community service projects. That includes working with the Rotary Club to give a first-responder luncheon for more than a hundred rescue personnel, police, and firefighters. Chapter 628 recently sponsored and is refurbishing a city park. Members have cleaned and painted, and they replaced railings and fences. They are also restoring and modernizing the playground.

Now a prestigious, acclaimed community organization with more than three hundred members, the Blue-Gray Chapter came from humble beginnings in 1992.

“We sat on the courthouse steps for five months before we got twenty-five people with twenty dollars,” said charter member and Chapter Treasurer Tracy Cochran. “With good people and hard work, we got to where we are now. I really think we had an open chapter. Everything was open and we were progressive. We wanted to help each other. That’s what mushroomed our chapter.”

When they first incorporated in 1992, Blue-Gray members had three goals: to build a Vietnam War Veterans memorial, to obtain a chapter meeting home, and to sign up one hundred members. With teamwork and efficiency, the chapter achieved those goals in just three years.

Within two years, the group raised funds and erected a memorial honoring Vietnam War veterans from eight West Virginia counties. The memorial features eight marble plaques that list the names of those killed in action from each county.

The chapter signed up one hundred members within eighteen months. “We were going to Richlands, Virginia,” said Cochran. “We were holding meetings in Bluefield. We were holding meetings in Princeton. So we got members from the surrounding area. There are members who were from here and left, but they don’t want to give up their membership because they like this chapter so well.”

In 1995 the Blue-Gray Chapter achieved its third goal of obtaining a chapter meeting hall. They made a lowball offer on a neglected former newspaper building.

“It was tore all to pieces,” said Cochran. “That’s how we got it. The Bluefield Telegraph owned the building and they were trying to sell it for $25,000. We told them we wanted them to give us the building and write it off, but they wouldn’t do that.”

“So we put in a bid of $10,000, and they took it,” said Blue-Gray Chapter President Ed Taylor. “In 1995, Tracy, myself, and two other members went to the bank and signed a personal note. That’s how we bought our first chapter home.”

The group works tirelessly for veterans and community causes. For thirteen years, the chapter held a Veterans Day dinner, serving as many as eight hundred veterans and family members. Members conduct anti-drug abuse classes in the schools. They serve free coffee on Memorial Day to turnpike travelers at the Vietnam Memorial at the West Virginia Welcome Center. They’ve held three Welcome Home dinners for the Bluefield-based 1/150th Cavalry after their overseas deployments.

“We’re going to be getting to work on the park over here on Oliver Avenue,” said Taylor. “It’s going to be named after the chapter and we’re going to keep it up. Of course, we’ve got to get it up to snuff before we can upkeep it.”