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American Legion Post 690 in Illinois reached out to around 70 members over the holiday season.

When Jim Kott and other Illinois Legionnaires learned that a fellow member of American Legion Post 690 in Palatine, Ill., had passed away three months after the veteran’s actual death, he wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again.

That’s why Kott, Post 690’s service officer, came up with the idea of making regular Buddy Checks on the post’s 200-plus members.

With the blessing of post leadership, Kott coordinated Post 690’s inaugural Holiday Veteran Buddy Check Program, which took place Dec. 8 and reached close to 70 members of the post.

After learning of the fellow member’s death, Kott said, “I said we need to start calling on people and do some Buddy Checks,” Kott said. “That’s when we decided to do the Buddy Checks.”

Kott said Post 690 Commander Mark Cramer agreed a Buddy Check effort was a good idea and then worked with Post Adjutant Joe Kraus to get more information on the Buddy Check program from the Legion’s national website. That included getting guidance from the Legion’s Buddy Check Toolkit.

“That really gave us a lot of ideas and gave us the confidence to do it,” Kott said. “And we figured it was a perfect time to do it around the holidays. People, especially those who are having trouble, run into problems. We wanted to see if we could help in any way.”

The Buddy Checks served two purposes, with the primary one being a wellness check.

“‘How are you doing? How’s your family? What can we do for you? What can the post do for you?’” Kott said. “We didn’t get involved in asking to ‘pay your dues’ or anything like that. We shied away from all that.”

It also was a chance to make the recipients of the Buddy Checks aware of opportunities to visit the post. “We invited to a couple of our events,” Kott said. “We did an Army-Navy Game watch party a week later. We’ve got some other events we did, so we invited them into those.”

Kott also put together a list of the post’s accomplishments during 2025 and provided it to the callers in case anyone asked about what the post does. Included in the list was:

·         Providing $50,000 to veteran and community organizations, including Fisher House; the Chicago USO; and the Palatine Township Senior Center;

·         Providing short-term financial assistance for veterans in need;

·         Continuing a long-time tradition of hosting dozens of Navy recruits from Naval Station Great Lakes for Thanksgiving;

·         Hosting blind veterans from Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital for bingo and visiting with disabled veterans at the facility;

·         Organizing Palatine’s Memorial Day parade and ceremony, and its Veterans Day ceremony; and

·         Visiting with local students and presenting American Legion School Awards.

“It was in case somebody asked, ‘What’s the post doing?’ or ‘What did the post do this year,’” Kott said. “We really wanted to get in touch with more members and get those veterans in and get them involved. We’re not doing a good job of enticing them to get involved.

“I’m not saying they need to be the junior officer or the senior officer or the service officer right away, but we need to get them involved. That was another reason to talk to people.”

Those who were contacted appreciated the effort. “They were very pleased that they got a call from the post,” Kott said. “Most of them were like, ‘I don’t need anything right now, but I do appreciate the call.’ Especially the older members that don’t get out much.

“A couple members asked for some help, so we provided that help. But 95 percent of it was, ‘Thanks for the call. I appreciate it. I’m going to try to get into the post sometime.’”

Around one dozen volunteers took part in making calls, emails and texts. “The volunteers were very willing to do this,” Kott said. “They really enjoyed it. It took us a couple of hours. It was a really nice event.”

Kott plans to continue the Buddy Check program, including letting the post membership know in advance of the scheduled day to expect a phone call from a fellow Legionnaire. “It’s so we give them kind of a heads up that it’s the post calling and not some spam,” he said. “People don’t know who the number is, so they don’t pick up. I think giving people a heads up is a good way to let them know, even they still don’t pick up, they still know they would have gotten a call.”

Although encouraged year-round, 51�Թ� National Executive Committee in 2019 passed , which urges members of the American Legion Family around two specific days: Veterans Day in November, and the week surrounding 51�Թ� Birthday, which takes place March 15. Click here to see the resources we have available for American Legion posts and Legion Family members who want to stage Buddy Check events.