The American Legion Mahan-Patteson Post 547 in Nixon Texas had been shut down for years.  The grass had grown up to the knee, there was no electricity, no water and no life.  Although the Nixon-Smiley area had many Veterans, for some reason no-one stepped up to keep the Organization going.  A remaining Veteran had the keys and worked to get a group of Veterans together to bring the organization back to life. 

 

A handful of dedicated Veterans joined.  There was no money in the old bank account.  We struggled. Little by little we raised money either by fund raising or sometimes using our personal money.  Sometimes we wondered how we could afford to keep the electricity on.  We worked hard and came together spending our time and days off to bring this iconic local legacy back to life.  The American Legion had been a community staple for many decades.  We eventually brought the property back up to where we could rent it out for the Community to enjoy.  With a little rent money we were able to keep the lights on, improve the facility and donate time or money to local causes such as student stock show projects, FFA, youth baseball team, out of state weight lifting competition and other causes.  We began organizing Memorial Day flags in downtown Nixon.  

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Guess what?  We won 2 awards from the State of Texas American Legion for 2023 and 2024 for retention and membership.  The Nixon American Legion continues to grow and we want all local Veterans to join us.  The American Legion Auxiliary is now up and running as of July 2024 now with 12 members.  The first time in over 15 - 20 years?  We are also building a stage to increase Community events. We keep moving forward....

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We work hard and its for the benefit of the Veterans and the Community.  We have much bigger community impact projects planned once we reach final revitalization of the facility. 

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We are proud of what we have accomplished in a very short time on a very tight budget.  We want to thank the Nixon-Smiley FFA, Fehner Firearms for donating items for a fund raiser to get us started,  Home Depot for donating the vinyl plank for our kitchen floor and the Wilson County Commissioner for his support.  We would also like to thank a few local residents who gave what they could to help us.  A very heartfelt thank you to all of you.  Here are just a few before and after pictures. There have been many more improvements besides the photos below. 

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A new Bar-B-Q pit and a new out door stage is under construction. Stay tuned.

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If you would like to make a donation, we would appreciate it.  See below and choose Paypal, Cash App, or Venmo..  Your donation goes a long way. Even $10.00 buys paint brushes. We would like to share some before and after photos of our progress.