Kayla Gastler remembered how Montgomery City VFW Post 4436 struggled with participation when she first joined the organization 11 years ago.

“When I first joined the post, it was a little sad, honestly,” the Post 4436 Commander said. “There would be times where we didn’t have enough people to have a meeting. I had three people show up to a meeting.”

Now, Post 4436 has grown into a successful VFW organization. That impressed the officials of both the national and state VFW departments.

For the first time in its history, Post 4436 earned all-American and all-state honors in the same year. It won its second all-state award and received its first all-American honor.

“It was really cool, especially being in my first year as commander,” Gastler said.

VFW Post 4436 was recognized in both the national and state levels for its strong leadership, teamwork and accomplishment in membership growth.

Gastler said her organization had to meet certain criteria through membership, community services and service officer events. To receive an all-American award, a VFW organization had to be active in the Voice of Democracy and the Patriot’s Pen and its membership has to be over 101 percent in membership. For an all-state award, an organization must heavily participate in community service.

“All-state is way more difficult to reach than all-American is,” Gastler said.

Post 4436 made huge contributions to the community, such as starting an outreach program called the Veterans Check In Program in which members of the post visit veterans at nursing homes in the Montgomery County area.

“The more involved your post is and the more active the postmembers are, the more recognition your post gets,” Gastler said. “Hopefully, that helps the membership of your post because people are going to say, ‘Oh, hey, your post is really doing something. You’re out here in your community and you’re serving your veterans. We want to be a part of that.’ ”

The all-American standards are set by VFW Commander-In-Chief Carol Whitmore. She’s the nation’s first female VFW commander.

“I’ll get a new hat sent in the mail to me,” Gastler said. “It’s a red, white and blue hat with all of my recognition on it.”

Gastler said she and Post 4436 Quartermaster Mike Smith will receive their all-state hats when they attend the VFW state convention at Springfield in June.

A 2007 Montgomery County graduate, Gastler served six years in the Army. She joined Post 4436 in 2015 and is the organization’s first female commander.

Gastler said she was five months pregnant with her daughter, Ellie, when she joined Post 4436.
“It’s cool that it’s another second home and it’s awesome to see how much the VFW has grown in these 11 years and how much more people want to come to meetings and want to be more active,” Gastler said. “It’s always my hope that people want to be more active.”

Gastler will be moving to the post’s quartermaster next year. She is now the junior vice commander of her district.

“I was sworn in for (junior vice commander) and I am sitting on a committee for family outreach and readiness for the state of Missouri, so there are five of us in the state who are on that committee,” Gastler said. “I’m excited to move up in the VFW and serve not just my community, but the actual state and families who are really in need of resources.”