Walton H. Walker American Legion Post 55

My name is Matt Turner I am the Post Commander for the Walton H. Walker American Legion Post 55 in Belton TX . I have waited to do this thinking we could hopefully pull out of the Covid Crisis but like most of us it didn't happen. We are in extreme need of funding for the Post or we will have to close the doors for good within a month or two. We are a 101 year staple in the community here in Belton. We are also the creator's of the annual 4th of July Parade as seen on the Discovery Channels Top 10 thing's to do in America. Over the years we have donated million's of dollars to the community in grants, scholarship's, Special Olympics, Boys and Girl Scouts, FFA, Special Causes, and numerous other causes. We donate to our local Veteran's for special needs, housing, income assistance, medical needs, Veteran's help program's and to our local VA in Temple. We are also big supporter's of the Chris Kyle Foundation and the flag raiser's at the annual Waco fundraising event every year. We are a non profit post that makes its income from bingo and in being a non-profit we can only keep no more than $35,000 in our account per the Texas Bingo Commission, the rest has to be donated . We have not been able to run bingo at all sense March of 2020 because of Covid. without it being at a 100% occupancy we can't make it sustainable without losing income. We do not have a bar here at the Legion.  We have recently installed sweepstake machine's, but they are not generating the income to even pay our light bill. We have taken the PPP loan that was available last year to pay all our employee's through May of 2020 and they are now on furlough. As for grants through our local county  we do not qualify because we are a non-profit and as for the the American Legion at the state and national level there is no help from them. They just recommend to get the PPP loan and now we do not qualify for the new round of PPP loans. This income  will 100% go to Post 55 to help pay off our $25,000 roof loan, our insurance's for the year which is around $8,000  and our other bills that run $2900.00 a month. The rest will go out to our local Veteran's, Veteran's programs and the community. We would be extremely grateful if you could help us out in supporting our Veteran's and their families.