A Band of Brothers
A welcoming group of veterans finds a welcoming home.
Members of Avon VFW Post 3272 at their weekly Thursday morning gathering at BeanZ & Co.
If you stop into BeanZ & Co. on Thursday mornings from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. you’ll see a long table filled with veterans from Avon VFW Post 3272. They drink coffee and reminisce, they razz each other and laugh, and they share a life experience that most of us do not. To join the post you have to have served in a combat zone in a foreign war. Theirs is a kinship that is deep, real and sustaining—and you feel it in sitting with them even just for a few moments.
When asked what this post means to them they will tell you, “This post is a band of brothers. It is about camaraderie, humor, harassment, and B.S.” Another adds, “You can say whatever you want. We’ve all been through the same thing. We’re the lucky ones.” And another quickly quips, “Our wives are the unlucky ones.”
They have stories that tug at your heart, stories they don’t often share. Post Historian Bill Newman has been documenting them since 2002. “We now have 185 military histories of our post veterans bound in two volumes at the Avon Public Library, including most of the vets who come to coffee at BeanZ & Co.,” says Newman. “What we’ve heard are great examples of courage, comradeship, pride, fear, privation, and loss in hostile circumstances during several wars from veterans from Avon, Canton, and other towns in the Farmington Valley.”
As with all VFW posts, the Avon post is formally named after the first man killed in combat from the town it is chartered in—in this case: Avon VFW Gildo T. Consolini Post 3272. Consolini served and was killed in 1943 in the South Pacific during WWII. The Avon Post is one of the oldest in the country, and will celebrate its 75th anniversary next year. Currently made up of 140 veterans from all five branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, post members represent service in all foreign wars, including WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Korean Defense.
The oldest member, Morton Katz, is 100 years old, a WWII paratrooper, and is fondly referred to as the godfather of the post. He is still a special public defender in Hartford’s Superior Court and arrived with blessings for the post, as this particular Thursday morning gathering fell between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Standing and leaning into the group he said, “May you all be inscribed in the book of life.”
BeanZ & Co. is a place where the veterans feel welcome, where they can be themselves, loud and raucous and all together. “Kim takes great care of us,” says Newman. “She sets a long table every Thursday and puts our flags out. BeanZ & Co. is by far the best place we’ve ever been. We’re more of a face than a number here.” Another adds, “It’s home. We love to be here.” Newman shares how happy the post members are to see families with babies, children and others with disabilities that come. “BeanZ & Co. truly is a place where everyone belongs. It’s beautiful what they’re doing here.”
And of the BeanZ & Co. staff post members say, “The employees make us feel part of the family. We all know each other by name. They go out of their way for us.” Another adds, “They celebrate our birthdays if they fall on a Thursday.” Another chimes in, “They all fall on a Thursday.”
Kim Morrison, co-founder of BeanZ & Co. has seen not only the benefits of providing space for this group to gather and spend time together, but also what the inclusive culture of BeanZ is bringing to them. “Some customers are paying it forward with our veterans,” she explains. “They are buying $50 gift cards, $100 gift cards so vets don’t have to pay for their coffee or breakfast. It’s powerful. People feel the energy that everyone belongs at BeanZ and want to be part of it and want it to grow.”
Scott Morrison, Kim’s husband and business partner at The New England Pasta Company and at BeanZ & Co. sees it, too. “The cool thing is our veterans all look out for each other. They literally are brothers. People want to support that, to thank them for their service, to extend simple human kindness. It’s really something to witness.”
Beyond its weekly meeting at BeanZ & Co. and a monthly post meeting, the Avon VFW actively serves its members and the community. They organize and march in the Avon Memorial Day Parade, have an annual service at the Avon Veterans Memorial on Veterans Day, and decorate veterans’ graves with flags at all Avon cemeteries. For the past 15 years or so they have shared their stories with students at Avon and Canton High Schools, they visit sick and disabled veterans at nursing homes and hospitals, serve as honor guards at veterans’ funerals, and much, much more.
These are men of honor and great heart who are welcoming and always looking for new members—including women veterans—eager for the camaraderie new members will bring, and to be of support to them. “We are actively looking for nurses to join us, especially those who served in the Vietnam War,” says Newman. “We invite any veteran who has served in a combat zone to join us. We know what vets have gone through and have shared many of their experiences. We’re here for them.”
To learn more about membership in Avon VFW Gildo T. Consolini Post 3272, contact post member and service officer Mickey Bennett by email at bennettsr47@yahoo.com, or by phone at 860.930.0372. Bennett also encourages any veteran to come to coffee at BeanZ & Co. on Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. “No need to join the post, just come and talk,” says Bennett. “We can help.” You can also reach out to him if you’d like to donate to the post by supporting its annual Poppy Drive, the post’s main fundraising effort.
BeanZ & Co. is an inclusive coffee café employing people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities and demonstrates the possibilities in all of us. The coffee café serves breakfast, lunch, hot and cold beverages, and bakery items for take-out or eat in, and also offers catering services. BeanZ & Co. is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is located at 300 West Main Street, Avon, Conn. For more information visit beanzandco.com and friend them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.