VFW Post 5580, Auxiliary to host Veterans Cup Golf Tournament, Military Heroes Car and Motorcycle Show

VFW Post 5580 and its Auxiliary will conclude the summer of 2026 in busy fashion, as the organizations will host two separate events — the Veterans Cup Golf Tournament, and the Military Heroes Car and Motorcycle show — as the season winds to an end.

The first event, the Veterans Cup Golf Tournament, will take place at 2 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 21, at the Tahoma Valley Golf Course.
The event will kick off with a shotgun start at 2 p.m. and all 18 holes of Tahoma Valley Golf Course will be completed in tournament play. Registration costs $125 for a single player, $250 for a pair and $500 for a team. All proceeds will benefit Yelm VFW Post 558- and Auxiliary directly.

“We have a brand new (VFW) auxiliary,” Becki McGinnis, with VFW Post 5580, told the Nisqually Valley News on Monday, Aug. 10. “We’ve had our auxiliary forever, but last year, the ladies who had been running it forever were tired and didn’t want to run it anymore. They voted to shut it down. My family had been out of town for four years and ended up coming back. My kids are just now old enough to join the auxiliary and were excited about doing that. They came back and found out they had one week before the charter was going to be taken back and we were going to close down the auxiliary. They rallied their friends and teachers who would qualify for the auxiliary and restarted it.”

McGinnis added that because her kids are so young, they hadn’t experienced the auxiliary setting yet and didn’t know what to expect. Additionally, the auxiliary itself had no money as it had been given to the USO.

Throughout the past year, VFW Post 5580 has partnered with the auxiliary to see what it can do to help build it up.

“We support them and they support us. What we were doing is trying to help them get ways to make some money and be able to serve veterans in the area,” McGinnis said. “The American Legion offered up the concession stand for the baseball season last year and they had a successful year doing that. The golf tournament is their second fundraiser. My son loves golf and wanted to do something he knows.”

She noted that these two events will help raise money in order to benefit the auxiliary’s mission of supporting military families in this region. Whatever the community needs, McGinnis said that VFW Post 5580 and the auxiliary are right there to step in.

The second event, the 19th annual Military Heroes Car and Motorcycle Show, is set for Saturday, Sept. 5, at Wilkowski Park in Rainier. The event will kickoff at 8 a.m. and judging will begin at 11. Awards will be handed out at 2 p.m.

All makes models and years of vehicles are welcome to register and enter into the car show. Contact VFWPost5580@gmail.com to register for the event if you’re interested.

“About 13 years ago, we moved it to Wilkowski Park in Rainier and we’ve had it out there ever since,” McGinnis said. “It’s an event where people come back every year for it. We have 150 to 200 cars. We’ve recently turned it into a family event where we’ll have vendors coming out, a bounce house. Bald Hills Fire Department brings out its dunk tank and we do that all day. It’s for families. Come and stay, look at the cars and hangout.”