Department of Minnesota, Legion Social roll out a new website

ELK RIVER — The American Legion Department of Minnesota needed a new website for mnlegion.org.

“We felt it was time,” said Adjutant Mike Maxa. “A website is like a front door, and we want it to look good. We want it to be reliable.”

Communications Director Tim Engstrom said the previous site had been in place since summer 2019. It won awards, but a volunteer had created the site.

While Engstrom, Maxa and other department staff uploaded forms and updated content, the volunteer would fix programming problems. Since he held down a job as an over-the-road trucker, it was difficult to get the site fixed in a timely manner.

The website went down in the spring of 2025; it took five days to get it up and running. Maxa and Engstrom decided it was time to switch.

“We wanted a company that was responsive, so we went with Legion Social,” Engstrom said. “Even our loyal and dedicated volunteer who originally created the site was glad that we switched.”

Meanwhile, the American Legion Auxiliary Department of Minnesota also was ready to move on with its website. It opted to use Legion Social, too, for mnala.org.

Legion Social is a company created by Jennifer Cole, who is an Auxiliary member with Zimmerman Post 560. She regularly has a booth at Department of Minnesota conventions and conferences.

She has been updating post websites all over the state and for reasonable rates. A new website created by a professional company can cost around $20,000. Her rates depend on the work, but Cole has done some simple post sites for as low as $500. She also has a separate rate for handling the post’s social media.

On the day she sat down with The Minnesota Legionnaire, she was helping Elk River Post 112 create a new website. She has been doing its social media for two years.

So who is Jennifer Cole, and why is she so interested in helping Legion posts with their online presence?

Cole graduated from Blaine High School in 1999. She went to St. Cloud State for 2 1/2 years and got her generals out of the way, along with some psych and literature classes.

Then she went to work at National Marrow Donor Program in downtown Minneapolis. Meanwhile, she went back to school, switching directions to pursue web design. She got an associate’s degree in 2007 from Minneapolis Community & Technical College.

“I started my own company. The part I enjoyed the most was making the media materials and the website,” Cole said.

That company focused on channel marketing, which is when companies use intermediaries to move their products. She worked with marketing companies making websites and worked at the bowling alley in Zimmerman.

She later ended up bartending at American Legion Post 560 in Zimmerman.

“I loved it there,” Cole said. “It was such a family environment. It was a different time of my life, and I needed that family.”

Then-Assistant Bar Manager Kae Legg wanted to publicize the post events and deals online. Cole helped.

Manager Wayne Gilbertson said he liked what Cole did with the post website and wanted to compensate her for it — $100 a month.

It wasn’t long before Cole noticed other posts struggling with their online presence, and Cole strongly wanted to help the veterans. Her web skills were the way she could serve. She had a friend who was an Afghanistan War veteran who had been shot in the foot, plus she loved the veteran customers at the bar and the sacrifices they had endured in the service.

“I’m in favor of everything we can do to support them. As a bartender, you don’t think about the full Legion. Hey, there’s a district. Hey, there’s a department,” Cole said. “Now, I understand the big picture. I can connect people.”

Many post websites were created by a company called Legionsites.com, which is an Illinois-based company that makes websites for all levels of the organization across the country. Cole said it would make a website shell, but then posts were left having to update content themselves.

“Legion Social makes the website and helps keep it fresh, which ensures it is findable,” Cole said.

Post 560 was an example, she said. The place was dead, and thanks to management and marketing working together, they turned it around.

“Once you get them into your place, they come back,” Cole said.

She is the historian for Unit 560 and a member of the Chapter 560 Riders. She often creates graphics and publicity for the Riders. She volunteers to take videos of the Riders when they get back from rides. She helps them out with purse bingo and Second Amendment bingo, and she helps her Auxiliary unit with poppies.

“It’s really neat to work with all these Legions. They have this similar heartbeat,” Cole said.

Cole, 45, credits Post 560’s own Carl Moon, who was department commander the day he spoke at the post’s 2024 membership dinner. It helped her understand how the Legion is structured as a grass-roots organization, with posts, districts, departments and national all in support of one another.

Her 10th District website won the first-place award for websites in the national American Legion media awards.

See for yourself

Contact Jennifer Cole at [email protected]. Visit her website at legion-social.com.
Here are some of the websites Cole has created:
mnmighty10thdistrict.org
mn6thdistrict.org
fairmontlegion.org
hastingslegionpost47.org
post1mpls.org
mnlegion.org
mnala.org
sullivanwallenpost11.org
bloomingtonlegion.org
walkermnlegion.org