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MEMBERSHIP NOTES
Every December, Rochester, New York, Chapter 20
puts together and distributes holiday food baskets to needy
families. Last year, a special treat accompanied the baskets:
about a dozen lap robe quilts that were donated by the
American Sewing Guild and the Gates Neighborhood Group.
The cooperative effort began when the chapter’s Nancy
Van Apeldoorn learned about the group’s charitable
work and suggested that they make lap robes for the holiday
basket program.
As a way
of thanking the Cleveland Indians for hosting their third
annual POW/MIA Remembrance Night, Buckeye State Council President
Thomas Burke presented a Certificate of Appreciation in September
to the Tribe’s Vice President of Public
Relations Bob DiBiasio. Mansfield (Ohio) Correctional Institution
Chapter 616 Staff Adviser Bill Homer also gave a plaque to
the Indians and DiBiasio.
Many members of Kentuckiana Chapter
454 in Louisville, Kentucky, lent a hand at the October 25
Operation Stand-down sponsored by the Metro Louisville Coalition
for the Homeless. Chapter members Bob Keller, Chet Needy,
Terry Rupp, Judy Mitchell, Victoria Cole, Gary and Margaret
Holmes, and Nat Price helped unload and distribute produce
and clothing, among other activities.
Members
of Chicago Chapter 242 visited patients at the Hines VA Medical
Center’s Extended Care Center on December
15. The chapter presented holiday presents to the patients
and organized activities including card games during the
two-hour visit, which was organized by chapter member Steve
Weber.
Queens, New York, Chapter 32 donated a large assortment
of toys and games to the Ronald McDonald House of Long Island
during the Christmas season. For the second year in a row,
a member of the New York City Council, Melinda Katz, joined
chapter members, including Chapter President Pat Toro, Vice
President Paul Narson, and member Paul Feddern.
Members of
Porter County, Indiana, Chapter 905 made one of their regular
visits to the Indiana Old Soldiers’ Home
in West Lafayette in December. They were joined by the Fort
Benjamin Harrison Army Band (replete with Santa hats) and
students from Purdue University. The event, which was organized
by chapter member David Guernsey, including a band concert,
bingo games, and a pizza lunch.
During the month of December,
members of Plymouth-Canton, Michigan, Chapter 528 rang bells
for the Salvation Army, visited patients at the Ann Arbor
VA Medical Center, and made several school visits. That month
the chapter also donated $500 to Angel’s Place, which
provides housing for people with special needs; $250 to support
Chapter 310’s Ann
Arbor VA Hospital Christmas party; $175 to the Salvation
Army to help feed the homeless; and $250 to the Marine Corps
Toys for Tots program.
Last year Pasadena, California, Chapter
446, in a joint effort with Soldiers’ Angels, gave
ten laptop computers to Veterans Upward Bound, a U.S. Department
of Education program that helps eligible U.S. military veterans
refresh their academic skills so that they can successfully
complete the postsecondary school of their choosing.
It was another big
success in November for Northern Virginia Chapter 227’s
DMZ to Delta Dance. The chapter recently distributed the
proceeds: $1,000 to the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center;
$100 worth of Metro bus tokens and meal coupons to the local
Vet Center; $200 for the Memorial Day Writers Project tent
rental; and a $250 grant to the Shriners Hospital for Children.
Members of Quad Cities Chapter 299
in Rock Island, Illinois, paid one of their quarterly visits
to the Iowa City, Iowa, VA Medical Center September 24. They
distributed cookies, fruit, chapter pins, and reading materials.
Taking part in the trip were: Frenchy and Ann Eaves, Bob
Segura, Ron Staes, Jerry Grooms, Harry Hansen, Brent Cobb,
and Art Heyderman.
Kentuckiana
Chapter 454 in Louisville, Kentucky, makes regular visits
to the Bashford East Health Care Nursing Home and the local
Vet Center. The chapter donated $125 to the Pike Street Clinic
for the Homeless in November and $250 and clothing and toiletry
items in December. The chapter also sent Christmas gifts
to veteran patients at Bashford East and paid a visit to
the Louisville VA Medical Center for “Popcorn Night.”
Tim
Finnerty, Len Johnson, and Tom Murtha of Liberty Bell Chapter
266 in Philadelphia recently paid a visit to Pennsbury High
School in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, where they held a
two-hour discussion and question-and-answer session on the
Vietnam War with students. “The questions were
answered precisely and honestly,” Murtha said, “as
young students can detect a lie right away.”
Every year
Washtenaw County, Michigan, Chapter 310 sends special Christmas
cards to family members of the men listed on the Washtenaw
County Vietnam Veterans Memorial. At their November meeting,
chapter members sit down and add handwritten notes to each
card. This year the chapter received a note (and a donation)
from Larry R. Taylor, the half-brother of Robert C. Piercy,
who perished in Vietnam in February 1968, thanking the members
for the card. “I will always have
admiration and respect for our men and women in the military,” Taylor
wrote.
Steve Crecy of South Bay Chapter 53 in Redondo Beach,
California, organized a Veterans Day Candlelight Program
at the Hermosa Beach Veterans Memorial. More than a hundred
people attended. Chapter member Nick Nickelson delivered
the Keynote Speech and Adele Borman sang the National Anthem.
Chapter members brought fifty toys to the Chapter Holiday
Party in December, and they were donated to the Beach Cities
Toy Drive and Marine Corps Reserves Toys for Tots program.
Bozeman, Montana, Chapter
788, working with the Wild West Shirt Company and Universal
Athletics, and the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program, purchased,
sorted, and delivered toys and other Christmas presents to
needy veterans and their families in Ennis, White Sulphur
Springs, Livingston, and Bozeman during the holiday season.
Members of Texarkana Area
Chapter 278 in Texarkana, Texas, had a very busy Veterans
Day weekend. The chapter took home the second place trophy
in the veterans organization category at the Texarkana Veterans
Day Parade on November 10. After the parade, chapter members
went to a local McDonald’s
where they signed in veterans for a free meal, which was
offered by the outlet’s owner. On November 12, chapter
members Billy Walker, Bill Brockett, Raymond Burns, and Greg
Beck were guest speakers at two local schools.
Former
VVA National President Tom Corey delivered the keynote address
on February 12 as Palm Beach County, Florida, Chapter 25
dedicated a 40-foot flagpole that it had donated to the Palm
Beach Vet Center in Lake Worth. Corey mentioned Chapter 25’s
efforts in the early 1980s to bring a Vet Center to Palm
Beach County, which led to the opening of the much-needed
facility in April of 1985. The dedication ceremonies also
included remarks by Paul Russo, acting director of the VA
Medical Center in Riviera Beach, and local political leaders.
The Lake Worth High School JROTC Program’s color guard
raised the American and POW/MIA flags to the top of the flagpole
to the cheers of a large crowd.
Central Wisconsin Chapter
101 in Wisconsin Rapids had a busy and fruitful November
and December. The chapter Color Guard participated in Veterans
Day ceremonies at several locations and at a Pearl Harbor
Day commemoration in Wisconsin Rapids. In December, chapter
members Tom Sachs and Don Schillinger collected non-perishable
goods and donated $100 to the Wis Rapids Family Resource
Center. The chapter also made $200 contributions to the Veterans
Assistance Project at the King Veterans Home and the PTSD
unit at the VA Medical Center in Omah, and $150 each to the
local Boys and Girls Club, the Salvation Army, and the YMCA
Youth Group.
VETS CONNECT
Santa Rosa, California, Chapter 223 is working with the Veterans
of Modern Warfare to form a local chapter in Santa Rosa.
The chapter is making an effort to find veterans of the first
Persian Gulf War and the current wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq, including active-duty personnel. On tap: a Welcome
Home Barbeque for new veterans, families, and friends on
May 4, cosponsored by the chapter and by VMW.
Owego, New York,
Chapter 480 was instrumental in helping set up the first
formation meeting for a local Veterans of Modern Warfare
chapter in December. Jack Howey, the local county veterans
representative, attended, gave advice on claims, and offered
to help the group find a home for its chapter office. Chapter
480 has a link on its website, www.vva480.org, for a downloadable
VMW membership application and takes applications by mail.
The second Owego VMW foundation meeting took place in January,
and later that month the fledgling chapter sent its Charter
Petition to the national VMW office. If accepted, the chapter
would be the third chartered VMW chapter.
Members
of Bordentown, New Jersey, Chapter 899 spend Monday and Wednesday
evenings with U.S. Army troops at nearby Fort Dix, N.J.,
in one of several chapter programs that support our nation’s
newest war veterans and their families. Twice a week chapter
members bring food, soft drinks, and companionship to the
troops. “Anything that helps these
guys is something positive,” Chapter President Mike
Engi told the Philadelphia Enquirer.
SCHOLARSHIPS
Norman Webb, the president of Gardner, Mass., Chapter 907,
presented a $500 check to Mount Wachusett Community College
in December. The chapter’s donation will support the
college’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial Scholarship Fund,
which is open to full-time students who are honorably discharged
veterans of any war, as well as members of the Reserves and
National Guard.
MEMORIALS
Cape Coral, Florida, Chapter 594 was the driving force behind
the Southwest Florida Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which was
installed in January at a park on the Fort Myers side of
the Veterans Memorial Bridge, also known as the Midpoint
Memorial Bridge, which connects Fort Myers with Cape Coral
over the Caloosahatchee River. The installation included
a brick and concrete path leading to the memorial, along
with three vertical walls with granite panels engraved with
the names of Southwest Florida veterans who perished in Vietnam,
and a bronze sculpture made up of boots, a rifle, and a helmet
in the shape of a cross. The wall also contains an engraving
of the VVA logo. The chapter’s efforts to build the
memorial, which was formally dedicated on March 8, were led
by chapter member Craig Tonjes.
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©2006-
2008, Vietnam Veterans of America. All Rights Reserved. 8605 Cameron
Street, Silver Spring, MD 20910