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IN SERVICE
Members of Louisville, Kentucky, Kentuckiana
Chapter 454 served their community in several events this summer. That
included hosting the chapter’s monthly Movie and
Popcorn Night on August 7 for patients at two wards of
the Louisville VA Medical Center; and providing food, drinks,
and birthday cake for veterans at the Louisville Vet Center
on August 15. Chapter members Bob Keller, Dona Schicker,
and Larry Westerfield took disabled residents of the Bashford
East Nursing Home to the Kentucky State Fair on August
14.
Westchester County, New York, Chapter
49 members Jim
LaManna, Al Zawiski, and Bob Miller collected twenty-five
grocery carts full of food (about half a ton), along with
$171 in cash on July 26 outside the White Plains Stop & Shop.
The food and funds went to the Veterans Food Pantry at the
VA Medical Center in Montrose, New York. The pantry gives
out a week’s worth of groceries to dozens of needy
veterans and their families each month. Chapter members also
took part in the annual Town Hall Meeting sponsored by the
Westchester County Service Agency in October. And the chapter
is actively involved in a countywide coalition of groups
working in favor of a proposal that would turn the Montrose
facility into a “Veteran’s Village” that
would provide a full range of medical care, housing, and
other services to veterans and their families.
Northern Virginia
Chapter 227 President Leonard Ignatowski and chapter member
Bruce Waxman gave a talk July 29 on the Vietnam War to Rec-Pac,
a camp run by the Fairfax County Park Authority that includes
disabled children with autism, mental retardation, and muscular
dystrophy. “The campers
usually are very disobedient and do not listen to authority
well,” said Leila Waxman, who works at the camp and
arranged the talk.
“However, on this day, much to the
surprise of the counselors, they were very attentive to the
guest speakers. They stayed quiet the entire hour and asked
many questions. They really enjoyed having Mr. Ignatowski
and my father come in to share their experiences.”
Members
of Philadelphia Chapter 590 go all out in their annual appearances
at local Memorial Day and Independence Day Parades. At this
year’s Fourth of July parade in Glenside Township,
for example, the chapter contingent appeared in combat fatigues
and camouflage makeup towing a decommissioned, 1960s-vintage
helicopter behind a canvas-covered deuce and a half. As they
passed in review in front of the judge’s stand, spectators
rose from their curbside seats and gave them a long and loud
ovation.
A slew of Quad Cities Chapter 299 members pitched
in to help as the chapter moved all of its office equipment
July 11 and 12 to the new facility in Rock Island, Illinois.
Among those who did the heavy lifting and painting were Bill
Albracht, Bob Albracht, Bobby Brooks, Gib DeCoster, Paul “Frenchy” Eaves,
Mike Ellis, Harry Hansen, Ray Hamilton, Bobby McSparin, Joe
Murphy, Bob Segura, Ron Staes, and the new landlord, Chapter
299 member Bob Jackson. The chapter also has a newly designed,
user-friendly website created by Sean Murphy. Take a look
at www.qcvva229.org
The elaborate Appleton, Wisconsin,
Chapter 351 float, which contains a slew of flags, a large representation
of The Wall, the American flag, and the Three Servicemen
statue, was a big hit at three recent parades. It won the “Most
Patriotic Float” at the Appleton Flag Day parade and
the Oshkosh Fourth of July Parade. It was the only veteran-themed
float in the town’s Memorial Day Parade. The float
is the result of many hours of hard work by Brian and Amy
Jahn, Leon and Kristen Meidan, and Alan Jahn. The cost was
underwritten by donations from Fat City Designs and by Brian
and Amy Jahn. The chapter will use many parts of the float,
including the centerpiece, with its traveling museum during
presentations at area high schools.
Twenty members of Racine/Kenosha,
Wisconsin, Chapter 767 attended the recent Wisconsin State Council Convention
in Wausau. The chapter’s Military Funeral Honor Guard
conducted the event’s opening and closing ceremonies.
The chapter also provided the POW/MIA Remembrance Table and
the Three Servicemen statue portrayal (by Bill May, Steve
Klinkhammer, and Lamont Burks) at the Convention’s
banquet. The Military Funeral Honor Guard attends all funerals
of Vietnam veterans in the Racine/Kenosha area; the statue
portrayal is part of many area veterans’ events and
ceremonies.
Greater Hartford, Connecticut, Chapter
120 was
well represented at the annual Connecticut Stand Down, which
was held September 12 at the Connecticut Veterans Home in
Rocky Hill. The annual event served the needs of more than
a thousand veterans. Chapter members Paul Barry, Roger and
Donna Anderson, Kathy Lechausse, John Seimer, Ron Pelletier,
Fred Arnold, and Billee Culin were present to help out. Lechausse
presented a check for $500 from the chapter to Connecticut
State Veterans Commissioner Linda Schwartz, as did Connecticut
State Council President Culin. The chapter celebrated its
25th anniversary on November 9.
Members of Mohave County, Arizona,
Chapter 975 took part
in Golden Valley Days October 3-4. David Lee Clark volunteered
to run the dunk tank, which was donated to the chapter for
fundraising. Chapter President Gene Crego was incarcerated
in a “jail,” and had to be “bailed out.” Additionally,
the chapter recently acquired an office to do veterans’ service
work in the city of Golden Valley, an office that was donated
by the city’s Water Department.
Sandpoint, Idaho, Chapter 890 co-sponsored the first Standpoint
Veterans Stand Down July 12 at the Bonner County Fairgrounds.
The event, co-sponsored by the Bonner County Veterans Service
Office and the VA’s Homeless Veterans program, distributed
more than $400,000 in military surplus and some $5,300 in
food. The chapter plays an active role in community service
endeavors, including helping with the local food bank and
providing utilities, food, rent and mortgage payments, transportation,
and construction projects to needy veterans and deployed
active-duty families in the area.
Bergen County, New Jersey,
Chapter 800 presented a $1,500 donation to the VA’s
New Jersey Health Care System that was earmarked for trips
to Washington, D.C., by PTSD patients to visit the Vietnam
Veterans and other memorials in the nation’s capital. “The
trips are therapeutic and important for the healing process
of our veterans,” Kenneth
H. Mizrach, the system’s director, said in his thank-you
letter to the chapter. “Please be assured that your
donation was appreciated and beneficial to those hospitalized
veterans participating in these programs.”
Philadelphia
Liberty Bell Chapter 266 was well represented at the 2008
Philadelphia Homeless Veterans Stand Down, which was held
September 5-7 at the Pennsylvania National Guard Armory.
Members pitched in to help with the set-up and staging during
the weekend, and the chapter’s Honor Guard/Color
Guard took part in the closing ceremonies. Those who took
part were Frank Beck, James Harris, William Montgomery, James
Chappelle, Chuck Moffett, Tom Murtha, Del Stones, and Len
Johnson.
POW/MIA
The Honor Guard from the Mansfield,
Ohio, Correctional Institution Chapter 616 presented the colors at Progressive Field in
Cleveland (the home of the Indians) September 19 in honor
of National POW/MIA Recognition Day.
The event included a
presentation to the Indians by VVA National President John
Rowan, Buckeye State Council President Tom Burke, and the
Director of the Ohio Department of Veterans Services, Bill
Hartnett, of Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland’s proclamation
announcing POW/MIA Recognition Day for the state of Ohio.
Following the proclamation, Hartnett and Rowan placed baseballs
on the pitcher’s mound for a silent first pitch symbolizing
that America’s missing service members cannot throw
out the first pitch themselves. This was the fourth consecutive
year that the Cleveland Indians have held a VVA-supported
POW/MIA Night.
Texarkana Area Chapter 278 in Texarkana,
Texas,
held its 21st annual POW/MIA Vigil August 29 and 30 at the
local Korea and Vietnam Memorial. The vigil began with opening
ceremonies, which included a candlelight ceremony the first
night, as well as a POW meal, a Ride to Remember, and a balloon
release on August 30.
Austin, Texas, Chapter 915 conducted ceremonies
honoring Texas POWs and MIAs from the Vietnam War on September
19, National POW/MIA Recognition Day, at the Texas State
Cemetery. The ceremonies included the presentation of the
colors, the Pledge of Allegiance, an invocation, the POW/MIA
table ceremony, and a reading of the names of Texas POW/MIAs
from the Vietnam War.
Members of Central Minnesota Chapter
290 in St. Cloud
held the chapter’s annual 24-hour vigil on September
19 at the Central Minnesota Vietnam Memorial at Lake George
in downtown St. Cloud. The vigil was the first held by the
chapter at the new POW/MIA Walk of Honor in recognition of
the 36 Minnesota servicemen still listed as missing in action
from the Vietnam War.
MEMORIALS
Members Dan DeRose, Dan Jackson, Ted Rabens, and Al Rhodes
of South Jersey Chapter 825 in Mays
Landing, New Jersey,
were among the many Color Guards front and center at the
opening ceremonies of The Wall That Heals on July 17 in Wildwood,
New Jersey.
SCHOLARSHIPS
New City, New York, Chapter 333 presented Ruth May Seberry
Memorial Grants of $2,500 in August to returning Iraq war
veterans Marine Sgt. Sean William DeBevoise and Army SFC
Ronald Agard. The grants go to help returning veterans of
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in need of financial help.
The chapter also presented four scholarships to college students:
Diana Lea Von Ronn (University of Phoenix, $1,000), Gregory
Lee Pelton (Manhattan College, $1,000), Andrew Jason Tschudy
(SUNY Oneonta, $500), and Michael Paul DeLisi (Vanderbilt
Univeristy, $500).
The winner of the annual Wisconsin
Rapids, Wisconsin, Chapter 101 scholarship to a graduating high school
senior was Angelica Engel of Lincoln High School in Wisconsin
Rapids. She will be attending the University of Wisconsin,
Madison.
Sacramento
Valley, California, Chapter 500 presented three $500 scholarships
this year to students who wrote essays on the roles played
by women in the Vietnam War. The recipients chosen by the
Scholarship Committee (Ted Adams, Hank Davis, and Lorna Perrigo)
were Michelle Schmidt, Lucio Tolentino, and Amy Quint. Schmidt,
whose essay was judged the best, received an additional $100
and her essay was published in the chapter newsletter.
Redondo Beach, California, Chapter
53 awarded three $1,000 scholarships to graduating high school
seniors: Tom Sumner of Redondo High, Kendall Huberman of
Mira Costa High, and Megan Cunningham. All three new college
students read their award-winning essays at monthly chapter
meetings.
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©2006-
2008, Vietnam Veterans of America. All Rights Reserved. 8605 Cameron
Street, Silver Spring, MD 20910