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MEMBERSHIP NOTES
Western New York
Chapter 77 member Jack O’Connor has
put together a program called Veterans Court in conjunction
with the Buffalo Police Department, Buffalo City Court Judge
Robert T. Russell, Jr., and the Buffalo VA Medical Center.
The object of the Veterans Court program is to keep veterans
who are arrested for low-level crimes out of jail. The program
provides VA counselors to work with these veterans with the
idea of getting them into appropriate treatment programs.
If a veteran successfully completes the program, which Judge
Russell monitors, charges may be dropped and the veteran
will not have to serve jail time.
Congratulations to Westchester
County Chapter 49, which celebrated its 25th anniversary
In Service to America in October. Chapter member, associates,
family, and friends celebrated with a 25th Anniversary Barbeque
Oct. 20 at Lasdon Park in Somers, New York. Families and
friends of fallen Westchester County veterans were special
guests of the chapter, which displayed photos and shared
stories about the chapter’s early
days.
Pathfinder Chapter 848 at Crosslands
Correctional Center in Cameron, Missouri, recently
completed its sixth annual fundraising effort for charitable
causes. About $1,000 was raised for several charities,
including the Center for the Intrepid, the Vietnam Veterans
Assistance Fund, Cameron Veterans Nursing Home, Special
Olympics, and Camp Quality. Seventy-five percent of the
chapter’s annual budget goes to charities
and community service endeavors.
Two VVA chapters, Preston
County, West Virginia, Chapter 977 and Morgantown Chapter
306, took part in the 66th annual four-day Preston
County Buckwheat Festival in September in Kingwood, West
Virginia. Chapter 977 members held a membership drive,
sold VVA products, and participated in many other festival
events, including riding on a float in the parade. On board
the float were AVVA Vice President Elaine Simmons and West
Virginia State Council President Dave Simmons.
Maurice Bailey,
the president of Mat-Su, Alaska,
Chapter 903, was the 2007
recipient of the Alaska Governor’s
Veterans Advocacy Award. Bailey received the award in November
from Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell in recognition of Bailey’s
outstanding volunteer service to the veterans’ community,
in particular the Veterans Aviation Outreach program, which
provides help, support, and fellowship to Alaska veterans,
many of them in remote areas of the state.
South Bay Chapter
53 in Redondo Beach, California, recently donated
a total of $3,800 to the following organizations: the Junior
ROTC Detachments at Torrance High School, North Torrance
High School, and Redondo High School; First Methodist Church;
St. Andrews Presbyterian Church; St. James Catholic Church;
and St. Pauls Presbyterian Church in Redondo Beach; to VVA’s
25th Anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Parade;
and to the Snowball Express.
Members and AVVA members of Ocean
County, New Jersey, Chapter 855 presented a “Tribute
to Veterans” program
on Veterans Day at Central Regional High School in Bayville.
The program included students, teachers, the school’s
principal, veterans from all eras, active-duty military personnel
and their families, along with a Gold Star family. Chapter
members then did a program at Twin Bridges Nursing Home in
Whiting.
Taking part in both events were Chapter President
Chuck Hoff and Myrna Arnold and AVVA members Gary Jacobson,
Lana Winter, Lee Forlaw-Hoff, and Dawn Hunt.
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 and Chet Needy, Terry Rupp, Judy Mitchell, Victoria
Cole, Gary Holmes, and Nat Price helped unload and distribute
produce and clothing, among other activities.
Wheaton, Illinois,
Chapter 693 co-sponsored a Veterans Benefits Dinner
November 4 for the second consecutive year at the Villa Verone
restaurant in Geneva. Chapter members sold tickets for the
dinner, and the chapter retained the proceeds from ticket
sales. The chapter presented the restaurant with a plaque
in appreciation for hosting the event.
The Dean K. Phillips
Memorial Chapter 227 in Northern Virginia held its
19th annual DMZ to Delta dance on Saturday night, Nov. 10,
during Veterans Day weekend. More than three hundred people
attended the fundraiser. Among the guests: VVA National President
John Rowan and his wife Mariann. The event netted some $8,900.
Members and spouses Len and Diane Ignatowski, Bill and Cheryl
Dumsick, Bill and Natalie Bohuslaw, Joe and Sharon Celesnik,
Chris Beverly, Bruce and Sarah Waxman, Max and Fran Knouse,
Bob and Ardis Mills, Paul and Cyndy Stancliff, Chuck and
Glenda Harris, Jim Hewitt, Len Funk, Charlie Klein, Jonathan
Olson, and Margaret Stern worked at the big dance.
Bob Sweeney,
a member of Western Massachusetts Chapter
One-Eleven, was
named Springfield, Massachusetts, Veteran of the Year. He
was honored for his many years of work in the Springfield
Veterans Services Office. In 2007, he was named manager of
the Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery at Agawam.
Racine/Nenosha,
Wisconsin, Chapter 767 presented a large donation
in December to the Southern Wisconsin Veterans Home in Union
Grove. Included in the donation were gift cards, comforters,
tablecloths, craft items, games, candy, and batteries. These
items consisted of the majority of a wish list compiled by
the Center for its residents.
Members of Yuma, Arizona, Chapter
835 took part in several local activities during
November’s
Veterans Day commemorations. The chapter marched in the huge
Yuma Veterans Day parade, and several members attended events
honoring veterans at the Faith Baptist Church and Grace Bible
Fellowship.
After returning home from showcasing its Agent
Orange Awareness float in the Nov. 10 VVA-sponsored 25th
Anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Parade in Washington,
D.C., members of Las Vegas, Nevada,
Chapter 17 took part
in two local events benefiting needy families. The chapter
participated in the Thanksgiving Turkey Drive sponsored by
HELP of Southern Nevada, which provided holiday meals to
hundreds of families in need. On Thanksgiving day itself,
chapter members pitched in at the Hard Rock Café’s
annual Thanksgiving feed for the homeless. “Chapter
17 is proud to be a part of this event by providing personal
care kits to the homeless as they leave from their delicious
meal,” said Chapter
President Tom George.
Some two dozen Rotarians and Vietnam
veterans, including Howard Goldin of Rockland
County, New York, Chapter 333, presented school
supplies, medical equipment, toiletries, bicycles, and toys
to students in the Mekong Delta village of Long Xuyen in
November as part of the Schools to End Poverty project, which
Goldin and Chapter President Ed Frank began in 2005. The
program helps disadvantaged Vietnamese children in rural
areas of the country. The program’s
first project was to help build a three-story school outside
Dalat, in the Central Highlands, which, when completed, will
educate some 450 Montagnard children. “In my particular
unit, there was a lot of loss,” Goldin said. “This
is one of my ways to heal.”
VETS CONNECT
VVA’s 2007 Chapter of the Year, Washtenaw
County, Michigan, Chapter 310, reached an admirable milestone in November:
After four years of sending care packages to the troops in
Iraq, the chapter mailed its thousandth parcel. By the end
of 2007, the number hit 1,076 packages. The average postage
per package is $17, and the donated contents average about
$60 each, which puts the total value of the packages at some
$82,000.
Santa Rosa, California, Chapter 223 is
working with Veterans of Modern Warfare to form a local chapter
in Santa Rosa. The chapter has begun contacting veterans
of the first Persian Gulf War and the current wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan, as well as active-duty service personnel.
The chapter will serve as the fledgling VMW’s mentor
group. The chapter held its annual Christmas Dinner for All
Veterans and their families and extended families on December
14 and once again distributed children’s gifts.
Twelve
members of Beaver County, Pennsylvania,
Chapter 862 recently
traveled to Meadville, Pa., to attend a Support the Troops
rally. The members carried signs saying “We
Support Our Troops.” “This is the first time
I carried a sign for anything,” said Chapter President
Skip Haswell, “and I would do it again. Sometimes we
change a little as we get older.”
Des Plaines, Illinois,
Chapter 311 just finished its first year of presenting
blue star flags to area high schools whose alumni have served
in the military since September 11. “This
is important,” said Chapter President Brian Mulcrone, “because
viewing blue star flags at local high schools forever reminds
entire communities that their friends, classmates, and neighbors
are serving and defending the USA.” Upon “their
return from service as they join us as veterans, we want
to welcome all and insure that the government that has sent
them addresses their needs as American veterans. We all owe
them that as we rededicate ourselves to VVA’s Founding
Principle, ‘Never again will one generation of veterans
abandon another.’ ”
Michael Engi, the President
the West Central District Chapter 899 in Bordentown, New
Jersey, presented $1,500 worth of commissary gift certificates
to the military families—including
spouses and children of those serving overseas—at the
December Hearts Apart holiday party at the Fort Dix Youth
Center. “The lower-ranking enlisted men don’t
have the money that the officers make,” Engi said. “They
have wives and kids here. This helps them buy the things
they need. None of us ever forgot how we were treated when
we came home, so we welcome the troops. That’s why
we do things for their families.”
MEMORIALS
Five members of Northwest New Jersey
Robert E. Wheelock Memorial Chapter 327 volunteered
and were chosen to take part in the reading of names on the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington during the three-day
Veterans Day weekend commemorations in Washington. Past President
Walt Towers, Agent Orange Committee Chair Mick Eckstein,
Ed Hultberg, Terry Thompson, and Chapter 1st Vice President
Steve “Rambo” Carrozzo—who,
along with other chapter members were in Washington to march
in the big November 10 VVA Parade—read the names in
the early evening on November 9.
Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin,
Chapter 101 recently donated $300 to the Fountain
of Tears Statuary Project at The Highground Veterans Memorial
Park near Niellsville. The project will be part of the park’s
Meditation Garden, which will contain a statue of a soldier
holding the dog tags of his fellow soldiers and another statue
of a wife and child of a fallen soldier. The works will be
placed on either side of a pond that represents the tears
of those who grieve for the fallen. During Veterans Day weekend,
the chapter’s
Color Guard took part in ceremonies at Veterans Memorial
Park, as well as at the dedication of the Wood County Veterans
Memorial in front of the Wisconsin Rapids Courthouse. Chapter
members also attended Veterans Day activities at Grant School
in Wisconsin Rapids and at the River Run Retirement Home.
Bozeman,
Montana, Chapter 788 presented a plaque honoring
former F-105 pilot Dean Pogreba to the Three Forks High School
during Veterans Day ceremonies on November 8. Pogreba was
shot down over North Vietnam in October 1965. His wife Maxine
and son Larry attended the ceremonies. For Thanksgiving,
the chapter presented turkeys, food gift certificates, and
other assistance to veterans and their families in Gallatin
and Park Counties.
Southern Utah Chapter 961 raised $5,000
to bring The Wall That Heals to St. George, Utah, where it
went on display for four days early in December. “There
are 58,000-plus names on The Wall and many of these names
are our comrades who we were fighting with,” Chapter
President Mike Gale told the Hurricane Valley Journal. “The
reason they call it ‘The Healing Wall’ is because
we go there to feel close to our brothers and sisters who
were killed there. It helps us to go and do that, to spend
a quiet moment with them.”
SCHOLARSHIPS
The winners of Bergen County, New Jersey,
Chapter 800’s
eighth annual Kevin O’Neil Scholarship were Wendy Holland,
Nick Moyer, Matthew Ratajczak, and Matthew Tanda, all of
whom wrote essays comparing the experiences of Vietnam veterans
with those of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Six
students received Leominster, Massachusetts,
Chapter 116 scholarships recently near the town’s Vietnam Veterans
Memorial. The scholarship program, now in its 18th year,
recognizes the children of Vietnam veterans and other students
who have demonstrated a commitment to their community and
to veterans and who are going on to higher education. The
recipients in 2007 were Matthew Ellam, Jocelyn Pierce, Michael
Hazzard, Jeffrey Jollymore, Emily Joseph, and Loren LeBlanc
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2008, Vietnam Veterans of America. All Rights Reserved. 8605 Cameron
Street, Silver Spring, MD 20910