Good Day Post #57
Member!
May and June were both
busy months. From the Spaghetti Dinner
to the Prayer Breakfast, the Memorial Day Ceremony at the cemetery, Pioneer Day,
our Rummage Sale and the Auxiliary’s Bake Sale, our Post Social and several
members went to the Convention in
The Prayer Breakfast was
a success. We had 6 of our 9 WWII
veterans in attendance and two of them shared a memory with us. We were glad to see Dick Bowling, Spence Estus, Herb Cowper, John Levorone,
Harrold Zettler, and Edward
Cernusak in attendance with Spence and Herb sharing a
memory. Although they could not attend,
WWII veterans Jack Campbell, William Fulton and Loren Lemke were honored.
We had a great crowd at
the Memorial Day Ceremony at the cemetery and while our guest speaker didn’t
make it, Spence Estus filled in great. Thanks to Susan Mullins for playing the
bagpipes and Robin Dolan for playing the flute.
We led the Pioneer Day
Parade with pride though one of our members just can’t seem to get in
step. Thanks to all who
participated! Special thanks to Maxine
Bowling who decorated the trailer in her usual wonderful way.
The Rummage and Bake
Sale was a huge success! Thanks for all
your donations for both functions. And
special thanks to Jim Kreutzer for taking the leftover Rummage Sale items to
Post 3 in
I wish I could say our
Community Social was a success. We had
less folks in attendance than last time.
I do very much appreciate all those who did attend and brought the
donated food but I’m wondering what we could do to make it better. If you have any ideas, let us know. We do have the shuffleboard up and
running. Lucy Kreutzer and Lil Newcomb played their husbands Jim and Ed and had a
blast even though the men won two games to one.
You’ll get them next time Lucy and Lil!
MESSAGE FROM THE COMMANDER:
As I indicated in my
first Comment Corner, I hope this year will be a year of participation. We have started off great. At our Memorial Day Ceremonies at the
cemetery we had around 10 – 12 members there.
That is about twice the amount we had last year. I would like to say thanks to all those that
came and a special thank you to all that participated in the ceremony itself. The only glitch we had was the guest speaker
got lost on the way, (imagine that, not being able to find Ash Fork), but in
true Legionnaire spirit the master of ceremonies Ty Narada stepped up and saved the day by calling on our own
Chaplain Spence Estus to speak, great job you
two! Another item of interest that we
participated in was the Arizona State Convention. It was an exciting four days. During this time people found out that Ash
Fork Legionnaires and the Auxiliary are not a bunch of slackers and that we are
a force that they will have to contend with.
Now we are on to another year and will start our early-bird membership
drive in an effort to again be the first in the state to reach 100% of our
membership goal. In fact we hit 135% for
the year. Not only do I hope all of you
will continue as members of Post 57, but I would like to challenge each of you
to try and sign up one new member this year.
If we can do that, we will not only have a banner year of participation
but also another banner year for our membership and surpass last year’s mark.
Douglas Gorniak
Commander
POST NEWS
Don’t forget our
Independence Day Barbecue on 3 July. We
have the room dedications and Bonnie Lou providing the music. We’ll have the raffle for the rifle and the
stereo and there will also be booths with different things for sale. If you want to rent a booth, it’s $5 for
non-profit organizations and $10 for all others. Just let Barry Sharp or myself
know by 30 June. Please try to get your
monies in for the barbecue tickets and the raffle tickets as soon as possible.
Now that the convention
is over, it’s time to pay next year’s dues.
Please pay your dues as soon as possible so we can be first to attain
that 100% mark. This includes the ladies
of the Auxiliary.
New Post Hours. Business
hours are
LADIES AUXILIARY
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT:
Here we are in beautiful downtown Chandler Arizona at
the State Convention and there are five Auxiliary members here from Ash Fork;
our very new 7th District President Lucy Kreutzer, Maria Gregolynskyj, Dolly Sharp, Maxine Bowling and myself. This has been a very active weekend and this
Unit President has learned a lot. Our
Unit received certificates from Department for our Community Service Volunteer
Hours and a National Citation for our 100% Membership. For the past two years we have been first to
make our 100% membership and I want us to do it again. Please get your dues in to me as soon as
possible and let’s do it again.
Bernadine Sydow is not feeling well so I’m
taking over for her until she bounces back.
My P.O. Box number is 1035 or 504 in Ash Fork. Next to come up is the Independence Day
Barbecue on 3 July so please sell or buy the tickets you received in the mail
and come and have a great day. Get the
monies for the tickets back to Barry Sharp or Yvonne Gorniak so we can know how
many people to plan for.
Peggy Gasdorf
Auxiliary President
AUXILIARY NEWS
This will be the first
year that Legion Auxiliary Unit 57 will participate in the Auxiliary Poppy
Program. We launched our program in May
and had a very successful month with our poppy distribution and incoming
donations. I would like to thank all
those who participated along with Legionnaire Herb Cowper, who handed out
poppies along with the Poppy Story Pamphlet.
The poppy was on display at the Legion Hall and on our Ash Fork Pioneer
Day Parade entry. To generate awareness
of the poppy, letters and poppies were sent to government officials at the
national, state and local level, urging them to wear a poppy on the observed
Memorial Day, May 31. U.S. Congressman
John Shadegg (R-Ariz) understands the sacrifice our
Armed Forces have made to preserve freedom.
On May 19th, Shadegg sponsored a resolution passed by the
House of Representatives encouraging Americans to wear red poppies on Memorial
Day for those American veterans who have dies and for those that continue to
serve today. Shadegg was inspired to write
this resolution after receiving a letter from American Legion Auxiliary member,
Legislative Chairman Doris Theiss. With patriotism at a high, our plan is to
continue to distribute the poppy periodically throughout the Auxiliary’s
2004-2005 year to keep the community aware of why we wear this little red
flower. So if you missed out in May to
wear a poppy with pride to honor
Maxine Bowling
Poppy Chairwoman
MONTHLY TRIVIA: June
Newsletter: Who has been a member of
post 57 the longest? Fred Fernow!!
This month’s trivia
question: In a funeral procession, what
does the horse led behind the caisson wearing an empty saddle with rider's
boots reversed in the stirrups signify?
Answer next newsletter.
ITEMS OF INTEREST (if interested in an item listed, contact the Post for
further information)
Were you a POW? Do you know a former POW? Are you sure you are receiving all your
benefits? VA Secretary Anthony Principi is trying to track down as many as 11,000 former
POWs who are not receiving benefits to which they are entitled. Former POWs can get more information by
calling
RAO Bulletin 30 May 04
contains the following articles:
Memorial Day Remembrance;
BALANCE BRACELET PAIN
RELIEVER: The Federal
Trade Commission has charged California-based marketers of the "Balance
Bracelet," a purported pain relief product, with making false and
unsubstantiated claims. [Sources: RAO Bulletin 30 May 40 and FTC news release http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/05/maverick.htm
18
RAO Bulletin 15 June 04
contains the following articles: CRDP
Update 26 (a.k.a. Disabled Veterans Tax);
Court Dismisses Pledge
Case -- Atheist father cannot sue over use of 'Under God' [Source:
WASHINGTON (AP) Monday,
TRICARE Retail Pharmacy
Program contract starts. The Safeway’s
in Williams and
Interested in donating a
phone card to our deployed troops? The
Defense Department has authorized the Armed Services Exchanges to sell prepaid
calling cards. The program is called
“Help Our Troops Call Home”.
[Source: NEWS RELEASE from the
United States Department of Defense, No. 363-04, 23 Apr 04]
UPCOMING EVENTS TO PUT
ON YOUR CALENDAR:
If you have an article
or piece of information that you think would be of interest to the whole Post,
let me know and I will include it in the first newsletter after receiving the
information. You can get me the
information by emailing me, dropping it off at the Post or mailing it to the
Post at
Do you have an email
address? Have you sent it to me? If not, please do so. My email address is rockin_g@netzero.com Make sure you let
me know who you are when you send me the email so I know whom the email address
belongs to.
Yvonne
Gorniak
Yvonne
Gorniak
Editor
Post 57