Massena American Legion

From the Commander: As you might have noticed, we did not send out a newsletter in March. The reason for this was that the elections of Post #79 are being held at the May 3rd meeting and we have to post the candidates who are running for office in the newsletter at least 10 days prior to the elections. The candidates are listed above. Nominations can come from the floor for any office at the May 3rd meeting during the elections. You must be present to accept the nomination and to vote. You also must be paid up for 2004 dues. Please make every attempt to show up at the May 3rd meeting which starts at 7:45pm and vote.

Since the last newsletter some of the things that have gone on were the Appreciation Dinner for the Massena Police, State Police, Massena Fire Dept. and Massena Rescue Squad. We also held the 85th American Legion Birthday Dinner which was as usual a fine meal thanks to Pete Firnstein, Bob Page and all the helpers.
Our Fish Dinners are going excellent. The fish is outstanding and the people cooking the meals, serving the food and washing the dishes are working like troopers. If you have not tried, you have missed out on some wonderful meals.

Our Past Commanders/Past Presidents Dinner is coming up on May 15th. Make sure and sign-up at the bar if you desire to attend. Cocktails are at 5pm and dinner is at 6pm.

Anyone knowing of anyone that has not paid their dues for 2004, please ask them to do so as soon as possible. Anyone over 70 years of age and has 5 years of continuous membership in this post will have their dues paid for by the post as long as they bring the renewal notice down to the post. We are approximately 90 members short from our 100%.

The County meeting will be held here at Massena Post #79 on April 22nd at 7:00pm. If you have never attended one of this meetings, please come down and participate.

|The Massena Police Department has received a grant to train people in directing traffic in case of terrorist acts or emergencies. The training will start on April 24th at the Town Hall. If any veterans are interested in signing up for this please contact me or the Police Department. This is one more way veterans can help the community.

I have a request to make of our veterans of this post. If any of you are interested in joining the Lancers for the purpose of marching and participating in different Post functions, please contact Fred Cockayne at (315)265-9403. We need veterans from the Post to join.

Please remember to include our troops in your prayers, that they safely return to us. Thank you.

Yours for The Legion;
Joseph M. Charland
Commander

Auxiliary: I would like to start by saying "We made our 100% in membership." That's not to say that we wouldn't appreciate it if all our members renewed.
We would like to welcome our new members to the Sr & Jr Auxiliary. Our new Seniors are: Nancy Convertini, Geraldin Ryan, Barbara Reed, Tiffany Love, Susan Wood, Christine Bowers, Leona Beckwith, Edie LaMay, Marlene Russell and Dora Littlejohn. Our new Juniors are: Jocelyn Bowers, Tia Newcombe and Ashleigh Hall.
Our upcoming meetings will be Monday, May 3rd and June 7th at 7:15pm. I hope to see more members at these meetings because we will be doing election of officers. We chose June Tischler, Marilyn Snyder and Peggy Pellegrino to do our slate of officers. I believe most of our present officers will run again. On May 3rd we will take nominations from the floor. At our June meeting we will have the installation of officers.

Our County meetings will be on April 15th at 12:30 in Norwood, May 21st at 12:30 in Ogdensburg and June 17th at 12:30 here at Massena Post #79.

I would like to give a big Thank You to our Auxiliary members who worked the fish fries: Hope Marlow, Peggy Pellegrino, Kathy Furnace, Grace Cashman, Loretta Cortise, Lucille Crawford, Dawn Corliss, Suzie Vatter, Diane St. Thomas and Tina MaComber. Also to our Juniors: Jillian Sickles, Ashleigh Hall and Ashley Parrotte. These ladies did such a great job. We couldn't have asked for a better crew. They worked their tails off. Thank you ladies.

We had a great turn out for our Birthday Dinner. Linda Firnstein, Grace Cashman, Peggy Pellegrino and Jillian Sickles did a great job serving. Pete Firnstein and Bob Page did an awesome job on the Chicken Parmesan. Thank you all.

Last month Marilyn Snyder, Jane Charleston and myself interviewed a couple of girls from Massena High School for Girl State. We chose Kristin Anderson to be our Girl Stater.

It's POPPY time again. I would like to do our poppies May 27, 28 and 29th. I will have a sign-up sheet on the Auxiliary bulletin board with places and times to go. I am hoping for a great turn out. Even our Juniors will be out there helping with poppies. We will have the Juniors out there during Memorial Day so if you missed out you can get your poppy then.
Juniors: Our Juniors have been very busy these last few months. They made 45 cute heart butterfly valentines for our veterans at the VA Hospital in Syracuse, along with sending them some popcorn and hot cocoa to enjoy. The juniors also made these same valentines for our veterans here at the Highland Nursing Home were they delivered the valentines and helped serve ice cream and cake to the residents there. We had a great time. After the Highland we took valentines to the St. Regis Nursing Home veterans. We are proud of you Juniors, keep doing what you do, because you do it so well. Thank you to Ashleigh Hall, Sara Phillips, Kaelyn LaPoint and Jocelyn Bower and to all the girls who helped make valentines.
This month the girls are making Easter eggs for the veterans in the Nursing Homes. We will be delivering them on Good Friday and Saturday. The veterans love when we come to visit.

The Juniors are starting a "Yellow Ribbon Brigade"! We support our troops and we want everyone else to do the same. There are free ribbons at the Post. Please help yourselves. We will also be giving them out during the Memorial Day Parade. Please show your support. We have soldiers coming home from overseas and they need to know that we care and support them. They are making the greatest sacrifice, the least we can do is to wear a yellow ribbon to show our pride for them and our thanks.

Carrie Sickles
Auxiliary President

Sons of The Legion: There are five new members to report of this month: Robert Wallard, Paul Wallard, Bradon Cole, Mike Gleason and James Parrot.

The raffle tickets for the gas grill and coolers have been printed. The tickets will cost $1.00 a piece. The tickets are available at the Post for anyone to buy. If anyone is interested in selling tickets, please let me know and I will mail some to you. There will also be scholarship applications at the Post for eligible members to pick up. Eligible members are: Sons, daughters of Sons, sons of Sons and grandchildren of Sons. Please pick one up and have it returned by May 1st. If anyone is unable to pick up an application at the Post, please let myself or Dick Loffler know and one can be mailed to you.

Thank you to everyone who has helped with the fish fries. The dinners have been a big success . There are a lot of bowling banquets coming up in the next two months. If you are able to work, please let me know.

We will be having our election in May. Please come to our meeting and vote. The Past Commander/Past Presidents dinner is on May 15th. Cocktails are at 5pm and dinner is at 6pm. Letters will be sent out to you if you are receiving an award.
Our next meeting is May 10th at 7pm. The next County meeting is May 8th.

Scott Bolia
Commander

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Legionnaire of the Year Ballot
Voting by Post #79 Members Only!!

Please return these to the ballot box at the bar by May 1st 2004.

I submit the name of:

_________________________

for Legionnaire of the year for Post #79.

Signed:___________________

Ballots received after the May 1st deadline will not be counted.

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