The American Legion Post #79
Massena, New York 13662

www.massenaamericanlegion.com
January 2003 Newsletter
E-Mail:  post79@twcny.rr.com

   

Commander: Mark Phillips Aux. President:  Joanne MaComber S.A.L. Commander Scott Bolia

Meetings:  03 February 2003 at 7pm 
for the Executive Board;
7:45pm for the membership.

 County Meeting: 20 February 2003 at 7pm at Norfolk Post #925.

 Taps: "Salute Our Departed Comrades" Joseph Premo, Felicia Pike &
Donald LaShomb

  
From the Commander:   I hope that everyone enjoyed the holidays and are ready to settle in for a few more months of north country winter. For everyone that went south for the winter, if you would like some snow or cold weather send down, just give one of us a call up here and I am sure we would be more than happy to help you out.

The New Years Eve party was again a good success. Thank you to Pete Firnstein and crew for all the hard work. My thanks to Earl Leatherland and Herb Deshaies for manning the committee to arrange the celebration.

We will be holding our annual Appreciation Dinner for the Fire, Rescue and Police here in February. It's the one time a year we get to personally thank the volunteers and professionals in our community for all that they do for us.
The next post function is the Legion's Birthday on March 15th. Joe Charland and Al Marlow are the committee for that and I am sure it will be well attended as usual.
With the usual north country snow and ice here I want to caution everyone entering or leaving the Post about the possibility of falling ice and/or snow. Try not to walk too close to the side of the building just in case.

Fish Fries will be starting on February 28th through Lent. The price is the same as last year at $7.00 per meal. We always have a great turnout at these meals. So if you haven't had the opportunity to come down and enjoy a great meal and conversation with friends you haven't seen in a while, you'll have 8 Friday nights to do so starting on February 28th.

There are still approximately 100 members that have not renewed as of yet. I realize we have obtained our 100% goal for membership, but we want everyone to renew so that they don't miss out on anything. Veterans benefits count on the voting power of posts like ours and voting power comes from the amount of membership you have. Just think of it as helping another veteran that is less fortunate as you.

Auxiliary Juniors
My name is Carrie and I am the
Juniors chairperson. Juniors are our Auxiliary members under the age of 18.
I have spoke to a few members at the post about starting meetings for our Juniors. They thought it was a good idea. I hope you will too. These meetings will give the Junior Auxiliary a chance to learn about the Legion, what we as the Auxiliary do and why we do it. It helps them learn why their parents and/or grandparents are our heroes.

It gives them a chance to help out our Post and our community. Our Junior Auxiliary may be small, but they too can do big things.

I would like to invite you and your daughter under the age of 18 to an introduction meeting. If you would like to sign your daughter up as a Junior Auxiliary member the cost is only $4.00 per year.
If you have a son, the sons are always looking for new faces (we hope to work with the sons on projects also).  To sign up for this first meeting, please call the Legion at 769-6819 or call me at home at 764-0469. There will also be a sign-up sheet at the post.

The meeting date will be set for February 2003. It will be announced in our next newsletter, on the radio (WMSA) and on TV (Channel 30).  I am hoping for a good response. We will try our best at the Post to make this a fun and great learning experience for our Junior Auxiliary.

Thank You - Carrie Sickles


   
   

Auxiliary:  I want to apologize because I didn't get anything in the last newsletter. I hope that everyone had a nice holiday. I want to thank the girls that went to the mall and did the bell ringing for the Salvation Army on November 21st, 2002.
I also want to thank Tina MaComber and Sue Vatter for a good good they did for the Children's Christmas Party. I would like to thank the other helpers too.

We didn't get a chance to do the Christmas cards. When I went down to talk to the activities chairperson she said there weren't any days open for this project. She will keep us in mind for next year. I appreciate the cards and we will do this next year.

Any AUXILIARY member that hasn't paid their dues for 2003 will be delinquent and you won't be able to use you key card for the back door. We are trying to get 100% membership before the end of the year 2002.

I would like to thank Auxiliary members Tina, Sue Vatter, Dawn Corliss, Sharon Marsh and Marilyn Snyder for doing the Christmas gifts for 23 veterans in the two nursing homes.

The next Auxiliary County meeting is in Massena. Luncheon is at 12:30 and the meeting will follow immediately after the luncheon.

Thank you also to Linda Firnstein, Tina MaComber, Diane Furnace, Carrie Sickles, Jill Sickles and Dawn Corliss for a job well done for the New Years Eve dinner.
It was brought to my attention that we will need to hold a beauty queen contest this year. When I was at my VFW meeting the Auxiliary President asked why we can't combine the organizations and have all three pageants at the same time. Although Amvets President said she has to have their own because they have a special guest coming to theirs. Maybe the VFW and ourselves could have theirs at the same time. We need a lot of input to this and help to set this up. I have a couple of past Queens that want to help. We will need to hold some meetings to organize and get this going. If there is anyone that wants to help you can call Joanne at 769-8223 or leave your name and phone number at the bar.

Auxiliary donations from June 02 - Dec 31 2002:
In memory of 3 deceased Auxiliary members: $75.00
In memory of two deceased members husbands: $50.00
Flowers for 11 sick members: $46.00
MDA donation: $50.00
Post Children's Halloween Party:
$115.00
Post Children's Christmas Party:
$230.00
Sponsor Aux. Bowling Team: $30.00
County VA&R for vets: $25.00
Dept. Aux. Emergency Fund: $23.00
Alzheimer Memory Walk: $100.00
Meals on Wheels Telethon: $25.00
Salvation Army $250.00
St. Vincent DePaul's $250.00
VFW Memory Tree $25.00
Gifts for 39 veterans and 1 Auxiliary in 2 nursing homes for Christmas $476.00
Total: $1770.30

Welcome to new members: Christine Abrante, Dawna Stewart, Susan Carr and Jean Jeffrey. We need 20 members to renew for the Auxiliary to reach 100% of our goal of 236 members.

Joanne MaComber
President

Children's Christmas Party - The children's Christmas party went very well this year. I would like to say thank you to all the people who helped me this year.
Thank you to:  Tina MaComber, Pat Hodge, Sharon and Fred Marsh, Carrie and Jill Sickles, Jason Monroe, Sara Phillips, Virginia Charland, Donna Stewart, Sharon LaPrade, Betty Pelligreeno, Lil Loffler, Doreen, Dave and Perry's Ice Cream, Joanne and Earl Leatherland.
A special thank you to Mark Phillips and Herbie Deshaies for a wonderful job done.
Also thank you to The American Legion Post #79, the Son's of The American Legion Squadron #79 and the Auxiliary Unit #79 for making the party possible.

Chairperson
Suzie Vatter

 

 


  

Sons of The American Legion:  I would like to send a special welcome to our newest member, Anthony Scott Bolia, my son! Anthony was born on January 7, 2003 at 3:36pm. He weighed 7lbs 13.4oz and was 20 inches long.

We had the annual Christmas party for the veterans of the Highland Nursing Home. They all stated "what a wonderful time they had." Santa (Herbie) and his helper Deonna Bero came to visit and they passed out presents to all who were there. After the party I was able to help unload the Salvation Army truck for their annual Christmas Store.

2003 dues are now past due. If you haven't already tried, your key card no longer works in the door. So let's pay your dues, they are only $10.00.

Once again I would like to send a special thank you to anyone who sold or bought tickets for the December lottery. It was a great success. It is fund-raisers like this that make it possible for the Son's to donate to local organizations.

The annual Fish Fries will start February 28th. They will run for 8 weeks and the Sons have been given permission to sell 50/50 tickets during the 1st five dinners. Please come and support this fund-raiser for the Son's and The Legion.  We could also use a lot of volunteers for these dinners. We need help in the kitchen and on the floor. Remember the post serves around 300 plus meals each Friday during the fish fries. If you are unable to come and volunteer, at least come and taste the delicious fish dinner.

Our next meeting is going to be February 10th at 7pm at the post.

Scott Bolia
Commander of the Sons


Yours for The Legion;
Mark S. Phillips
Commander