From
the Commander: We
held our June meeting at the Highland Nursing Home. A very nice turnout
of our membership was there along with our members that are residents at
the Highland Nursing Home. We had a chance to talk to the residents
after the meeting when Bev Bolster and the residents provided soft
drinks and cookies to us. The residents enjoyed the meeting and are
looking forward to the next time we are able to hold one there. They
thanked us for going there so that they could participate. Thanks to all
the members that attended.
The Lancers Marching Unit participated in four parades - Hogansburg,
Memorial Day, Cape Vincent an the Heritage Day Parade. They marched and
looked very good, and as always they represented our Post with great
behavior and appearance. Thank you Lancers.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Scott Bolia and the Sons
of The Legion, the Auxiliary and Legion members that showed up on work
day to clean up the driveway and parking lot. Nice job.
Thanks also goes out to Bob Page, Bob Cowles and Bernie Leatherland for
cleaning up the tree that fell on the lawn, cutting down the others and
piling all the brush. Good work gentlemen. If you enjoy the looks of the
flowers around the post like I do, make sure and thank Cal Kinney when
you see him, he did all the planting. Thanks Cal.
While I am in the thanking mode, I would like to say thank you to the
Sons of The Legion, the Auxiliary and the Lancers for the 4 new tires
they purchased for the Post bus. We now have new rubber all around.
Speaking of the Post bus, the great paint job you see on it is due to
the hard work and expert knowledge of Chad White, 3084 County Route 345,
Madrid, NY 13660 - Phone (315)322-0025. If you need any vehicles fixed
and painted, I highly recommend him. Thanks Chad.
Since this is our last newsletter until September, I want to
point out the upcoming events at the post for the summer. On July 4th,
we have our annual Chicken BBQ with all the trimmings starting at noon
and going until we run out of chicken. Price is $6.50 per meal.
July 26th is our annual Post Picnic. Hamburgers, hotdogs, sausages. It
starts at noon and goes until 5pm. If you feel like bringing something
to share, feel free to do so.
Federals Baseball has started. The schedule is posted on the bulletin
board at the post or you can visit us online @
www.massenaamericanlegion.com and access the schedule there. If you
listen to WMSA Radio they also have the schedule there. They have 28
games to play by the first week in August.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and
enjoyable summer.
Don't get too busy and forget to stop in and see us at the Post and
enjoy the picnic and all the other functions.
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Jr.
Auxiliary:
I would like to start by saying that our Juniors did a great job
marching in the Memorial Day Parade. They carried banners they
made themselves and handed out 300 yellow ribbons (which they
helped make), asking people to please support our troops. Our
Juniors also raised $79.00 on poppies that day in the park. I
could not be more proud of our Juniors. Like I said before, when
we started the meetings, "They may be small, but they can
do big and great things, because these girls have big
hearts".
I would also like to thank the Post for their $300.00 donation
to our Juniors. We used some of the money for our craft supplies
which we need to make our banners and yellow ribbons.
June 9th 2003 was our last Juniors meeting until September 8,
2003 at the post at 6:30PM. We will have projects this summer. I
will call the Juniors early enough before each project.
September 19th 2003 will be our first dinner after the summer
break. Have a great summer!
Carrie Sickles - Chairperson
From the Past: In last month's newsletter, I gave you a
sampling from a post newsletter from April 1948 that was given
to me by Sherry Murphy. Here is another excerpt from the same
newsletter "The Post Bugle" , the section is titled
"History of Massena Post #79:
Massena Post #79, American Legion, owes its inception as do most
of the other post of St. Lawrence County, to the efforts of Dr.
Grant C. Madill, famed surgeon of the A. Barton Hepburn hospital
in Ogdensburg. Dr. Madill died a number of years ago.
Due to Dr. Madill's interest in the general improvement of
mankind, he foresaw the need of some organization to
rehabilitate soldiers returning from war, training camps and
hospitals. These men needed some method of adjusting themselves
to a normal civilian life after having been exposed to nature in
the raw. Their sense of values had been changed.
Dr. C. E. Elkins of Massena having been in close contact with
Dr. Madill was called upon to organize a meeting of Massena
veterans. Accordingly, he issued a call for all veterans
interested in the formation of such an organization to report to
the Massena Police Station July 25, 1919. Twenty-nine men
responded. All men who saw service during the World War and had
an honorable discharge were eligible to participate.
At the organization meeting of the post the following were
elected as officers: Commander (then designated as president)
F.A.W. Davis; 1st Vice - Dr. C. E. Elkins; 2nd Vice - John W.
Whalen;
3rd Vice - Dennis P. Amo; Adjutant - (Called Secretary) Thomas
S. Bushnell; Treasurer - Clement J. Ward.
The first executive committee, also selected at this time,
consisted of T.T. Sullivan, C. W. Fleming, D. Griffiths, Dr. R.
F. MacAloon, E. J. Appel, A. B. Whalen and Formos Degre.
Dr. Elkins was elected as delegate and Mr. Bushnell as alternate
to the first county convention held in Ogdensburg on August 25,
1919. Mr. Bushnell represented Post #79 at this initial
convention as Dr. Elkins was unable to attend.
The official name of the post "Massena Post 79, American
Legion" was selected August 8, 1920, by a committee of
three, composed of William Forsythe, E. F. Berry and D. C.
McCormick.
In the year 1921 the post took charge of the Memorial Day
exercises. This was at the request of the rapidly weakening
Hiram Anderson G. A. R. post. This G. A. R. post later donated
the furniture and some if their belongings to the American
Legion before they passed out of existence, requesting the
Legion to "carry on". The Legion has endeavored to
live up to this trust.
The first county convention to be held in Massena took place
February 28, 1922, with Dr. R. F. MacAloon as chairman.
The Rev. J. M. Bellamy was elected as first delegate, from the
Massena Post to the state convention August 6, 1923. This was
held at Saratoga.
William Hanifee was the first member of the Post to die (1923.
In 1925 Mr. Bushnell was elected county commander and the Rev.
J. M. Bellamy was made a member of the state welfare committee.
Besides Mr. Bushnell, four other members of Post 79 have served
as county commanders: Earl J. Mattis, Abe Cohen, Harold
Ratcliffe and Amedeo Cappione.
A distinguished honor was twice bestowed on Post 79 when Thomas
Bushnell and Harold Ratcliffe were elected fourth district
commanders of the American Legion at the State convention. The
fourth district includes 11 counties: St. Lawrence, Franklin,
Essex, Clinton, Warren, Washington, Saratoga, Schenectady,
Fulton, Montgomery and Hamilton.
Only five members of the post have been elected to serve as
commander for more than one term. Thomas S. Bushnell was elected
as commander for five years and served in this office for four,
resigning as required by Legion law when he was elected as Mayor
of Massena in 1929. Mr. amo succeeded to the office from vice
commander and was elected to commander in his own right in 1930.
Abe Cohen was elected to succeed himself in 1935 and 1936.
Bernard Tyo served as commander in 1927 and 1942. A. Cappione
was elected to succeed himself in 1945 and 1946, resigning
before completing his 1946 term. The commanders have been
as follows: 1919 F. A. W. Davis; 1920 - 24 Thomas S. Bushnell;
1924 John W. Whalen; 1925 Thomas T. Sullivan; 1926 Glenn E.
Barbour; 1927 Bernard M. Tyo; 1928 Bernard J. Cummings; 1929
Thomas S. Bushnell; 1930 Dennis P. Amo; 1931 Earl J. Mattis;
1932 Hubert H. Stark; 1933 Joseph M. Reynolds; 1934 John Gibson;
1935-36 Abe Cohen; 1937 Henry C. White; 1938 Harold D. Ratcliffe;
1939 Reginald E. Peters; 1940 Clement J. Ward; 1941 E. Benjamin
Fassel; 1942 Bernard M. Tyo; 1943 Walter P. Dederick; 1944
Claude Kezer; 1945 A. Cappione; 1946 Ralph Montondo; 1947 George
Vryland; 1948 Hubert Perkins.
Note: Compiled by Jack P. Doyle, Historian
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Sons of The American Legion: There are no new
members to report of this month. The 2003 High School Scholarship was
awarded to Kevin Hand. Congratulations Kevin.
The Son of the Year that was voted on by the membership has been awarded
to Tim Curran at this years Past Commanders dinner. He was well
deserving of this award.
At our last meeting we had elections of new officers for 2003 - 2004.
They are as follows:
Commander - Scott Bolia
1st Vice - Mike Bolia
2nd Vice - Terry Peets
3rd Vice - George Brouse
Adjutant - Dick Loffler
Chaplain - Ed Crawford
Sgt-at-Arms - Tim Curran
Historian - Roy (Slim) Besaw
I would like to thank Tim Curran, Slim Besaw, Joe and Virginia Charland,
Steve Corliss and myself for taking the time to clean the post parking
lot. It was a job well done. I would like to congratulate Dick Loffler
who is now the 4th District Commander for 2003 - 2004. The convention
this year is in Syracuse on July 17 - 19. Some of the coming events for
this summer are: Chicken BBQ on July 4th and the Post picnic on July
26th. Come down and enjoy.
We will not be having any meetings over the summer. If you should have
any questions, please feel free to contact me at (315) 764-8525. I will
be meeting with the new officers over the summer. The next County
meeting will be in Waddington Post #420 on September 14th at 12:00 noon.
Our next meeting will be September 8th at 7pm. If you are able to help
at any of the Post functions, give Dick Loffler or myself a call. I
would like to wish everyone a safe and enjoyable summer.
Quote: "Times have changed, our number 1 rapper is white, our
number 1 golfer is black and Germany refused to go to war".
Martin Mull
Yours for The Legion;
Joseph C. Charland
Commander
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