Massena American Legion

From the Commander: I want to thank all the people who worked on the fish fry dinners. With their hard work and efforts they turned out to be a great success. I also want to thank all the wonderful people who came to the dinners. I hope you all enjoyed the meals and didn't go away hungry. Thank you again.

At the May meeting we had our election of officers. The results are listed below:
Commander: Joseph M. Charland
1st Vice: Earl Leatherland
2nd Vice: Glen Nichols
3rd Vice: Clarence Marlow Jr.
Adjutant: Mark Phillips
Treasurer: Bernie Leatherland
Chaplain: Herb Deshaies
Sgt-at-Arms: William Dadey
Service Officer: Verne Drew
Historian: Robert Page
Executive Officers:
Tom MaComber
Rod Charleston
Bob Cowles
Jerry Benware
Brian Bowers
Al Marlow
Cheryl Sharlow
House Committee:
Rod Charleston
Bob Cowles
Bob Page
Wayne Kellogg
Clarence Marlow Jr.

Let us all work together to keep Post #79 operating as well and effective as it has been. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to one of the best commanders we have had leading this post in a long time. Mark Phillips, we thank you. Under you leadership and help of the elected body and membership, we have prospered and grew to a post with over 800 members.
The post is now proud owners of a 16 passenger bus, which is now being painted and you might see it on Memorial Day.
Our sincere thanks go out to the former 40 & 8 locale 699 for donating it to the post.
Speaking of Memorial Day which is on May 26th , our parade will form at Sacred Heart Church parking lot at 10am and the parade will start at 11am. It will go down Main Street turning onto Andrew Street and into Veterans Park. We hope to see as many veterans as possible marching or joining us at the park.

May 10th we held a joint Beauty Pageant with VFW Post #1143 to pick Queens for both of our posts. We had five contestants who signed up for the pageant. They were: Desiree Marie Judware, Brandee Rush, Sara Phillips, Ashley Witty and Ashley Parrotte.
The winners were: American Legion Post #79 Beauty Queen - Ashley Witty; 1st Runner Up - Desiree Marie Judware;
VFW Post #1143 Beauty Queen - Sara Phillips; 1st Runner Up - Brandee Rush.
Congratulations!! We want to thank all the participants. They did a wonderful job.
The post would like to thank Auxiliary President Joanne MaComber and her staff of workers for a job well done at organizing the Pageant. Thanks goes out to Ed Ackerman who spearheaded the whole thing and to the judges who did a wonderful job. Ed Ackerman and Tina MaComber also did all the decorating. Good job. Thank you to outgoing Queen Selina White for the excellent participation during her reign as Queen. Welcome to our new Post Beauty Queen Ashley Witty.

We held our annual Past Commanders/Past Presidents dinner on May 17th. My congratulations to everyone that was awarded Continuous Membership Certificates. The 2003 Legionnaire of the Year that was selected by balloting from the membership for the first time was presented to Mark Phillips. This makes him a two time winner of this award. The Commanders Appreciation Plaque was awarded to Bernie Leatherland and I was presented with an Appreciation Plaque from Past Commander Mark Phillips.

On a final note, as Commander of Post #79, I will do my best to fulfill my obligations. Thank you.
Joseph Charland.

Auxiliary: Our Auxiliary would like to welcome two new Senior members - Deborah Green and Janet Olvern.

We had our election of officers for the year 2003 - 2004. These are the new officers for the year:
President: Carrie Sickles
1st Vice: Hope Marlow
2nd Vice: Jane Charleston
Chaplain: Rita LeBlanc
Treasurer: Marilyn Snyder
Sgt-at-Arms: Suzie Vatter
VAR Chairperson: Suzie Vatter
Historian: Marilyn Snyder
Executive Committee:
Pat Hodge
Nancy Phillips
Linda Firnstein

Installation of the new officers will take place at the June meeting. The new officers will take over after the convention in July.

Auxiliary County meeting for June is on the 19th and will be held in Potsdam. Luncheon will be at 12:30 and the meeting will follow.

The Poppy Drive is May 22, 23, and 24th. Sign-up sheet is on the Auxiliary membership board. Please sign-up if you would like to donate your time.

May 30th is our next Auxiliary dinner. We will be having Baked Ham with Scalloped Potatoes. We will be planning a couple of dinner in June also.

We had a successful Pageant with the VFW and our post on May 10th. Our new Queen is Ashley Witty and 1st runner up is Desiree Marie Judware. New Queen for the VFW is Sara Phillips and 1st runner up is Brandee Rush.

I would like to thank everyone that helped out with the pageant. Special thanks to Ed Ackerman. I want to thank the two escorts - Willie Bero and Tom MaComber. Thanks to Tina MaComber for helping Ed in decorating.

Auxiliary President - Joanne MaComber

Quote: "Memorial Day - a social gathering for some - a day of reckoning for many. A day of somber reflection and respect for the knowing - a day of partying and sales for the ignorant."
Unknown.

Yours for The Legion,
Joseph M. Charland
Commander

Sons of The American Legion: I would like to express my deepest sympathy to the family of Keith Rupert who passed away on April 25th. May he rest in peace. We have no new members to report this month.
I am very proud to say that Dick Loffler, our Past Squadron Commander is the new County Commander. He was voted in at the May 3rd meeting held in Massena. Congratulations Dick.

There are a few events coming up over the summer - May 26th Memorial Day - we are the host post for this event this year and will have a buffet after the ceremonies in the park. If anyone has the time to help out with the buffet, please contact me and let me know. There is also a chicken BBQ on July 4th - we will need help with this also. July 26th is the post picnic - come down and enjoy.

The next 4th District meeting will be June 14th in Lake Placid. Dick is also planning to run for 4th District Commander. It would be great to have some members present to show our support for him. Convention this year is in Syracuse on July 16 - 19th. If you plan to attend, call for information.

The next County meeting will be in Waddington Post 420 on September 14th at 12 noon. The post will have the summer off so there will not be another meeting until the Monday September 8th. If anyone should have any questions, please feel free to contact me anytime at 764-8525. The officers will still be meeting. I would like to wish everyone a safe and enjoyable summer.

Ghost Writer: I'm back!! A special thanks to Sherry Murphy for dropping off a copy of a newsletter from this post that she found while going through her mother's belongings. The 1948 newsletter was called "The Post Bugle" and is dated April 1948, Volume No. 2 Issue No 4. There are different ads throughout the publication. One that sticks out says - Your Legion Club Menu - A La Carte. The following is a listing of the meals served:
T Bone Steak - $1.75
Roast Turkey - $1.00
Roast Beef - $1.00
Roast Pork - $0.90
½ Broiler - $1.00

Throughout the newsletter they give insight into a few of their meetings when a poor meeting had 60 members attend and a good meeting had 97 member attend. Now, a good meeting is when we get 23 members to attend.

The following is a direct quote of an article from the social section of the newsletter:
"Our hats are off to the committee made up of John Harris, Jerry Reagan, Bernie Brooks, George Kellogg, Jack Horan and Walt Smith for a very successful "Gold-diggers Ball". Who could ask for more than an evening of dancing and entertainment, topped off with a fashion show sponsored by Pratts Smart Dress Shop and featuring 21 (count ‘ em) 21 beautiful models in all the latest creations? The did a fine job and after giving each model a picture of herself, taken by our own Bill Bromberg of the Massena Photo Salon, turned over close to fifty bucks to the post. Highlight of the evening - Jack Horan describing a black silk slit skirt.
In the line of social news let us not forget the reception held at the Club, April 10 in honor of the marriage of the former Miss Eleanor Richards to Fred Pollock. We won't say the punch bowl contained an explosive, but they tell us David Lilienthal, head of the Atomic Energy Commission, called George Boyer and asked for the formula. A good time was had by all, we think.

Plans are under way at this writing for a fried chicken dinner and dance Saturday, April 24. By the time you read this it will be history, but if the team of Clarkson and Smith works as scheduled, you had a rare evening.

*I'll try and include an article or two in the next newsletter from the 1948 Post Bugle.

S.A.L. Commander Scott Bolia