|
Commander's Corner
|
Commander's Message #3, 9 April 2010
Here it is almost spring (We Hope) and the holidays are over. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season full of joy and happiness. As this is coming out, don’t forget we are holding our annual Lenten Fish Fries every Friday until April 2nd. If you are able to help, please come on by. If you can’t, then stop by and buy some delicious fish dinners. As usual, there are a lot of activities planned for the next few months, so take a look at the schedule of events and mark the dates on your calendars.
I have enjoyed being the commander this year, and as you know, we will be accepting nominations for post officers at the March meeting, so if you or someone you know are interested in holding office for the upcoming year, please let us know. Even if you are not interested, show up at the meetings to let your voice be heard and vote for the candidates of your choice.
In March we will hold our annual Night at the races, which is always a lot of fun, so plan to attend. As usual, we will have Corned Beef and Cabbage for your enjoyment. Also in March we will be holding a membership drive to try to get the post up to the 100% mark and make us eligible for All-State status again, so if you know of any vets that are eligible to join, please have them come by and sign up.
Don’t forget our “Buddy Poppy Drive” to be held on May 14, 15 & 16th at both Schnucks stores and at Dierbergs. Please come in and sign up for a shift (or whatever you can volunteer for). We need lots of people to help collect, as we have 5 shifts at each location each day. Remember this is the single largest collection for our relief fund.
Again, thank all of you for serving, and thank all of you who have volunteered.
Carl Crawford
Post 5077 Commander
|
Commander's Message #2 - 2 November 2009
As we approach the holiday season, please reflect on what it means to you and your loved ones. Though each of us may have different beliefs, one thing that we all have in common is the love of our country and the respect for our fellow veterans who fought for it. This has been a busy few months, with lots of activities taking place. I want to personally thank all those who took time out of their schedule to help us with our projects, whether they were weekly or annual events.
I have learned a lot during this time, and hope to learn much more about the history and the operation of our post. We have a dedicated group of members who are doing all they can to keep our post running properly. These members have been holding the post together and keeping us going in the right direction. Many of these members as they get older are unable to help out as much as they have in the past. I would call on those members who are a little younger and who have some spare time to pick up the banner, so to speak, and help out where and when you can.
As many of you are aware, the post is trying to enlist new members to fill our quickly-depleting ranks. In an effort to do this, we are holding a veteran service fair on November 21st at 11:00 at the post. Lyle McPherson is the point of contact for this effort. If you know any veterans (young or old) who is eligible, but has not joined the VFW, please ask them to attend. Our veteran service officer Dennis Flynn will be there to answer any questions about VA claims, or VA benefits.
Coming up in the next few months, we will have our 2nd annual Trivia Night at the post on Nov 7th, then the various Veterans Day celebrations on Nov 10th and 11th, the Veterans service fair on Nov 21st, the O’Fallon Pearl Harbor Ceremony on Dec 6th, Christmas of course, on Dec 25th, and New Years eve.
One of my goals has been to make the post club room more family friendly, and we have taken several steps to achieve that. We now have the wi-fi access for those with laptops, we have an X-Box 360, and a Wii game system (donated by Jack Reilly), and a dvd player (donated by Ed & Melody Roebuck). The pool table is now cleared off and able to be played on. Thanks to the SeaBees, our wall in the club room has been replaced, and our painting crew has rejuvenated the club room. We now have a club room that we can all enjoy and be proud of. I want to encourage everyone to come in and see what changes have been made to your club room.
As always, we ask for your prayers for those who are sick, and for the families of those who have passed on. Please keep in mind what our mission is: “To Honor The Dead By Helping The Living”.
For those of who have not had the opportunity to go on the National Children’s Home trip, let me encourage you to do so. The facilities are amazing as well as the work that this organization does. The trip is a lot of fun, and everyone is very friendly.
Carl Crawford
Cmdr, Post 5077
|
Commander's Message #1 - August 2009
First of all, I would like to thank all of the members of the post for having the confidence in me to elect me Commander for 2009-2010. I and my officers have a tough act to follow since Kevin Speis and his officers achieved both All-State And All-American status for our post (for the 1st time ever), but we will do our very best to continue the tradition of excellence enjoyed by our post.
I would also like to thank the Auxiliary for all their help and support – we wouldn’t be able to make it without them
June and July have been busy, and the next few months will also have a lot going on. We are looking forward to our chicken fry on 4 September, and our Family Picnic on 12 September. In October we are sponsoring a “Texas Hold-Em” tournament on 3 October and the National Home Trip is 23-25 October.
I am pleasantly surprised at the turnout at our last few meetings. I want to thank all who took the time to attend and contribute their thoughts. One word of caution – what happens in our meetings is privileged information. It is not to be shared with non-members. We all took an oath not to divulge this information when we were sworn in.
For those who were not at the meeting, we have a new bar manager – Ron Brunson. We would like to thank our out-going bar manager Mike Stroer for his service.
I would like to close by saying that our biggest problem (as well as the entire VFWs) is recruiting and keeping our younger veterans. Sr. Vice Commander Lyle McPherson has some ideas on how we can attract and keep our younger veterans and will make this his primary objective. One of the things that we will have to do is modernize our thinking processes as well as our facility. Change is never easy, but we will need some changes to increase our membership, which has been steadily falling.
Once again, thank you to all those who have volunteered their time and energy to help the post. Despite heavy rains, 23 men and women marched the entire length of the July 4th parade, thus demonstrating not only that our veterans and their loved ones will do anything to defend this country that we love, but also will endure hardships to show their patriotism.
Carl Crawford
|
Archived Commander's Comments
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Veterans of Foreign Wars
of the United States of America
VFW Post 5077
P.O. Box 126
O'Fallon
, MO
63366
636-272-1945
|
Copyright ©2006 - 2010; All Rights Reserved
|
|
|
 |
