Commander's
Message
To All Members, As we approach April, I
would like to thank each organization for their commitment
to Post 318. We have received numerous praises from our
District, as one of the Districts leading Post. It is
through hard work that make Post 318 what it is today.
In March we held our Open House for individuals that were
members of the State's 400 classification, meaning they did
not belong to any individual Post. Frank Howard, our 1st
Vice, sent out 200 cards inviting those individuals, that
live in our areas, to visit our Post and consider joining.
We had a great response and picked up 15 new members just
from the mailing. I would like to welcome all new members to
our Post. Thanks Frank for a job well done.
At our last General Meeting we recognized 4 of our members who have
been members of the American Legion for 50 years plus. We
recognized George Lippi, 50 years; Walter K. Shulack, 50
years; Samuel Dransfield, 50 years; and Daniel J. McKillop,
60 years. Now there's dedication and proud members. In May,
at our General Legion Meeting, the list of candidates for
Officers for the upcoming year, for Post 318 will be read.
It will be at that time, that nominations will be taken from
the floor. I ask any member who wishes to run for any office
to please contact Dan Ferraro, Jack McCarthy, or Brian
Pierson who head up Post 318's Nominating Committee.
In March, we had our Quarterly Post Clean-up. I want to thank all
volunteers for showing up and cleaning the necessary areas
of the Post, to keep the proud appearance that we have. I
would like to thank Joe Manzo, Cliff Godar, Toni Thompson,
Fred & Laura Mastermaker, Bill Wilmot, John Kearns, Babe
Garneau, Kim Bowie, and Andrea Pierson for their hard work
and dedication to the Post. We will be having another Post
clean-up in June. I hope to see more members there. I would
like to announce that April's Member-of-the-Month is Jan
Zeunick. Jan has been a very loyal volunteer on all our Wed.
Night Dinners, Steak Nights, and numerous Post functions.
It's members like Jan that bring members back to our Post
for those nights. Thank you Jan.
Commander
Daryl Bowie
1st
Vice-Commander
Although renewals have slowed down somewhat, we continue
to get new members and transfers-in. Since January 1, 2007,
we have had 24 new members and 17 transfers-in, with 0
transfers-out. Our open house for Post 400 members on March
10, 2007 netted 13 transfers-in.
I was comparing our membership total for the year 2003/2004 and found
that that year we had a total of 669 paid members. This
year, 2006/2007 our paid membership total is 844 (counting
paid transfers-in). Like the rest of Port Saint Lucie, Our
Post has grown significantly.
This year, our Post will have its' annual fund-raiser at Traditions Field
in September. This fund-raiser will be called "Vets Fest"
and will take place on September 22, 2007. More information
will be forthcoming in future issues of this newsletter.
Again, thanks for your support.
Frank Howard, 1st Vice-Commander
Chaplain's Corner
POST EVERLASTING
John L. O'Niel 2-14-07, Randolph Carlson 2-19-07 and
John M. Miller 2-22-07
Our sincere sympathy is extended to the family and friends
of our departed comrade who now enjoy eternal peace.
NEED PRAYERS FOR THE FOLLOWING MEMBERS:
Donald Baldwin, Edgar Dungee, Dale Hollopeter, Randy Hunter,
Bob Krajewski and Bill Yager
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: The most significant
decision you can make on a day to day basis is the choice of
your attitude.
If you know any member sick or in Distress
PLEASE call:
JOHN F.H. HAGER, Chaplain Post 318,
879-7095
MATTIE KELLY, Aux. Chaplain Unit 318 879-7095
American Legion Post 318
Honor/color
guard
We were very busy again in
February. We had 2 planning sessions, 4 practice sessions, 1
funeral and 4 ceremonies. All of those combined, caused us
to put in 122 man hourand put 174 miles on our various
automobiles. One of the ceremonies was a visit we made to
the VA Hospital in West Palm Beach in conjunction with the
Fort Pierce Elks. We posted and then retrieved the following
colors: American, Legion, POW/MIA, Army, Navy, Air Force,
Coast Guard and Marine Flags. After we posted the colors,
the Elks put on a show for about 1 hour and a half. During
that time, all nine of the Color Guard peeled off and
visited our veterans who could not make the show. We
presented them with a nice card, which stated how much we
appreciated the sacrifices they made for our country. Along
with the card was an American Flag which they could pin on.
It was wonderful and very touching.
Conrad Tutela, Sergeant-At-Arms
Legion
riders
It's always a little
strange writing about something before it has happened, but
has happened by the time this newsletter is published. But
our Legion Rider annual Casino Night will be huge success.
It's on March 23rd. But I can tell you about 2 important
events coming up. The first is the annual Vietnam Veterans
four day event held in Melbourne at the end of April. There
is a flyer at the Post about it. Hope to see you there. The
second event is a fund raiser on May 19th. This is such a
good cause. There is an organization called HOMES FOR
TROOPS. There mission is building homes for troops that were
severely wounded in the war on terrorism. They are building
a house in Melbourne for an Army veteran and his family. I
will be passing out information at the Post concerning this.
There will be a poker run starting at three different locations. The
southern run will start at our Post. Come out and support
this worthy cause. In closing, I recently accepted a
position on the Advisory Board for the Salvation Army. I
consider this a great honor for me as well as all the caring
people at Post 318.
Jim Burk, Commander Legion Rider
TEXAS
HOLD EM' TOURNAMENT
Will be held on Thursday, April 5 at 7pm. All of the following are monthly
winners, beginning in April 06 thru March 07 and are invited
to play in this Championship: Bob Booth, Tom Durant, Ron
Hudy, Piaka, Sally Booth, Gary Schmidtt, Sue Munyan, Jim
Lafferty, Carolann Goslee, Vince Crovetti, and the winner of
the March tournament which we don't have as of this article.
All of the players will be sitting at the same table. We
will have a dealer and will be playing high and low blinds,
with them going up every 1/2 hour. There is no ante or will
there be any buy-ins. Each player will be given $2,000 in
chips, and the one who ends up with all of the chips will
receive $600 donated by the Post. We want you to come and
cheer for your favorite player. We will also have reasons
for you to do more than cheer, but to get involved in a
special and fun way.
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Auxiliary
President's message
Greetings and Salutations:
The American Legion Auxiliary's program of work for
Americanism includes activities that perpetuate our nation's
ideals and upholds the principals of our democracy. The
security of our nation lies in the citizens whose mind and
hearts generate a love for those ideals and principles. Our
work with Americanism is based on education in character and
can be categorizes in three parts; work with the youth, work
with our adults and work within our communities. It can also
be defined as the unfailing love of country, loyalty to our
ideals, a desire to defend it against our enemies, an
allegiance to our flag and a true desire to maintain our
blessings.
Rita Woodburn who spearheaded the program presented a
certificate to a representative from Webb Chiropractic
Clinic PA. The Auxiliary honored over 33 businesses
throughout St. Lucie County for displaying the American Flag
with proper respect. What a wonderful event it was! Each
business was awarded a certificate of appreciation from the
Auxiliary, and The American Legion Honor Guard was on Hand
to witness and honor those businesses. Jill Moroziuk sang a
few patriotic songs for the group and refreshments were
served. Thanks to all the Auxiliary members who stayed after
the regular meeting to partake in the ceremonies.
Congratulations to Rita Woodburn for her wonderful work in
planning this program.
The elections will take place at the meeting on April 21st. Please come
to the meeting and place your vote!! Don't forget the May
20th Golf Tournament headed by Mo Aitken. Show her you
support! Always a Pleasure, Sunny Lavallee
ALWAYS A PLEASURE
SUNNY LAVALLEE, PRESIDENT
Son's -
American Legion
Hello Post 318,
March was another good month for the SAL. We raised over $1,000.00 from
our 50/50 raffles and our television raffle, which was won
by Joe Lucie. Congratulations! I Would like to thank
everyone who bought a raffle ticket. Proceeds from the
raffle will go to disabled veterans in our area.
We had a great turn out at our meeting. We approved donations for a
scholarship, laptop computer for our veterans and drug
awareness for children. We had guest from Special Olympics
come to our meeting and present us with a certificate of
appreciation for the Christmas party that we had in
December. They were so thankful! We told them we would do it
again this coming Christmas. Our next SAL meeting will be
Monday, April 9th. at 7pm
Our Wednesday night dinner went over well, we served 100 dinners. I want
to thank all the volunteers who helped out. Great job. Our
next dinner will be April 11th.
PLEASE CHECK YOUR MEMBERSHIP CARD,
MAKE SURE YOUR DUES ARE PAID.
Andy Saffioti, S.A.L. Commander
FIFTH
ANNUAL GOLF TOURNAMENT
Mark your calendars for the Auxiliary's Fifth Annual Golf Tournament to be
held on Sunday, May 20, 2007 at Gator Trace Golf Club.
Registration begins at 7:00 AM with an 8:30AM Shotgun Start.
Coffee, donuts and orange juice will be served during
registration.
Last year's tournament was a great success on and off the
course. Everyone who participated had a great time and we
were able to raise a lot of money for our veterans and other
local charitable causes. We look forward to making this
year's event even bigger and better so that we can continue
helping those in need.
At this year's tournament we will once again feature a
putting contest, Texas Hold-Em, prizes for the longest drive
and closest to the pin. For those wishing to purchase a
commemorative photo of the event, a photographer will be on
hand to take pictures for a nominal fee. After the
tournament, a luncheon will be held back at Post 318. We
received a favorable response to last year's menu, so we
will again be including some of your favorites such as
sausage and peppers, meatballs, potato salad, etc.
The sign-up sheet is posted on the bulletin board at the
Post. Please sign up as soon as possible as there are only a
limited number of foursomes available. The cost for this
year's tournament is $50.00 per person and payment will be
due no later than two weeks prior to the event. Checks
should be made to the American Legion Auxiliary, Unit 318.
Anyone wishing to sponsor a hole for $100.00 or make a gift
donation should contact Maureen Aitken, Golf Committee
Chairwoman at 772-879-4859.
Thank you for your support and generosity and we look
forward to seeing you at the Tournament.
AMERICANISM
I, along with Walter Sawyer of the Florida Guard have been going
into schools teaching students about the American Flag, its
history and showing the proper way of folding the flag. Our
last task was at Moose Lodge 513 in Port St. Lucie, showing
the Boy Scout Troop #402 how to fold the flag. We had
questions and answers about the flag and Jeremy Johnson
answered almost all of the questions we asked. Jeremy was
very knowledgeable about the flag...for his age. We handed
each boyscout a small flag along with a pamphlet about the
Flag of the United States, how to display and respect it.
Rita Woodburn, Auxiliary Sgt-At-Arms
AMERICAN LEGION POST 318,
GOLF LEAGUE
Every golfer
who would like to play in our Wednesday, SUMMER LEAGUE,
beginning in May, please be at the Post on Sunday, April 1st
at 2pm. We will set up our league and go over the rules for
the new season. There is also a sign up sheet on the
bulletin board at the Post. Ralph Plangeman who has done a
yeoman job for many years will retire and hand over the
reins to Dick Boulette.
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At American Legion Post 318
Good Friends, Good Cheer! |
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