| Post #1009 News Past Entries |
03/14/08 Our March meeting had a good turnout and a relaxed feel to it. We updated everyone on the early start on planning the Westchester County 2008 American Legion Convention which our Post will host on June 7th. We may have a donation from COMMERCE BANK in Shrub Oak to help alleviate the expense of the Convention on our Post. Bob Dagnino and Patrick McDonough, our Convention Chairmen, will report back monthly from now on with the menu and other plans. Keep June 7th open to lend a hand either setting up, during the Convention, or breaking down and clean- up afterward. If everyone helps it will be easier on everyone. Our membership report has us at 117 paid members with 12 still outstanding to have 100% renewal. If you are one of the members outstanding, please show your support and contact us now to settle your membership questions. I apologize to all of our new members joining the Post over the last few months. It is our wish to welcome everyone aboard Post #1009 both here and in our new e- mail newsletter, the 'Yorktown e-Legion'. We do appreciate your membership and service and want everyone to know who you are! I wish to recognize all of our new members and welcome you into our family and hope to see you at our meetings and functions. WELCOME ABOARD POST #1009 Leo P. Dobrosky Winfred H. Lollar Robert Handelman William J. Bertram Eugene Genovese Anthony R. Russo Michael Zawiski Frank Galella James Cronin Daniel Denisco Our Mother's Day Brunch is set for Sunday, April 27, 2008 at 1pm at the Post. Things are being done differently this year than in the past. The cost for the Brunch is $5 per person until our April 10th meeting, then the price doubles to $10 per person. We need to know early whether you are coming or not. We need to order food and supplies beforehand to have enough for everyone. Reservations and PAYMENT are needed by April 10th, or else we may think no one is coming and the event will be cancelled. Please let us know if you will be attending! We need your help! This Memorial Day Weekend we will be collecting donations and handing out traditional red poppies to commemorate the true meaning of Memorial Day. We will be doing this collection only on Saturday, May 24 from 9am to 3pm at the Yorktown A&P and the Shrub Oak A&P. The donations are used to fund our local programs like the Boy Scouts, the Memorial and Veterans Day parades, and other County events. Could everyone spare two hours to remind the public that thousands of veterans never returned home from America's conflicts? Please call 1st Vice Commander Al Laughlin(914-528-6221), or Patrick McDonough(914-953-6807) to volunteer. Commander Ken Blish informed us that the Post is purchasing American-made Post #1009 baseball caps and that the Post will have them available for anyone to purchase. It shows who we are and advertises at the same time. Please think about picking one up for the warm weather season. Election of Post Officers is quickly approaching. We need new voices and everyone's help in keeping our Post going in the right direction. Contact us if you are interested in serving on the Post's Executive Committee or in another capacity. We will have nominations from the floor at the April 10th meeting, please try to attend to have your say in the path we take. Let us know if anyone is interested in a Post BBQ sometime in August to keep in touch over the off season. We can make it a family affair and kids and grand kids can attend. This way Erin and Kevin McDonough won't be the only kids there. They love coming to the Post events. Please keep in your thoughts and prayers our members who are ill especially; Past-Commander Tom Reilly, Past-Commander Tony Raccioppi, Mrs Arthur Bortz, and Anne Samoylo. See you at the April 10th meeting. 02/20/08 The February meeting fell on Valentine's Day which limited the turnout of members. Everyone's family takes first priority in their lives and it should be that way. A suggestion was made to have a St Patrick's dinner with the date of 3/14/08 as the date. A few members present were agreeable to the suggestion and we decided to have a one week RSVP period to see if enough people would attend to make it worthwhile. Unfortunately after the week to RSVP only 5 people were planning on attending. Therefore the dinner was cancelled. The Post was invited to march in the White Plains St Patrick's Day parade which is on March 8th. The small turnout at the meeting had only 4 members available to march that day. We agreed to wait one week to see if anyone else expressed interest in marching. When the week ended we didn't have enough members to have a color guard and a banner team so we declined the parade invitation. We hope that we will be invited again next year. Hopefully we can get a large enough contingent to commit to marching to look good for the crowds next year. The Memorial Day Poppy hand out program might be changed this year. Every year we share the Jefferson Valley Mall with other Veteran's organizations collecting for their programs. This year we might move to the local supermarkets to do face to face collection where the public can see and talk to us. We had a marvelous response when we did this collecting food for the Food Pantry at the Montrose VA hospital. Stay tuned for our final plan for this event. Commander Blish updated everyone on Post baseball caps. We will purchase American-made caps which means we will have to purchase them in bulk. The caps will be $15 each and we'll let everyone know when they arrive. Buy one for yourself and one to give to a friend. The Post benefits with the advertising when everyone wears them. Patrick McDonough informed everyone that a new issue of the Post's newsletter, the 'Yorktown e-Legion' was sent out via e-mail. This issue will be printed and mailed out to the entire Post membership with the mailing of the Post's Memorial Day raffle tickets. Any members wishing to receive the newsletter should send an e-mail to the post at post1009@nylegion1009.org requesting the free newsletter. We welcomed aboard Frank Gallela, a new member to the Post. Hope to see you again Frank. We remembered those who are on the Sick Call including Tom Reilly, Tony Raccioppi, Arthur Bortz's wife, and Anne Samoylo. Our wishes for speedy recoveries. See you all March 13 at the next meeting 01/16/08 Quite a bit of business was accomplished at the January General Membership Meeting. County Commander Rich Calbo made a presentation to Post Commander Ken Blish of a 100% membership certificate for 2007. The National Commander congratulated Ken for the Post's efforts in membership recruitment and retention. Commander Blish immediately pointed the spotlight deservedly upon Richie Calbo our Post Membership Officer for his outstanding efforts in fulfilling his membership duties. Richie Calbo reported that 116 members have paid their dues for 2008 so far. Each year the names of all Post members who have paid their annual dues by the due date are put in a basket and a name is drawn. The winning name will have their 2009 annual dues paid for by the Post as a way of saying thank you for the timely payment of their dues. Our winner this year was drawn at the meeting and the winner is... Dr. Klein. His 2009 dues are on us. Congratulations Dr. Klein! The deadline for dues was December 31, 2007 and any members who have not paid up yet are now in default in the national computer base. By being in default, members are no longer insured by the American Legion, or eligible for other Legion benefits. We ask that any Post #1009 members who have not done so, please bring your dues up to date. Your membership costs only $35.00. Your Post #1009 membership entitles you to attend for free our September BBQ, our Christmas Dinner Party, discounts at hotels/ motels, and various other consumer oriented discounts. You save more than the cost of the membership without really trying! Your dues also help the Legion programs in our communities, and nation-wide. Please join our American Legion family today. County Commander Calbo also updated us on the County Legion happenings. The Christmas Party at the Montrose V.A. Hospital was a success-- the next party there will be on January 23, 2008 at 7pm at Building #4 ward C & D. All members are welcome to come and cheer up those Veterans in need there. Bill Lewis updated everyone on the Chapel of the Four Chaplains Ceremony to be held at the Post on February 3, 2008 at 2pm. All members and the public are invited to attend this ceremony to celebrate the story of four chaplains in World War II who gave inspiration and their life vests to troops on board a torpedoed troopship in the North Atlantic. They made the supreme sacrifice helping others to survive that night. The ceremony lasts about half an hour and refreshments will be served afterwards. An e-mail reminder will be sent out-- look for it and try to attend. Patrick McDonough updated the members on our new e-mail Newsletter and the Post website. Any comments, good or bad, about both are needed so that we can make them both informative and good reading. He is also seeking information on any events that might be of interest to our members or other veterans. Post Commander Ken Blish mentioned that some members were inquiring about new embroidered baseball caps and embroidered jackets. Baseball caps will be ordered shortly but only to fill orders placed for them. The price will be $14 - $15 each depending on the total number of hats ordered (the price gets lower the more caps that we order!) All caps are navy blue with gold lettering and are adjustable in size. The Post jackets are priced $48 for sizes small to X-large; $50 for size XX- large; and $52 for size XXX-large and larger. Anyone interested in either items contact Ken through the Post, or through the website to place an order. Future dates and business came up next. We are looking for volunteers for a Post election committee to screen/ recruit members to run for election to our Post #1009's Officer positions. If anyone is interested in serving Post #1009 for a year in any of our Officer Posts, please let us know. New blood, new ideas, new directions are all good for the Post. Last year our Post Mother's Day Brunch had to be cancelled because we didn't know if anyone would be attending because no one RSVP'd so we could get an accurate head count to prepare the brunch. This year's Post Mother's Day will be handled differently than in past years. The guessing on how many people are going to attend is not fair to anybody involved. Our Brunch this year will probably be April 27th, to allow members to attend other events on actual Mother's Day. Our Brunch will cost $5 per person until our April 10th General Business meeting, where reservations will be finalized and PAYMENT TAKEN for our head count. Anyone paying to attend after this date will pay $10 per person. The month of May will be another busy one for us and we need every member to help out. May 8th will be the election of our Post Officers -- please attend, vote, and be heard. May 10th will have the Post at the Jefferson Valley Mall collecting donations and handing out memorial poppies in recognition of Memorial Day observance. We need volunteers to sit at the table for two hour shifts. Please mark this day on your calendar and help us keep our programs funded. This year's 2nd Annual Armed Forces Day Parade will be on May 17th down in Valhalla. Every Legionnaire in Westchester County is invited to march...Won't you join us and march. Finally, May 26th is the Yorktown Memorial Day Parade sponsored this year by VFW Post #8328. Please mark your calendar and march with us. Marching in either of these events is simple, healthy to do, fun, and important to all Veterans everywhere. By marching in these parades we let all veterans of our recent conflicts around the world know that we understand their sacrifice and honor them. It lets them see that others have done what they are doing and returned to live normal lives with strong bonds to their community and their country. March with us and let them know they are not alone. Finally we would like to add a warm welcome aboard to two new members to the Post. Welcome to Alexander Sajdak and to Bill Bertram. We hope to see you at our events and meetings. 11/20/07 At the General Business Meeting on 11/08/07 the last minute plans for the Veterans Day Parade in Shrub Oak were finalized. Plans for the December Christmas Party were brought up. The motion was made to move up the December Meeting from the 13th and combine a short meeting with the Christmas Party on December 9th. The motion was approved by the membership present. Thank you's were given to all who participated in the Montrose VA Food Pantry Food Collection last October 27th. The Post had never run a food collection event before but Bob Dagnino and Patrick McDonough put this one together quickly and it went off without a hitch. We collected food at the A& P Supermarkets in Shrub Oak and the Triangle Mall in Yorktown. Even though the weather was a steady rain, with downpours for a little variety, the Post collected 12 shopping carts full of canned and non-perishable food items for the VA Food Pantry. We had great help from Mr Don Bennett of radio station WLNA 1420 AM/ and WBNR 1260 AM, who had the collection advertised on the radio and in the North County News. We took a few photos and they are on the Photo Gallery page here on our website. Everyone involved felt good collecting for this worthy cause and agreed that we should do a collection every year. Kudos to those who helped in the rain that day, Ken Blish, Dave Moscowitz, Bob Dagnino, Charlie Ludlum, Bob Gorsuch, Al Laughlin, and Bill Lewis. The Veterans Day Parade was a success in Shrub Oak. Our own Bill Lewis has organized and run it since it began 7 years ago. This year a committee of townsfolk took over the running of the parade. Bill was awarded a plaque for all of his hard work over the years making the parade the success it is. Former Town Supervisor Linda Cooper was invited to march with the Post's contingent to thank her for her support of the Post during her years in office. The Post had a good turnout of 14 members, but we really would like to see everyone march in the two parades we participate in each year. Maybe as the membership sees that we have members of various age groups marching they will get over their shyness and join with us. Bill Lewis will be manning a table at the Jefferson Valley Mall for the US Marine Corps' TOYS for TOTS Program. He does this every year during the holiday season. He will be at the table every single day from November 23rd until Christmas Eve from 10 AM until 9 PM! This is a huge commitment that Bill undertakes to help underprivileged children. Last year, 1st Vice Commander Al Laughlin spent a bunch of time with Bill at the table. This year we hope that several people will volunteer to help man the table for a few hours and allow Bill to take a break, eat or just relax. If anyone can spare the time please contact Bill through the website, or via 'post1009@nylegion1009.org'. The second issue of our new Newsletter, the Yorktown e-Legion is out. We apologize for the delay, we are trying to make this a monthly Newsletter but with a volunteer staff of one it is not an easy task. Please bear with us as we learn to do it better. Of course if anyone has any information that would interest or benefit Veterans please send it in. We also welcome your comments on what you like or don't like about the Newsletter. Anyone who wishes the Yorktown e-Legion e-Newsletter sent to them should just use the 'Contact' page or our e-mail address to let us know their e-mail address. 10/21/07 The Executive Board gave the approval for our new Newsletter at the October Meeting. Patrick McDonough immediately sent the first issue out via e-mail to the members who had supplied their e- mail addresses already for Post Notices . Anyone interested in receiving the Newsletter, the 'Yorktown e-Legion', just send an e-mail to the Post website at post1009@nylegion1009.org and tell us if you want just the Newsletter, or all OFFICIAL Post #1009 Notices. The Newsletter is also available for visitors to read here on our website in a different layout than the printed layout. We also know that not everyone has access to computers and e-mail, and we would never forget those members who don't. We print up our Newsletter also and copies are available at three locations around Yorktown for anyone interested to pick it up. Copies are located in the information rack in the lobby of the Yorktown Town Hall, in the information rack at the Hart Library in Shrub Oak, and also in the Post #1009 bar. Hopefully, as everyone becomes aware of the locations the readership will increase. Ideally we would like to e-mail the Newsletter to most people, whether they are members or not. We save the cost of printing and postage, and everyone can benefit from the news contained in the Newsletter. The first issue had information on a FREE USMC Band concert at the Westchester County Center on November 5th as well as the USO Show in Pelham. If anyone is aware of something that could be of interest to any of our Legionnaires please send it in and we will try to include it. It is our hope to publish the Newsletter every month. Please let us know what you think of the Newsletter when you see it. We want your input to make it something that you WANT to read. The Westchester County American Legion Raffle is still underway. 1st prize is $1000, 2nd prize-$750, 3rd prize-$300, 4th prize-$200, and 5th prize is $100. If you received your chance books in the mail please help out the Post and County programs by buying, or selling the chances. If you need more chances, stop by the Post, we have more available. The Post receives half of the money from the chanc |