Seasons greetings comrades! As we embark on a very festive time of year, I want to quickly re-cap our Veterans Day festivities and preview events for December.
First off, thank you to Seattle Civic Band for playing beautiful patriotic tunes in honor of veterans Nov. 10. We had a couple post members show up to listen and after the concert one of them said more of us should have been there. Agreed! I’d love for us to better support the band when they’re HONORING US. The band also donated over $120 to our post relief fund.
The Veterans Day mural painting was a great success. Our Market St-facing side of the building is now brightly painted. Thank you to Air Force veteran Chris Kent for the design and Urban ArtWorks for organizing and executing the event. A number of community members, including Mayor Harrell and Councilmember Dan Strauss, came out to paint. Thank you to our post and auxiliary members for their dedication that day as well. Also thank you to Comrades Curtis and Engler for going from the mural to Merrill Gardens on First Hill to support their Veterans Day event!
We also had a blood drive at the post on Veterans Day. All the appointments were filled and BloodWorks NW collected 30 units of blood! They will return to the post for another blood drive Jan. 19 so mark your calendars.
For our November social we ate a delectable Thanksgiving meal courtesy of Team Chef Kay and honored the service of our comrades by donning service items. Not everybody could wear something from their past but our Korean War veterans — Wally and Al — surprised us with photos and a beautifully preserved service jacket. This event was a prime example of our mission to build camaraderie and esprit-de-corps.
Looking forward to December, we have our holiday social on Dec. 15. The holiday social is a great opportunity to invite your family and friends to our post. We’ll have a visit from Santa and exchange gifts between adults. The food will be AMAZING and we’ll listen to our youth essay winners recite their essays. We’ll also continue our tradition of co-sponsoring a holiday toy drive with the Navigator Scouts. See details in this flyer.
Don’t forget, the annual Wreaths Across America event will take place at Lakeview Cemetery Dec. 17 at 9 a.m. Our post color guard always does an outstanding rifle salute and they need volunteers to lay wreaths on veteran graves.
Lastly, this month you’ll be hearing from our leadership team. We’ll be calling everyone on our roster to do buddy checks, remind folks to apply for claims for toxic exposure, and extend invites to the holiday social. If you know of a comrade in distress, please let me know ASAP at [email protected]. As our VFW Commander-In-Chief Timothy Borland says, “Every Veteran Counts.”
Yours in comradeship,
Aly Teeter