Ballard Eagleson Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3063
"No One Does More for Veterans"
Chef Kay and her dedicated crew of chefs, takeout preparers and food deliverers fed a record 85 people for November and then another record 102 people for December. All meals are takeout style, for donation only, and so delicious!
It’s an amazing treat to eat a Chef Kay meal each month and our post is so appreciative of Kay and her crew’s efforts.
Thank you to Comrade Marleen Madding for taking the behind-the-scenes photos!
Chef Kay and her team of volunteers served up another amazing Thanksgiving meal to post members, families and friends Nov. 19. The meal was served takeout style, which Post 3063 has been doing since the start of the pandemic. As Kay noted on her handout menu, in 2020, we still feast!
By Harold Rodenberger
During pre-pandemic times, veterans in soldiers’ homes and VA hospitals would assemble the Buddy Poppies© that we distribute on Memorial Day, Veterans Day and throughout the year. Donations from recipients of these poppies go to our Relief Fund, where the money is used to support our mission of caring for comrades in distress and other charitable works.
Because of the virus, this year the normal Old Soldiers’ assembly lines became impossible, so our VFW National Commander in Chief asked local post members to assemble poppies. Our post was one of many who stepped up. We requested 100,000 sets of poppy parts and our volunteers got busy assembling those beautiful poppies.
We’ve worked hard for a little over a month on those poppies and finished about 86,000 of them. Completed poppies will be boxed up and shipped back to our National HQ ready to be shipped out to even more volunteers who will distribute them nationwide when it is safe to do so.
Many thanks to our members and friends who spent many hours diligently assembling poppies. A special shout out goes to Sue and Jack Westman who assembled over 22,000 sets. It was a tedious, time-consuming job, and we are so grateful for all you hard working volunteers who did your part.
As for me, I know I’ll never look at a Buddy Poppy© in the same way again.
By Harold Rodenberger
During pre-pandemic times, veterans in soldiers’ homes and VA hospitals would assemble the Buddy Poppies© that we distribute on Memorial Day, Veterans Day and throughout the year. Donations from recipients of these poppies go to our Relief Fund, where the money is used to support our mission of caring for comrades in distress and other charitable works.
Because of the virus, this year the normal veteran assembly lines became impossible so our VFW National Commander in Chief asked local post members to assemble poppies. Our post was one of many who stepped up. We requested 100,000 sets of poppies parts and our volunteers have been busy for the past two weeks, assembling those beautiful poppies.
As of this writing, about half of the sets have been assembled with the remainder on track to be finished in the next two weeks. Completed poppies will be boxed up and shipped back to our National HQ ready to be shipped out to even more volunteers who will distribute them nationwide when it is safe to do so.
In next month’s newsletter, I’ll publish a full accounting of the results of this project. Meanwhile, many thanks to our members and friends who have been diligently assembling poppies.
Volunteer Jack helping assemble poppies.
Small poppy assembly line.
Well Done Comrades!
The raffle that wasn’t – actually was pretty much of a successful Owl!
It was obvious to the fundraising committee that this year our usual sit down Spaghetti Dinner and Raffle was not going to happen due to the restrictions and limitations of Covid-19… and so, the raffle would not happen either.
It began to look like we would just have to make do with the Spaghetti dinner ala take out that Chef Kay Seelig has perfected, and that would be it for this year.
But wait a minute… Comrade Aly Teeter to the rescue! She introduced the committee to the “Bidding Owl” – an online auction she had recently been involved with for a different concern. Maybe the raffle could be replaced by the Bidding Owl!
And so it was….
With a lot of work primarily on the shoulders of Comrade Aly who set it up, and Comrade Harold Rodenberger who implemented the Bidding Owl, we had an online Auction that became, “The raffle that wasn’t.”
Comrade Harold will be submitting all the financial particulars that will be showing that in spite of Covid (or maybe because of Covid) this year’s fundraising effort was very much a success!
Certainly there are many people who contributed in various ways with the fundraiser effort, and without them it would not have happened, but I do want to recognize these people in particular who really stepped up for us to help make this year’s fundraiser a success.
· Comrade Aly’s family who provided the main “Hot Ticket” item for the raffle.
· Richard and Pat Murray for their continuing support of all our post activities.
· The Burien Highline Kiwanis Club who provided the five gift baskets totaling over $500 in value, and another $300 in dinner tickets that were gifted right back to the Post!
I will speak to all of this again later, but for now I just want to thank these people and all of you for your contribution to this year’s fundraiser effort!
Joe Fitzgerald
Post 3063 Commander
