Congratulations to the following students who won the the annual VFW Youth Essay contests for Post 3063! They received a cash prize and also went on to compete at the district level.
The winning essays are linked to their names below.
Voice of Democracy:Jessica Chacko (also placed 2nd in District #2)
Patriot’s Pen:Chloe Sow (also received honorable mention in District #2)
The Post 3063 Teacher of the Year, Dan Waldschmidt, placed first at the District #2 competition and will go on to compete statewide. Dan is an 8th grade social studies teacher at Hamilton Middle School in Wallingford.
A small contingent of Post 3063 members volunteered on Veterans Day to hand out items and visit with veterans at the Seattle VA Medical Center. Thank you to Comrades Cavin and Hoglund for keeping things organized and visiting with patients. A special thanks goes to Comrade Mamallo for donating so many snacks and Liz Servey for rallying her Boy Scouts to volunteer. If you’re interested in volunteering, we always have opportunities available around the holidays but we need people to step up, help plan and execute.
Post members and boy scouts organize goods to hand out to Seattle VA Medical Center patients.
Bravo to the Seattle Civic Band for playing wonderful patriotic music at the post Nov. 10 in commemoration of Veterans Day. We appreciate their heartfelt thanks and donations to the Post 3063 Relief Fund.
The Seattle Civic Band is playing a holiday concert at the post Dec. 17 at 7:30 p.m. See the Facebook event for more details.
The post honor guard presents the colors at the start of the concert.
As a community service, our VFW Post accepts worn and unserviceable flags for proper retirement. Frequently people drop by the office and hand us flags that are no longer fit to fly and ask us to retire them. I am always impressed with their patriotism, sincerely and concern for the flag of our country.
Two or three years ago, a man called and wanted to know if he could drop off a flag he had found in a dumpster. I assured him we would accept it and he later brought it by the hall. It turned out to be a coffin flag. He retrieved it from the dump, had it dry cleaned and brought it by folded on a hanger. When asked if I could reimburse him for the cleaning cost he refused saying that he only thought it his duty to rescue the flag and find a way to return it to service.
In years past we have had retirement ceremonies in our parking lot where we properly disposed of the flags by burning. Last year we had complaints from the residents of the condos and apartments on the hill behind us so we stopped burning flags in our parking lot.
Over the past eighteen months we have accumulated over three hundred flags waiting for proper disposal. On Wednesday, October 16, 2019, we loaded up seven boxes of flags and took them north to my brother’s farm near Blaine, WA, for burial.
For a gravesite, we selected a grassy knoll overlooking green pastures with woods on the north and a view east toward Mt Baker.
At the gravesite we dug a deep trench, said a few words and began placing the boxes of flags.
After the boxes had been carefully placed in the bottom of the grave, we said a few words in honor of their service, rendered a final salute and backfilled the grave. Mission accomplished, we returned to Seattle.
Thank you to Daniel, Linda, and Sheila from A Touch of Light for visiting us during our post social Oct. 17. They’re doing inspiring work with incarcerated veterans and are hosting an art gallery reception Nov. 2 (see https://www.facebook.com/events/2521804937875486/).
From left, Comrades Teeter and Mielcarek pose with Daniel, Linda, and Sheila from A Touch of Light during Post 3063’s Oct. 17 social.
