Category: Event

Mid-Winter Conference Brings Comrades and Essay Finalists to Yakima

Congratulations to our essay winners who all performed amazingly at the state level! The Voice of Democracy finalists and the Patriot’s Pen winner were recognized at a banquet Jan. 21 at the end of the VFW Department Mid-Winter Conference in Yakima.


Our Voice of Democracy winner, Annika Trippel (pictured below left), won at the district level and went on to place FOURTH PLACE at state!


Our Patriot’s Pen winner, Ciara Fitzgerald (pictured below right), won at the district level and won FIRST PLACE at state! She’ll go on to compete at the national level — best wishes Ciara!


Our Youth Essay winner, XiaoTian O’Donohue, won at the district level and won FIRST PLACE for all fourth grade finalists in the state.


Congratulations again to Annika, Ciara and XiaoTian for their outstanding efforts. Thank you for honoring veterans through your words and actions! We are immensely proud.


About the conference, Comrade Commander Teeter said, “Thank you to my motivated post comrades — Randy Brock, Mark English and Joe Fitzgerald — for tagging along and brainstorming how we can improve Ballard-Eagleson VFW Post 3063 so that we continue to evolve as a community institution for veteran camaraderie and assistance.”


From the Commander: January 2023

Happy 2023! That feels weird to type. Our year ended with a bang — we had a wonderful holiday social at the post and kicked off a toy drive with our Navigator Scouts troop and the Daughters of the American Revolution, which runs through Jan. 18. Here are more fun plans in Jan. 2023:

  • We’re kicking off weekly yoga classes Jan. 23 at the post thanks to the Veterans Yoga Project, Mondays 1 p.m. before Tai Chi.
  • We’re hosting a blood drive Jan. 19 — see this flyer for details.
  • Jan. 19: Social night will feature trivia and MREs! Weird, yes, but fun!


I’ll talk more about it at the January business meeting but we’ll kick off a membership drive in the new year too. In the meantime, think about friends to recruit and also our generous $100 lifetime membership discount! Don’t forget, our auxiliary needs new members too.


In mid-January a group of us will be heading to the Mid-Winter Department Convention in Yakima to network, learn, and also listen to the state-level essay finalists. I’ll report back any pertinent tidbits to our membership.


In the meantime, be thinking about service projects to take on, such as care packages for deployed servicemembers, senior center activities, or whatever else you can think of. We’re as strong as our volunteer force so take the initiative to lead if you have an idea.

Yours in comradeship,

Aly Teeter, Commander

Comrades Don Service Items for November Social

At the November monthly social many of us wore items from our service — like jackets and hats — which was quite a treat! Comrade Griffith, who sported an Army blouse from his service in the 1960s, was the lucky random winner of a Lockspot gift card. We also belatedly recognized the USMC birthday and Al Simpson being the only USMC veteran in attendance received a birthday cake from a local boy scout, Taj, who is enlisting in the USMC next summer. (We would have eaten the cake but we already had a tasty Thanksgiving meal and a sampling of homemade desserts made by Chef Kay and crew.) Wally Michl didn’t have any items left from his service but he brought a photo of himself from 1949.

It was a fun night that honored our many years of service and we’re looking forward to our holiday social Dec. 15!