Category: Post Business

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.”


Quartermaster Update: January 2023

By Harold Rodenberger


New Year’s 2023 greetings. In Asia, it will be the year of the Rabbit. In our post and throughout the VFW, it marks the beginning of the second half of our VFW year. Our post has been making good progress accomplishing our mission during the past six months. In addition to those already involved, YOU can become part of the action. We need volunteers for committees and other positions. If you have time to spare and the desire to help veterans and the community, please contact me (206-972-2135) or Commander Aly ([email protected]).


Speaking of Asia, our post has been hosting a Tai Chi class led by instructor Bill Laprade. It is free to veterans and families, and is a good way to stretch, discipline breathing, and build muscle and balance. In addition to Tai Chi, beginning January 23rd we will offer sessions in Yoga on Mondays from 1:00-2:00. You can get a twofer by attending the yoga class, taking a short break from 2:00-2:30 then getting another hour of good stuff from the Tai Chi class. It’s a great deal, two hours of mind and body building in return for a little time.


Recently there have been many changes in veterans benefits. From additional presumptive diseases caused by Agent Orange during the Vietnam era, to burn pit toxicities during Iraq and Afghanistan, to Camp Lejeune contaminated water exposure, new connections to veteran diseases and disabilities have been documented. Our Service Officer, Joseph Mesa, stands ready to help. If you think you have a condition resulting from your service, reach out to Joseph (206-488-8981) and he’ll guide you to get the documents filed.


On Veterans Day weekend, Comrade Wally Michl distributed Buddy Poppies for a few hours at a grocery store. Wally was a good ambassador and people were generous, donating several hundred dollars in that short time. We need more volunteers to distribute Buddy Poppies and keep the VFW and our veterans in public view. Please consider volunteering and contact Commander Aly or me to get details.


All of us have learned during the past three years that masking, hand washing, and distancing are effective in preventing respiratory illnesses. The flu, RSV and Omicron variants are waiting to take advantage of the unwary and careless. Your post officers and I care about your health and welfare. Let’s put what we’ve learned to work and safeguard ourselves and others.

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

Commander’s Corner: December 2022

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