Category: Volunteering

Quartermaster’s Update (October 2020)

By Harold Rodenberger


What a summer it’s been! Pestilence, fire, smoke, it seems almost Biblical. No swarms of locusts or floods yet, but the year’s not over. The fires and smoke have gone, but the pestilence remains, and will for who knows how long. Mask up, wash up and space out. Best practices for you and your fellow humans.


The highlight of the summer quarter was our fundraiser. As of this writing, the net gain to our Relief Fund is approximately $4,350. We are still receiving donations so I don’t know what the final figure will be. Whatever it is, it will be much appreciated by the needy recipients of our Relief Fund donations. Many thanks to all of you who contributed items for the auction; those who purchased items from the auction; Chef Kay and helpers; all those who helped put on and serve the spaghetti dinner; and the drivers who delivered to our members who were unable to attend.

This year, in nursing homes and hospitals across the country, the disabled veterans who normally assemble our VFW Buddy Poppies have been unable to do so. As a result, VFW Posts throughout America have been asked to help out by assembling Buddy Poppies. To encourage participation, we will earn $0.02 for our Relief Fund for each poppy assembled. If you would like to help out, please email me at [email protected] or call or text 206-972-2135 and I’ll get you started.


Our Post has mementos of past events that need to be preserved for future generations of members, ergo we need a person (Post Historian) who is interested in organizing, documenting and posting photographs and documents to the online History Room on our website. If you would like to help out in this way, please contact me, and let’s get important post history preserved.


This year disabled veterans, Purple Heart recipients, former prisoners of war, and primary caregivers for qualified veterans were added to the list of patrons at the military exchanges and commissaries. If you have a Veteran Health identification Card (VHIC), you can shop there. If you qualify but have no ID card, you can apply for one at https://www.va.gov/healthbenefits/vhic.


At some time, we all did our patriotic duty by serving in a war zone, defending our country and its allies. Soon it will be time to do our patriotic duty again. In this year’s general election, we will be choosing our leaders from local city, county and state officials all the way up to members of congress and the president. The right to vote is embedded in our constitution and is a patriotic duty of all Americans. Exercise your rights and vote! You can check your voter registration info at voter.votewa.gov.

Quartermaster Update for the ‘New Year’

By Harold Rodenberger 

The first month of our new VFW year has passed under the same virus cloud as the preceding three months. Nonetheless our new officers are functioning well in their new positions and Post 3063 is becoming more familiar with conducting business remotely. 

For access to our business meetings click on one of the Zoom links in the email sent out by our Adjutant. You will go to a waiting room to be admitted as soon as possible to the meeting. The waiting room screens out anyone who is not an authorized member of the VFW, and increases security.

Our third Thursday Social Dinners are still being prepared by Chef Kay. To order a wonderful meal via takeout or delivery, send an email to [email protected] or call Harold at 206-972-2135. The dinner in August will have a Greek theme; Greek salad, shish kabobs, etc., with vegetarian options available.


FUNDRAISER NEWS

As noted elsewhere in this newsletter, our annual Spaghetti Feed fundraiser for the Post 3063 Veterans Relief Fund is being held on the usual second Saturday, Sept. 12. This year, of course, we will be doing a take out (limited delivery) spaghetti dinner and on-line auction at the Bidding Owl charity fundraiser website. 

The dinner will help raise funds, so is priced at $20 per ticket for Kay’s usual spectacular spaghetti dinner with trimmings and will be limited to 150 dinners. It will be available for curbside pickup in the post parking lot from 4:30 until 6:00 pm. Tickets are available from post officers, on-line at EventBrite (details TBA), or at the office during business hours 1:00-5:00 pm, Thursdays and Saturdays in August and early September. We will need a few more volunteers to direct traffic, carry dinners to members in their cars, deliver to home-bound members, etc. If you can help in that way, please send an email to [email protected] or call Harold at 206-972-2135.

Prizes for the on-line auction are needed. During the present virus situation, it is a little more difficult to get the usual businesses to donate so we are emphasizing innovative prizes that our members can donate. Please put on your thinking cap and see if there is something you can do, make, donate, etc., that would make a prize that others would want. Personal services, hand-made crafts, fresh baked products, etc., come to mind.

The auction site is biddingowl.com/BallardEaglesonVFWPost306. The auction will be open Saturday, Sept. 12 through Friday, Sept. 18, 2020. Be sure to register before the auction and prizes are being entered onto the site daily so check in and see what you need. Payment may be made via PayPal, check or cash at the post in order to pick up your prize. If you are bidding from outside the local area, please note that shipping costs will be added to any prize that cannot be sent in a regular envelope. 

This auction is open to anyone who wants to bid so pass the word to friends, relatives and all members of the public who might be interested in bidding on some wonderful prizes to help support a worthy cause.

Congrats to our super volunteer!

Jessica Chacko came to the VFW on June 18, 2020, to help prepare and package up the meals for our monthly social. She was surprised with a small, socially distanced graduation party and award presentation. Chef Kay Seelig put together the graduation party featuring special cupcakes. Commander Joe Fitzgerald and Kay presented Jessica with a plaque expressing appreciation from Ballard Eagleson Post for the more than 500 hours that Jessica has volunteered. Congratulations Jessica and thank you for your service at Post 3063!

Thank You to Our VAMC Volunteers

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.

 

VAMC visit
Post members and boy scouts organize goods to hand out to Seattle VA Medical Center patients.

From the Commander (October 2019)

Comrades,

 

Since becoming Commander, we have had a busy start to the “VFW year.”

 

Our time has been occupied by the  Department (State) Convention in Vancouver, WA, the National Convention in Orlando, Florida, District Two (our district) meetings, and last but not least, the amazing fifth annual Spaghetti Fundraiser co-chaired by Russ and Kay Seelig.

 

The conventions are an amazing way to learn about the VFW and what we do, and the district meetings keep us in the loop on what is happening locally.

 

This year, like years in the past, the Spaghetti Dinner was amazing and I am so thankful to Russ, Kay and their crew for putting on this great event!

 

What I have learned so far is the amount of time our fellow comrades spend to pull all these events together and make our post look good. We, by definition are an organization of volunteerism and we are doing good, however there is always room to improve!

 

My goal is to get more people involved in volunteering and planning fundraisers and fun events to make our VFW one we can all be proud of. If you have ideas or want to jump in and volunteer, please reach out to me or any of our leadership for opportunities.

 

Commander Joe Tiffany

 

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchill