News – Page 61 – Ballard Eagleson Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3063

Our Post Assembles Buddy Poppies

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.

Commander’s Corner (November 2020)

COMRADES! DON’T WAIT FOR THE STORM TO PASS!

I hope as we pass through the turbulent times of the election process and into the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, that you have managed to find or create ways to keep yourselves safe and mentally fresh amid the COVID pandemic.

(It really is the virus from hell that just seems to hang around like every other NFL team’s offense when pitted against the Seahawk’s defense.)

In spite of that, I do believe there is light at the end of the tunnel. Social distancing and masks certainly seem to be beneficial and positive controls. But hopefully we will soon have a vaccine in place as well, and several promising remedies for coping with the virus should any of us become infected. They are coming for sure.

But in the meantime, It can be very easy to become lethargic and get caught up with just waiting for the storm to pass. Most of us have never had to deal with anything like this before and it has been a bit of a learning process for sure. So I do hope you all are continuing to remain positive and moving forward with your lives. Embracing the spirit of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons certainly provides us with many positive feelings that can help us immensely to do this. Also, just finding different ways to help others can actually help us!. Dusting off the old project that “I never have time to do!” and so on. These are just a few of many ways to avoid lethargy from settling in.

Remember….”The sun never quits shinning, it’s just that sometimes clouds get in the way”.

As any true Seattleite knows, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass…. It’s about learning to dance in the rain!”

Continue to stay safe.

Our country and the world will survive this pandemic.

Commander Joe Fitzgerald

Service Throwback: Wally Michl

Comrade Wally Michl, then a U.S. Army soldier, is pictured second from the left here in a photo from North Korea in the fall of 1950. The truck was a 3/4 ton Weapons Carrier with C Battery, 8th Field Artillery Battalion, 25th Infantry Division. It hit a mine and Wally was right behind the vehicle when it happened. He notes that someone gave him this photo during a reunion many years after it was taken!

*We’d love to see your photos too! Submit them to [email protected].*

Commanders Corner and Auction Recap (October 2020)

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.”

Some of the items featured in the virtual auction.

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