Ballard Eagleson VFW Post 3063’s October 2018 e-newsletter is available here. Highlights include: Commander, Quartermaster, and Auxiliary commentaries; Annual Spaghetti Fundraiser Volunteers’ Hard Work Pays Off; Comrades Cavin and Rose Fight Food Insecurity, Teach BLS; Recap: VFW National Convention 2018 and New Member Spotlight.
News
Quartermaster’s Update (October 2018)
By Harold Rodenberger
Here in the Pacific Northwest, the annual migration of the sun is more noticeable than in other places farther south.
The autumnal equinox (September 23rd this year), when our southbound sun crosses the equator each year, reminds the natural kingdoms to prepare in earnest for the winter. It reminds me that kids are back in school, the weather is turning colder and it’s time to air out the woolens. Well, maybe people don’t do that last so much anymore, but you get my drift, winter’s coming.
For VFW members, it’s time to get back to attending meetings and socials. Chef Kay has been putting on gourmet dinners for our social nights and Commander Pete’s new meeting format has drawn more attendees and participation. Remember, you can tune in our meetings no matter where you are by hooking up to our Zoom Remote broadcast. Connection info will be sent to your email address of record earlier on the day of the meeting. Warm up that laptop or smartphone and join us.
Why not make a note to save the first Thursday each month for our business meeting and the third Thursday for the social?
It’s also the time to check around our neighborhoods for potential members. New members usually don’t join our post if they aren’t asked. Even if your neighbor isn’t qualified, she may know someone nearby who is. The only way to find out is to ask.
Autumn is a good time of year to distribute Buddy Poppies. Our Buddy Poppy chair is Comrade Tiffany Cavin. She has a supply of special 9/11 commemorative poppies. Please contact her at 253-327-8906 or [email protected] if you are interested in helping with this project.
November brings Veterans Day, another day to help our poppy-making veterans. Our Ballard teams will be distributing Buddy Poppies that weekend. Again, if you are interested in helping this vital effort, please contact Comrade Tiffany.
Finally, as the sun moves farther south, remember to be safe out there. Street crosswalks, sidewalks and even the steps to your back porch can be dangerous as daylight ends earlier. Keep an eye out for hazards and especially watch out for children.
From the Commander (October 2018)
By Pete Krawitz
Did you know that our building is approaching it’s 68th birthday? Did you also know that the last time we pulled a construction permit for our building was 1986? Why is this important? Well, we know that the building likely needs significant repairs in the near future. Tackling those repairs may be a lot more complicated and costly than many of us realize.
We’ve been lucky to have our handy quartermaster, Harold Rodenberger, at the helm for so many years, however, some of the inevitable facility issues we will need to address in the future will likely be even beyond his capabilities to solve. So many Seattle building codes and regulations have been introduced and changed since we last pulled permits in 1986. For example, if we do any work in the building that would require a permit, it would likely cause an expensive cascading effect that would force us to bring other aspects of the building up to code. We would soon learn that the expertise and time required to fully understand these implications was well beyond all of our capabilities.
In order to better arm our post with the knowledge to make informed decisions now and even 10 years from now, we recruited the assistance of a local design-build team: Schacht Aslani Architects and Heartland Construction. The House committee and the leadership team reviewed a proposal, which was subsequently introduced to the members and approved in August.
I believe this will be one of the most important investments that the post has made in many years. The results of this work will provide all of us with critical information that we will be able to use for many years and will hopefully help ensure the long term survival of our post in Ballard.
So now what? Over the next few months, representatives from the architect and contractors will be crawling through our building to determine the current state of our facility, researching how new zoning and permitting impacts us, and conducting interviews with a variety of members of the post to better understand how we currently use the space. By early next year, we should have the results of this work and a series of recommendations from these experts.
At this stage, we’ve had an initial kick-off meeting with the contractors and will soon be developing the final schedule of interviews and surveys. We will be providing regular updates to the post members via the monthly business meeting and the newsletter.
If you have any questions in the meantime, please reach out to [email protected] or stop by before the next business meeting on Thursday, Oct. 4 at 6:30 p.m. (the meeting starts at 7 p.m.).
Finally, it’s worth noting that the work described above is going to be the primary focus of the leadership team and house committee between now and the end of the year. This doesn’t mean I want to put all other aspects of our work and mission on hold, we just need more volunteers to assist in coordinating post events and activities now more than ever (socials, VA hospital visits, etc.). If you are interested in assisting and/or leading any of those types of events or activities, please bring it up at the next business meeting (remember, you can submit the agenda items online by visiting www.vfwseattle.org) or send me an e-mail at [email protected].
New Member Spotlight: Comrade Leo Potts
This is a recurring column that highlights new VFW Post 3063 members. Comrade Leo Potts joined the post in April 2018.
What motivated you to join the VFW? I enjoy the camaraderie with other soldiers.
What is your military background? Originally enlisted as E–1 and was an infantry soldier, Was talked into joining ROTC and became an officer in 1987. Combat Engineer, got out in 1991, got back in 2000. Deployed to Iraq & Afghanistan, retired in 2015 as a major. There’s more but I don’t want to bore you.
Civilian job, education, family, hobbies, or anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself? I’m fully retired and what I do for fun is travel, vacation, help other soldiers get their benefits, and help other people travel and vacation more.
What do you hope to achieve being a member of the VFW? I want to be part of a family, military family, and whatever I can do to help the unit I plan on doing that.
Comrades Cavin and Rose Fight Food Insecurity, Teach BLS
By Christopher Dresnek
Post 3063 is lucky enough to have a Victory Garden this year thanks to the hard work of Comrades Tiffany Cavin and Anthony Rose.
A Victory Garden is a meant to enhance national food production during war, and their war is on food insecurity. The state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food is what defines food insecurity, and as Comrade Anthony mentioned, it is something his friends and family have dealt with for a long time.
In addition to learning about Victory Gardens and food insecurity, Anthony also learned how to finally grow something besides tomatoes.
Comrade Tiffany will harvest vegetables before meetings
and have them available for pick up. She has tomatoes, corn, various squash, greens and many other tasty veggies to try.
Feel free to talk with her about her passion project, it has been a labor of love and one with which she hopes to spread the message about food insecurity.
Basic Life Saver Course
When Comrade Rose was in the military he was one of his brigade’s BLS (Basic Life Saver) instructors and went on to the same role at Madigan Army Hospital. After he got out of the service it seemed a natural fit to be able to continue using those skills.
He came up with the idea of teaching BLS and making it a fund raiser as a way of giving back to the school who welcomed him so warmly upon his discharge, Seattle Central. The scholarship is named for Anthony Diaz, the school’s Veteran Certification Official, and has raised more than $2,000 so far.
Please contact comrade Comrade Rose at [email protected] to donate to the scholarship or take a future BLS course.