May-June 2008

Poulsbo Post 245 Newsletter

Emergency Preparedness:
Are you prepared for a natural disaster at your residence? Do you have food and water stored for a minimum of three days? Do you have a First Aid kit, a manual can opener, dust masks, extra prescription medications, personal sanitation supplies, 1-2 working flashlights and good batteries, hand-cranked or battery operated NOAA all hazards/ weather radio and/or a AM-FM radio, local maps, safe wrapped im portant family documents, a family muster and emergency plan,& spare money.

Post Newsletter:
Are you receiving this newsletter via snail mail? Do you or someone in your family have electronic mail (e-mail) access and can download the newsletter off of our Internet site. This would save the Post extra $$ for use in supporting our area veterans in another manner.

American Legion Magazines and Newspapers:
Do you recycle your monthly American Legion magazine and the quarterly Departmental "Legionnaire" newspaper? If you don’t utilize them as membership gifts to new or prospective members, we could use them . One of our volunteers would be glad to receive them at our National Guard Armory anytime on Thursdays.

Polo Shirts:
Post 245 member Tony DeCarlo has volunteered to research the purchase of various colored polo shirts with The American Legion logo and "Post 245, Poulsbo, WA" engraved in gold lettering. The shirts are available is any color and the cost is $24.50/shirt. Tony can be reached at antoniodec@comcast.net or 360- 779-3630. The cutoff date for ordering and payment is the evening of Thursday, May 15th (our next monthly meeting night).

World War II Veterans:
For the past two years, we have been gathering the names and service branch of every World War II veteran and entering their names into the database of the National World War II Museum that opened in May, 2003. If you are a World War II veteran (December 7, 1941 - December 31, 1946), please contact me.

Veterans Stand Down:
There is scheduled "Veterans Stand Down" event all day long on Saturday, May 3rd in the Presidents Hall of the Kitsap County Fairgrounds.

Blood Donations:
Have you donated a pint of blood or platelets recently? Please mention that you are a American Legion member so we get proper credit. Regardless of where you live, please call or e-mail the Post 245 office in the Poulsbo National Guard Armory and let us know of your blood donations (360-779-5456/ alpost245@earthlink.net) so we may include these important donations on our annual report to the state office.

License Plates and Ball Caps:
Do you travel a good amount around the country (i.e., "Snow Birding")? We have an inventory of "American Legion Post 245, Poulsbo, Washington" license plates ($10) and ball caps ($5) available for purchase before you leave town. These are great items to swap at most American Legion posts across our 50 states and some overseas locations (District of Columbia, Central America, Western Pacific, Europe, and Puerto Rico). Contact any of our volunteers any Thursday at the office or leave a message at the phone number or e-mail listed above with your request.

Harry Easley passing:
Recently, the Department of Washington lost Legionnaire Harry Easley to cancer. Harry was Department Commander in the early 1990’s, then elected the National Vice Commander, West Region for the 1999-2000 year. Harry always enjoyed visiting Poulsbo with his wife Janet (a Department Auxiliary President and National Vice President, W estern Area). As a retired Anaheim (CA) police detective and the Department Law & Order Chairmen for many years, Harry always knew that Poulsbo Post 245 would be submitting a very good nomination packet for the "Law Enforcement Officer of the Year" at the annual Mid-Winter Conference for his review. Harry, "Thank You" for your service.

Passing of Post 245 members:
Do you know of a Post member who recently passed away? We would appreciate any assistance with notifications so we can update our records and mailing list, and those at the state & national levels, in addition to any possible funeral/burial, or VA claim assistance for the family.

Membership:
Post 245 is 30 members short of making goal for the 1st time in its short history. Last month, we reduced our membership fees for new and renewing members to $30 for the remainder of this Legion year (to June 30th). Please take the time to recruit a new member or find a friend who hasn’t renewed yet.

Military ID Cards:
Effective Saturday, May 3rd, the military ID card offices at Bangor (the former Navy Reserve Center) and at Bremerton (Bldg. 1013) will be open on all Saturdays (excluding holidays) from 0800-1200.

Military Discounts:
With our annual Spring & Summer home improvement and repair projects being planned, don’t forget to ask for a veterans discount at both Lowe’s and Home Depot over the Memorial Day weekend.

Baseball:
Every Seattle Mariners home game on Tuesday nights is now designated "Military Appreciation Night". See Mariners web site www.mariners.com for exact ticket prices

From The Adjutant's Desk
By-Brent Arnold-Adjutant

No Input from Adjutant.

SERVICE OFFICER REPORT
By- Birger Sather

SMALL BUSINESS HELP AVAILABLE FOR RESERVISTS
A new law will offer veterans who own small business loans of up to $50,000 and help reservists keep their businesses afloat during and after deployments.

Key provisions of the law will:

1. Allow the Small Business Administration to offer loans up to $50,000 without requiring collateral from a loan applicant.

2. Create a loan participation program in which veterans can receive 7 (a) loans while paying 50% of the fees.

3. Require Veteran business Outreach Centers to increase their participation in the Transition Assistance Program.

4. Require a Government Accountability Office report on the needs of service-disabled veterans and a separate report on how to improve relations between employers and reservist employees.

5. Create a Interagency Task Force on Veteran Small Business to focus on increasing veterans small business success, procurement, franchising opportunities and access to capital.

Our American Legion Auxiliary Unit 245 was represented at the 3rd District Spring Conference in Port Townsend by our 3rd District President and 3rd District Girls State Chairperson, Marilyn Theal and Unit 245 President and Girls State Chairperson, Barbara Sather. Our Unit received the membership plaque for 2007-08. We were the only auxiliary in the 3rd District to reach goal.

March was a busy month with a focus on preparing 300 Easter tray favors for the veterans at Retsil. Claire Smith hosted this workshop event. A thank you to Claire and the work crew.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

1. Poppy Days: Our stations are as follows,
     A. May 10th Silverdale Safeway
     B. May 12, 13, 14, 15 Kingston Albertsons
     C. May 14, 15 Poulsbo Central Market
     PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR SIGN UP HOURS

2. Girls State Program: This program is now in full swing. There are about 40 interested girls from 5 high schools, sponsored by Unit 245, anxious to attend Evergreen Girls State this June. Thanks to Marilyn and Bob Theal, Jerry Davis, Mike Rodrigue, Jim Thompson, Sarah Arnold and the Kitsap Community for their sincere support to both programs, Boys and Girls State.

3. Memorial Day plans will soon be underway and we will be available for any assistance necessary.

Our next Auxiliary Meeting is on May 07 at 5:00 PM at the Sian Palace Restaurant in Poulsbo. Come and join us.

At this time, Post 245 will be sponsoring 23 students from five separate public & private schools in our area the 2008 Evergreen Boys State program. Our estimated cost will be almost $6800 for the tuition and charter bus costs. A special "Thanks" to Barbara Sather for her exceptional fund-raising skills in the North Kitsap & Central Kitsap communities over the past several years to support both the Boys State and the Girls State programs.

We now have 10 Charter members and we are steadily growing . Our next meeting is right before our Post meeting on Thursday the 15th of May at 6PM at the Hall. Please try to make the meeting, we are going to be going over the By-Laws and making additions and or deletions to them. We'd like to get them finalized.

We veterans are responsible to become aware of issues which are important to the citizenship of this country.

We are citizens who know the results on choosing those who care little or nothing about military needs for the preservation of freedoms. Voting is the responsibility of ALL eligible citizens with no regard for your political beliefs. Those who do NOT VOTE are the cause of the mess that we have today in our capital and communities. Our post needs your support of the citizenship programs such as Boy State and Girl State plus the Scout Venture Crew to educate our youth on the importance of this God given responsibility to VOTE.

Your participation by attending events such as the Poppy drive, Memorial Day, Post Picnic and monthly meetings is needed. WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!!!

CALENDAR OF EVENTS:

Thursday May 15th - Post Meeting -Breidablik Hall at 7pm.
This is the annual meet where the post elects officers for the upcoming year. If you are interested in a leadership position with our post contact Jerry Davis or Vic Schiavone.

Viking Fest Poppy Time Weekend May 16- 18th
At various Poulsbo and Kingston area locations. Contact Jerry Davis to sign up (360-697- 9425/ jerryump@comcast.net).

Memorial Day: Monday, May 26th
At the Poulsbo Waterfront Park Gazebo starting at high Noon (1200). Color Guards from various military services have already RSVP’d for attendance.

Highway Cleanup.
The next cleanup of our assigned responsibility (the entire SR 3- 305 ramp) will be on Saturday, June 7th at 1000. Meet at the Northwest Nazarene Church on NW Viking Way, next to the State Patrol Detachment office. Each event averages about one hour in duration.

Saturday July 12th Post Picnic at Breidablik Hall.
This is the event where we swear in the new officers of the post, have a ceremony to burn discarded flags and have a pot-luck feast. It starts at noon that weekend.