| 26 Gold Stars Post 7754 Veterans of Foreign Wars |
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2008 July NewsletterElection Results: The following individuals were elected officers at the April 21st, 2008 Post meeting for the 2008-2009 year commencing July 1st, 2008.
Congratulations to all these men for their willingness to serve our post. Dues Increase: At our post meeting of April 21st, 2008 post dues were increased to $30.00 per year. This is the first dues increase in almost 10 years! This increase was approved by a vote of the membership present at the meeting. A big thanks to everyone who helped out at all of our functions this past year. We could not have done it without you! Fish Frys are now over until the end of August or the beginning of September. I hope all of our fish fry volunteers enjoy a well deserved summer break. As in the past our fish frys were very successful this year. If you have any suggestions of how we can improve our fish frys please let the commander know. A salute to all who participated in our Memorial Day activities. All went well and I received many positive comments on how we conducted our services. Special thanks to Tina Bishop for all the beautiful wreaths she made again this year she does such a great job. I would also like to give special thanks to Leah Repaszky, Shirley Roberts, Dan Borelli, Danny and Dawn Sherwood for putting on a delicious luncheon for the participants. Once again we were bathed in liquid sunshine during our services here in Fairport. It wouldn't be Memorial Day without rain! Installation of Officers for all units was held on May 20th, 2008. Afterwards we honored two outstanding student athletes of the year from Fairport Harding High School, Melissa Horvath and Matt Hogya they are both a credit to their families and their school and I'm sure they have very bright futures ahead of them. The down side of the evening was the number of officers from the separate units who failed to show up to be installed. Renovations to the meeting hall and kitchen have been shelved for now to focus on other priorities. It was decided at the May officers meeting that we should look into repairing or replacing the building roof and replacing the driveway from the street to the parking lot. We are in the process of receiving and reviewing bids for both of these projects. We also have updated our building security system for better 24-7 Monitoring of both the inside and outside of the building. Jon's watching you! On a sad note: We lost two of our former Commanders recently. Thomas Curtis who lost his life in a tragic automobile accident, and Frank Zalek. Both of these gentlemen served our post with honor and dignity and will be greatly missed. Our sincere condolences go out to their families and all the families and friends of members who have passed away since our winter newsletter. They're in it for the long haul! If you see Palma or Reed Bunting be sure to congratulate them on 50 years of "wedding bliss" celebrated with family on June 7th this year. Way to go Palma and Reed. Palma was also recently elected President of VFW Ladies Auxiliary District 7 of Ohio and we wish here a very successful term of office. Honor Flights resumed in April. Any World War II veteran who wishes to visit their memorial in Washington see any officer for an application or call the post at 440-354-1123 and leave a message and we will mail one to you. The trip is free for veterans. Guardian applications are also available and guardians are always needed. Please take advantage of this soon because I'm sure with rapidly rising fuel prices this will surely have some impact on the program. A work party was held at the south end property with 6 members showing up to work. I recall just a few years ago a special meeting was held to discuss the possibility of sell this property. The meeting was very well attended and the majority of members present were not in favor of selling. Where did everyone go??? Where were all the boat launchers and fishermen who take advantage of and use this property regularly??? I think it is time we look into changing the locks and charging a yearly key fee. More on this in the future. I'm sure you have all read about the number of VFW posts who have closed permanently. Just recently Post 4441 in Mentor on the Lake went defunct. After talking with former members and officers of these posts some of the reasons given to me about these closures were as follows: The smoking ban, members not attending meetings, no volunteers to help out at post functions or helping to maintain the post, no interest of members in wanting to run for or become post officers. These reasons are all to familiar to our post and many of our neighboring posts: Without volunteers we can't hold post functions. Without post functions we can't pay the bills or make necessary improvements. Without attendance at meetings it is up to the officers to try to determine what the membership wants and what direction to take. Without officers there is no direction. END OF THE ROAD!
If you wait until we reach the end of the road to volunteer, to participate, or to run for an office it's too late! As your post commander I would be remiss in my duties not to bring this to the attention of all our members. If members here do not start coming forward to participate we are only a few years away from closing the doors! Is This What WE Want To Happen to Our Post?????? Where do we go from here????
Just a reminder of our duties as members. VFW District 7 Summer Conference was held in Westlake on June 13th, 14th, and 15th. At this years banquet our own police chief Mark Kish was honored as District 7 Police Officer of the Year. Congratulations Mark! Also Ashley Shuster, daughter of our member Shannon Delahanty and granddaughter of our commander George Gamber was honored as 1st place winner in "Why I don't do Drugs" essay contest. Great job Ashley! She is also an officer in VFW Junior Girls unit 2595 Painesville. Upcoming Events:
A big thank you to everyone who worked at the post GI party on June 21st. A lot was accomplished and our post looks a lot better thanks to your efforts. A crisp salute goes out to Ray Wayner, Bill Simko, Vic Dafoe (Gomez), Don Ware, Norm Manninen, Jamie McCullough, Shannon Delahanty, Vince Civitreese, Tom Zmecek, John Ruuska, and George Gamber. Another GI party is planned for this fall, please watch the post bulletin boards for date and time so you don't miss out on the fun. Have a wonderful summer and fall!!
George L. Gamber |
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