COMMANDER'S CORNER FEBRUARY 2025

Hello Everyone,

Well, it looks like we were getting a taste of winter last week with some snow and cold temperatures and now it has warmed up to springlike weather. I’m all for the warmer weather!

At our next meeting, we may have a special guest. We have an oratorical candidate from the Arizona Agribusiness and Equine Center (AAEC) here in Prescott Valley who will be presenting her speech to the post. If she can attend, we will do that during the joint meeting. Elton Anderson and I met with her the other day and we were impressed. The American Legion Oratorical Contest is “a constitutional speech contest”. It exists to develop deeper knowledge and appreciation for the U.S. Constitution among high school students. The District 8 competition will be at Post 25 in Cottonwood on 22 FEB and the Area C Competition will be at the Camp Verde Library On March 15th. The state competition will be at the Sandra Day O’Conner High School in Deer Valley on 29 March. What a novel place to hold the state competition; at a high school named after Arizona’s only United States Supreme Court Justice! The State winners advance to the national competition to be held at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, MI on 16-18 May.

Congratulations! Our 2025 membership goal was 90 members. My latest count shows we have 90 members who have renewed for 2025 for 100% of our goal. We gained 10 new members thus far who transferred over from Post 140. Welcome to all those members and thanks to all who helped us get to 100%. If you still need to renew for 2025, please do so soon.

We provided Bingo at the VA DOM on 21 January and had the biggest turn out of vets that I can remember. If I remember correctly, we had 35 players that evening and gave away another quilt. The quilts are a big hit. Thanks to Bob and Jeanie Singer, Peggy Schmidt, Pam Taylor, and Ron Arrigoni for always being there to help.

We did pretty good with our fund raiser at Mod Pizza in Prescott Valley in January. On 18 FEB, we have another one at Culvers in Prescott Valley. This one is from 1600 until 2000. We get a portion of ALL sales during that time. No flyer is needed for this event. As part of Culvers fund raising program, we need at least 4 members to help delivering the orders to people seated in the restaurant or in the take-out line. If you can help, please let me know

Our first flag day for the new year is Monday, 17 February, Presidents Day. I will send out the reminder notice a little closer to the date. We can always use help either putting flags up or taking them down, or both.

The Post has taken over the adoption of the American Legion Park on Bob Drive. Members will be at the park on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays each month at around 1145 to tidy things up. If you can help out, please head over and give a hand.

The District 8 quarterly meeting will be on Saturday, 8 FEB at Post 90 in Black Canyon City. There will also be a District Everlasting ceremony for Karen Litt, Past Commander of District 8 and Posts 108, 40, and 78 and Greg Jones who was the District 8 SGT at Arms as well as SGT at Arms for Post and ALR 78. The Post 6 Honor Guard will be helping with this event.

On a sad note, we were just notified that Tom Henderson, who was a Post 100 transfer from, transferred to Post Everlasting back in June of 2024.

The VA is extending the final deadline by which veterans and beneficiaries can log in to VA.gov, VA mobile applications and other VA online services using their My HealtheVet username and password from Jan. 31, 2025, to March 4, 2025. The deadline to switch from DS Logon to ID.me or Login.gov remains Sept. 30, 2025.

As I mentioned last month, the District 8 Picnic duties changed. As you know, we are the host post for the picnic this year and, in addition to the hamburger and hot dogs, we will also be providing the buns. We will need help with cooking and serving. Mark your calendars for the picnic at Goldwater Lake on 4 October. More on this as the date gets closer.

A reminder that we have the election of officers coming up soon. We will start with nominations beginning at the March meeting and continuing until the May meeting when the election will take place, and the newly elected (or reelected) officer will be installed. Our elected officers are Post Commander, 1st Vice, 2nd Vice, Finance Officer, and 2 members-at-large. The remaining Post officers (Adjutant, Chaplain, Sgt at Arms, Judge Advocate, Web Master, Historian, and Service Officer) are appointed by the incoming Commander. Please consider running for one of those positions.

Attached to this newsletter for your reading pleasure are the minutes from the January meeting and the latest finance report. I am also attaching our Post Constitution, Bylaws, and Addendum for the benefit for all our new members.

Please send your monthly American Legion Post and Rider activity hours to Adjutant Ron at: ronarrigoni@gmail.com or put them in the logbook at the post meeting. I will also attach a guideline on what you can report each month.

I hope to see you at the meeting on the 11th or one of the other events going on this month.

Until then, stay healthy, warm, and most importantly, stay safe!

Gary Taylor

Your Humbled Post Commander