Glenn A. Warner, VFW Post 1371

Barb, Jan and Linda decorated the front porch of the vfw for halloween this year. Linda made a couple of halloween cd's to play on halloween night. The crafty ladies from Wed. night bagged up $168.00 worth of halloween candy into snack size baggies (we fit 5-6 pieces of candy into each one). We made up 480 of these and handed out about 420 or so. Most of the kids were pleased with the treats and most of them used their manners. We also had coffee available for those who wanted a cup. Ray, Bonnie and Linda dressed up in costumes and had a great time. Evie, Bea and Caroline came to help out. A fun time was had by all. The candy that was left over we will probably send over seas to our troops in the Christmas boxes. We hope to be able to do this in future years to come. Thanks to the mens auxiliary for their monetary donation for the candy. 

7 ladies from the ladies auxiliary went to the Absolute Nursing care facility in Endicott to visit a Past President of the auxiliary Joyce Giles. We took a bag lunch and visited with Joyce for 1 1/2 hours. She recognized all of us and really enjoyed our visit. A great time was had by all.

The VFW Post, Ladies Auxiliary and Mens Auxiliary had complimentary donuts and coffee at the Courthouse firemans monument for all uniformed personnel. For those unable to come and participate because of work, etc., the ladies bagged up what donuts were left and took them to their place of employment with a note that read: On behalf of the VFW Post 1371 members and their ladies and mens auxiliary, we are giving you these donuts as a token of our appreciation for your service to our community for round the clock service. And to let you know that you are not forgotten on this 9/11 day. Thank you.

The ladies auxiliary just packed up and sent out 9 packages to our troops. We spent $328.14 on items to put into the boxes with donated money from different individuals, ladies brownie money from bingo concession, bingo players, etc. (Thank you folks!) It cost $100.50 for mailing. Thanks goes out to our Post for taking care of this cost. A lot goes into the packing of these boxes. We have to shop for the items, get together to pack the boxes, locate addresses to send the packages to, load the boxes and take them to the Post Office for mailing, and I always put together a letter to put into each box. Thanks everyone who helps support our efforts!

~ Linda~

Thanks to all the volunteers who helped make this day a success. We also wish to thank all the folks who donated to this event, without your support we wouldn't be able to hold this annual event. Our Local businesses have treated this event well. We had approximately 542 people including the volunteers, according to the wrist bands we handed out. We had 94 boys sign up for the boys bicycle wr raffled off and 94 girls for the girls bicycle. Patrick Pennay from Newark Valley won the boys bike and Cloe White from Candor won the girls bike. Both were very excited and couldn't believe they won. We had lots of sunshine for our event, which we were worried about since it has been quite a wet summer. We hope to be able to expand more next year. Planning will begin at the beginning of the new year. We had clowns, face painting, balloons, tractor drawn hayrides, dunk tank, bounce house, zoo-mobile, cotton candy, fire trucks, race cars, pizza, juice, hotdogs, potato chips, ice pops, and it was all free for the community.

A job well done by all!

The bingo committee extends a special thank you to Julie Dodge and Steve Goda for coming in and volunteering to help with bingo. We appreciate all the help we can get.

Thanks,

Clarence and Linda

We now have MIA/POW t-shirts for sale at the Post for $15.00. Get them while they're hot. They are really nice t-shirts.

The Cooties

Our WWII dinner we had was a great success serving approximately 98 plus dinners. A good time was had by all as we listened to many of our Veterans tell their stories. Thanks to all who came out and helped with all the preparations in setting up the hall for the event, (cooking, baking, serving, dipping etc.) A special thank you to Barb Bilbrey and her daughter Shannon who emailed me asking if they could come and help serve dinner. We enjoyed the fellowship and fun we shared while serving our Veterans. Thanks Dave and Royal Ford for the golf cart to bring the Veterans from the parking lot to our building. Thanks Ray for fixing plates of food for the Veterans who weren't able to stand in the buffet line. Our Veterans greatly appreciated that. Thanks Joe for the meatball donation, sorry you couldn't attend the dinner but your meatballs were a great hit and none were left over. Thanks Barb, Jan, Linda and Cindy for putting on an excellant meal. Thanks Hazel and Bill Edwards for handing out drink tickets and the special mugs for our Veterans. Thanks Ray for tending bar. Thanks Jean Marie and Jr. girls for helping with the dishes. Thanks Joan, Yolanda, and Hazel for wrapping silverware. Thanks Jim Raftis for being our Master of Ceremonies, and Joyce Carpenter for your Patriotic songs. Its takes working together to make these functions come together to be successful. Your contributions are greatly appreciated.

Ralph Meza, Doris Camp, Linda and Ray Barrett went to the Newark Valley Nathan T. Hall elementary school @ 9:30 am where Ray read to the first grade students what Flag Day is about and how to properly display and show respect for our Flag. He also mentioned about a special ceremony that is performed to properly retire an old Flag sometimes performed by our local boyscouts, he also mentioned that the American Legion has a drop off box where you can take your worn Flag for retiring. After the reading, we as a group answered many questions the kids had. Ralph spoke about when the Flag is hung upside down, that it is a distress signal and that somebody needs help. We answered many questions that the children had and learned that several of them have family members who have or have had someone serving in the armed forces. The children were very good listeners. 

At 2:30 in the afternoon, Doris Camp, Linda Barrett, Caroline Striley, and Evelyn Seaver all went to the Candor Elementary School and sat in on their Flag day assembly where the entire school participated in singing and the band playing patriotic songs. After the older children left, we stayed with the first grade classes and did a repeat of the program we did for the Newark Valley students. We had a great day visiting these 2 schools and ended the afternoon with a trip to the Candor ice cream store before heading home. Groups of us will be participating in various schools doing the same thing again on Monday the 15th.  Some will go to the Zion Lutheran at 9:00 am, then to the Owego elementary at 9:15 am, then to Tioga Elementary @ 9:45 am, Nichols Elementary at 10:15 am, ending at Apalachin Elementary @ 11:00 am. Dean Morgan, George Carrigan, Joyce Carpenter, Linda & Ray Barrett, David & Yolanda Dunajecz all went to the Newark Valley Middle School assembly on Monday the 15th. Dean and George did a demonstration on folding the American Flag while Ray read the meaning of each fold.

We will wrap up our Flag Day presentations with Saint Patricks School on Tuesday at 9:00 am.   

Several of the ladies auxiliary and Post members plan on attending the Elks Club Flag Ceremony at 6:00 pm. on Monday the 15th.