President - Maureen Caswell
Greetings All,
Happy February! The Auxiliary is busy doing all the behind the scenes work in order to implement our participation in the 2025 Girls State Program, our annual Scholarship Program and our annual Women Veterans Luncheon.
We have already been to our two local high schools, The Villages Charter High School in Middleton and Leesburg High School, to talk to the Juniors about the Auxiliary’s Girls State Program. This Auxiliary Program is in its 79th year! Girls State is basically citizenship training and is held on the campus of Florida State University over the course of ten days. The 2025 session is scheduled for June. The Auxiliary pays 100% of the cost for the girls to attend. This coming week, we will be interviewing the 11 girls that applied. Soon after the interviews, we will be making our delegate selection for the Program. We are planning to send five girls to Girls State this year.
We are also in the process of finalizing our 2025 Scholarship Program and will be delivering information packets to Leesburg and The Villages High Schools. We plan on again spending $20,000 this year. We will be awarding two $5,000 scholarships under our Americanism program and two $5,000 scholarships under our Education Program. Students are required to fill out an application and write an essay as well. We will again be awarding several scholarships to nursing students from Lake Sumter State College.
Lastly, we are in the process of planning our annual luncheon for our Proud Women Veterans. The date has been set for Monday, March 10. Invitations will be emailed early this month. There are over 300 local female veterans in our immediate area. This is always a fun event and one that we really enjoy doing!
Come on out and join us at our monthly meetings. We discuss all of our events and programs at these meetings. Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 5. We start with a social mix that begins at 5:00pm and our meetings start promptly at 6pm. Hope to see you there!
FEBRUARY 2025
Happy New Year! 2024 certainly flew by! I want to take this opportunity to thank the entire American Legion Family for supporting our Holiday Food Box Program. As a family, we were able to very generously supply significant food staples along with holiday meals to 100 families. Each family received enough food to last at least a week! I’d also like to thank all of you that donated food items, money and of course, your time! Well done and Thank you!
Our Angel Tree program generously provided gifts to more than 150 children/seniors and several families in need. We also hosted 60 local Toys for Tots Volunteers with an appreciation dinner as a “thank you”.
We will be busy over the next several weeks planning and finalizing our participation in the following Auxiliary Programs:
· Girls State
· Scholarships - fine tuning our plans under our Americanism, Education and Past President Parley (Nursing) programs
· Female Veteran Luncheon – host lunch/ceremony
· May Poppy Drive
· Memorial Day & Veterans Day Lunch
Lots to talk about, lots to do! Come on out and join us at our next Auxiliary General Meeting on Wednesday, January 1, 2025 at Post 347 in the Hall. YES, THAT DATE IS CORRECT! Membership voted to hold the monthly meeting on the scheduled date, even though that happened to be New Year’s Day evening. Our social mix begins at 5:00pm and we will be hosting a potluck dinner. The Auxiliary will provide the Pork Roast. We are asking you to bring your favorite side or dessert to share. As usual, our General Meeting will begin promptly at 6pm.
Hope to see you there and wishing all of you a very happy, healthy New Ye
JANUARY 2025
Hi All,
It’s hard to believe that it’s already DECEMBER and we are in the thick of the holiday season! I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for supporting our local Salvation Army Angel/Bell and Family Tree Program. This year we again committed to adopt 150 angels/bells combined and in addition we have adopted three families. Most of the Angels, bells and families have been adopted. I am pleased to tell you that the majority of the gifts have already been returned. If you still have an angel/bell or family gift out, please return it by December 4. Please be sure to label the gifts with the angel or bell and put a note with your name on the gift so we know that you have returned what you signed out.
Our Thanksgiving Food Box Program is complete and was very successful. We are continuing to receive non-perishable items for our Christmas Food Box Program. To date, we have collected ~$1,150. in food donations. These donations allowed us to pack a lot of extra items. Thanks for helping us make this holiday program such a success again this year!
If you have not renewed your membership for 2025, please do so at your earliest convenience. Your membership must be renewed by the end of the year to continue to access the Post. We are available to renew your membership in person on Monday, Wednesday and Friday typically between the hours of 10am-3pm. Bring your 2024 card with you. We are 80% renewed!
Please come out to our General Meeting on December 4 if you can. We will have an abbreviated meeting and celebrate the holiday with a pot luck dinner. We will be cooking ham and turkey and ask members to bring a side or dessert of their choice to share. Social hour begins at 5pm and the meeting starts promptly at 6pm.
I want to take this opportunity to wish you all very happy and healthy holidays and thank you, as always, for your support. We could not do what we do without you!
December 2024
Greetings,
I’d like to extend a sincere “thank you” to all of you that worked and/or supported our annual Oktoberfest last month. It was the largest Oktoberfest we’ve ever had. We are so pleased and look forward to next year. Thank you again!
November is a super busy month for us, we have multiple activities/events within a few short weeks. You can learn more about each event at our monthly general meetings held the first Wednesday of each month. Our next meeting is scheduled for November 6. If you are interested in helping with any of these events but can’t make the meeting, email us at: alaunit347@comcast.net.
Upcoming Events are as follows:
The Annual Early Bird Spaghetti Dinner is scheduled for Sunday, December 1, 2024. You are an Early Bird if you paid your dues on or before 11/11/24. Reservations will begin on Friday, November 1. There will be two seatings, 4pm and 6pm. If you are interested in attending, you will need to sign-up at the Post and you will be asked for your membership card. We are asking for a $1 donation to hold your reservation. That $1 will be used for door prizes. You may bring one guest. The cost is $5. This is typically a non-member spouse or significant other.
We will be distributing Poppies on Veterans Day at multiple local locations. WE ARE IN DESPERATE NEED for volunteers. If you can give us one shift at the location of your choice, it would be most appreciated
We will be packing 50 boxes and grocery totes for our Thanksgiving and Christmas Food Box Program on the following dates:
- Monday, November 18, 2024 at 10am in the Post Hall for Thanksgiving
- Monday, December 16, 2024 at 10am in the Post Hall for Christmas
Lastly, The Auxiliary will again be sponsoring 100 Angels (children) of various ages and 50 Bells (senior citizens) through the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Program. We will have the Angels and Bells ready for you to pick up at our November 6, General Meeting. In addition, we will be adopting 5 local families this year. We will have angels, bells and family tags available that will indicate gift ideas for each of the groups. If you would like to sponsor a child, senior or family and cannot make our 11/6 meeting, please email us at: alaunit347@comcast.net. I will tell you from experience that the angel and bell gift tags go very quickly.
Wishing you all a very happy, healthy Thanksgiving!
NOVEMBER 2024
Hi All,
I hope that you enjoyed the summer. Fall is fast approaching, and with that comes our very busy fall schedule.
to remind everyone that our first event is The Auxiliary’s Annual Oktoberfest Dinner Dance that is planned for Sunday, September 29th in the Post Hall. Doors open at 5pm, dinner will be served at 6 pm. Dinner is being prepared by Ruth Sovern and her team. For those of you that have not attended, the food is FABULOUS!
Our menu is: Bratwurst, Jaegersnitzle, German Potato Salad, Red Cabbage, Spaetzle, Cucumber Salad, Applesauce, Rye/Pumpernickel Bread and Butter. Music will be provided by Jonelle & The G Man. Tickets are on sale now at the Post Lounge, during Tuesday night Queen of Hearts and during membership renewal hours, Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 12-3pm in the Post Lobby. Tickets are $25/person.
Please come out and join us if you can.
Upcoming Events
October – Holiday Food Box Kick off
November – Veterans Day Lunch, Poppy Distribution, Veteran Goody Bags, Thanksgiving Food Box Assembly, Early Bird Spaghetti Dinner
December – Christmas Food Box Assembly, Angel Tree Gifts
We will be looking for volunteers to help out with these events. If you are interested in volunteering, please attend one of our General Membership Meetings. They are held on the first Wednesday of the month beginning at 6pm
SEPTEMBER 2024