Good Afternoon, Post 881 and Friends, Yesterday was our first bowling tournament. We had 24 outstanding participants. People were full of energy and good vibes. Our volunteers did an awesome job on helping things run smoothly. Many people approached me and asked when are we going to do it again. To which I replied, annually. There is a chance we may do another tournament for a different fundraiser this fall. We raised enough money to cover one delegate for Boys State. We paid out winnings to the top four teams; as well as, gifting raffles tickets for a drawing of lottery scratchers that we had available. This was just a way of saying thank you for coming out. Even the bottom five teams received an extra lottery ticket as a thank you. The 50/50 raffle paid out to three people. Our lottery scratcher hat pulled in some money on top of our prizes that were raffled. Thank you to Roberto of Roberto's Cantina in Sunnyvale for the gift certificates. Thank you to my wife, Vicky, for donating the steakhouse gift certificate and for putting together baskets of prizes. Not to mention all her work on helping me with flyers and creating the registration paperwork. Also thanks to Kathy for steering us in the right direction with spreadsheets. Regards, Juan J Saucedo Commander, Post 881 Our membership numbers across the country has been dropping. This makes it more difficult for our National Commander to go in front of congress to request benefits and also work on keeping our existing benefits. Our commander is also our voice to congress. If our membership feels the US needs to do something to support a group of people, not just veterans, then that is what our commander will present. The latest is the PACT ACT which is veteran specific. Another that was presented and passed by congress is the Legion ACT. Which changes the period of service to extend to all honorably discharged veterans from December 7, 1941 and forward to be eligible for membership in the American Legion. This too was passed by congress. Now we are able to let veterans that served in between the war time gaps.
I am asking you to help increase our numbers and work on recruitment. The usual rejections are from people that say they do not have time to be a member. Remind them that membership does not require the individual to be an active participant in the American Legion. Now of course we would like more active members but numbers are needed to keep our organization going. Be ready for someone to say I am busy with school. Ask them if they are attending college on the GI Bill. If the answer is yes, then say you are welcome. The American Legion created the GI Bill for veterans like yourself. This is just one example of what the American Legion created that most Americans did not know. Please help me this year increase not only our Post numbers but the American Legion numbers and a whole. Juan J Saucedo Commander, Post 881 |