President: It was great hosting national president

By Judy Ackerman
American Legion Auxiliary National President Trish Ward of Kansas speaks on Oct. 24 at the River’s Edge Convention Center in St. Cloud during the Fall Conference. Members of the Auxiliary were joined by members of the Legion and SAL to hear her words.

October has gone by in a blink of an eye. Let’s recap what has happened in the last four weeks or so.

Several members from Minnesota (including me) attended National President Trish Ward’s homecoming in Wichita, Kan., Sept. 26-29.

We drove down to Kansas and then were entertained by the American Legion Family of Kansas. Friday took us to the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene. What a fabulous morning that was.

We went on to have lunch in Legacy, Kan., and shopped at the Russel Stover’s Candy Outlet store. We saw much chocolate and other types of candy.

Saturday took us to the Veterans Memorial Park and the Botanica. Attendees had the opportunity to go to the Kansas Aviation Museum or Old Town Shopping Excursion. Saturday ended with a Western-themed gala at the Exploration Place for dinner and then we watched the “Ring of Fire” around the spectacular “Keeper of the Plains” statue located on the magnificent Arkansas River.  It was a great time making new friends and getting reacquainted with old friends.

I was able to attend the 8th District’s Fall Meeting at West Duluth Post 71, a membership dinner in Brainerd and the 2nd District’s membership rally.

 

National President’s Tour

On Monday, Oct. 21, National President Trish Ward landed in Minnesota for her visit. NEC Jean Walker and Membership Chairman Hope Wilson met her at the airport and then went on a tour of the Armed Forces Services Center at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Judy Ackerman

President Ward also instructed Snoopy on the National ALA’s Constitution and Standing Rules at the MSP airport. I joined them Monday night (that’s what happens when you still work).

On Tuesday, we were off bright and early to tour the Minneapolis Veterans Home. White Bear Lake’s Sandy Gibson, our representative for the home, joined us for this part of the day. Ward even joined a couple of our veterans in a game of pool.

Then we were off to see different areas of the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, including the Spinal Cord Injury & Disorder Center and also the Fisher House. We stopped at the Department Office for lunch with our staff and a walking tour of the memorials on the Minnesota State Capitol Mall.

The afternoon took us to the beautiful Fort Snelling National Cemetery. It was so humbling to see all of the stones for our deceased veterans and their family members. What a great history lesson. (I can’t wait to go back on Dec. 14 to participate in Wreaths Across America.)

On Wednesday, we went to Eagle’s Healing Nest in Sauk Centre. Its mission is to help our veterans and the best part is, there is not government red tape.

The St. Cloud Stand down is a great place for our veterans to go for assistance if they need it.  No judgment. No questions asked. Thank you, Bob, John and all your volunteers for what you do.

On Thursday morning, we started the day at the St. Cloud VA Medical Center, learning about their services for our veterans.

 

Fall Conference

I hope you were able to attend Fall Conference in St. Cloud. What a great weekend! The department chairmen shared their information with the attendees. I hope you came away with new ideas and were re-energized to keep working the mission of the American Legion Auxiliary.

National President Ward shared her vision for this year. We need to end the backward slide of membership to ensure that we keep serving our veterans, active military and their families and our communities.

ALA, SAL and TAL members alike assembled poppies at the Fall Conference. Here, from right, 7th District Commander Carl Wilson, ALA Department Membership Chairman Hope Wilson and their granddaughter, a member of the Junior Auxiliary, make poppies.

Poppy Chairman Lorinda Kies implemented the Poppy Making Challenge on Friday night.  The sister districts were paired together to form a team for a total of five teams. The teams worked together and made 3,729 poppies in two hours. Operation Poppy was a great success. One hundred fifty-four American Legion Family members came to together to visit and learned to make poppies.

The personal care kits for our female veterans coming into the Women’s Clinic at the Minneapolis VAMC was a phenomenal success. Thank you to all the units and individuals that donated money or items for these kits.

The Juniors used this project at their Junior Fun Weekend in August and had packed 139 kits then. Members were busy sorting these items to form an assembly line for packing these kits. More than 300 additional kits were packed on Friday night.

Thank you to those who helped box up the kits, pack them into the vehicles to be taken to the Minneapolis VAMC for distribution.  The leftover supplies were given to several of the Minnesota Veterans Homes representatives for their facilities and to the St. Cloud Stand down.

The Minnesota American Legion Family rocks. The participation in the Poppy challenge and the personal care kits warmed my heart. Thank you so much.

Judy Ackerman of Northrop Unit 522 is the president of the American Legion Auxiliary Department of Minnesota. Her theme is “Back to the Basics: Recognize, Respect, Remember.”