JANUARY 2017 NEWSLETTER HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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1 Vol. XIX Issue 1 JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, JR. AMERICAN LEGION POST Wadsworth Blvd. Broomfield, CO Telephone: (303) COMMANDER S CORNER Chuck Blay Commander Welcome to the New Year. It is hard to believe how fast the past year went by. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and that Santa was good to you. Now as we start the New Year, many people make resolutions which they hope to keep. If you are one of them, try to stick to them and Good Luck. December 7, 2016 passed with very little fanfare. It was the 75 th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Over 2400 of our service personnel were killed. One of the survivors described it as fire all around me. I arrived in Hawaii in 1969 as a change of duty assignment. The detachment I was joining sent a driver to pick me up at the airport. As we were traveling to Schofield Barracks I saw several airplanes flying toward Pearl Harbor painted as Japanese planes. This was the filming of the movie Tora, Tora, Tora. After getting over my confusion that day, I began to understand the confusion that must have been present that day in The Four Chaplains Ceremony will be held this year on Saturday, February 4, 2017 at 1PM. If you have not attended the ceremony before, please try to do so this year. Even if you have, please come again. If you would like to be one of the readers for the program, please contact Bob Martin, our Chaplain, or myself. Please see the enclosed brochure. JANUARY 2017 NEWSLETTER HAPPY NEW YEAR! As always, keep our veterans in need in your thoughts and prayers, help them if you can. Keep our active duty service men and women in your thoughts and prayers, especially those who may be in harm s way. Some Thoughts: No legacy is so rich as honesty. William Shakespeare You may never know the result of your action, but if there is no action there is no result. Mahatma Gandhi The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. William James Chuck Blay, Commander AUXILIARY UNIT The new year is here, which means it s a perfect time to start fresh. Let s get out there and MAKE A DIF- FERENCE. A difference in your work, a difference in your family, a difference with your friendships, or a difference at the Legion. In the New Year, we ask everyone to pitch in when needed if you can. Let s not complain or judge each other. Let s make a difference when you see a problem at the Legion. Offer to problem solve or offer to pitch in if you can. Let s make our Legion even greater in the New Year! Speaking of making a difference, our Auxiliary Unit has made a difference for the past 18 years. By adopting Dawn Marie s and recently adding Terri s Special Education Classrooms. We have been able to give Christmas gifts to over 450 children. That is

2 PAGE 2 what I call making a HUGE difference. Thank you everyone for your generous donations over the years to support this wonderful cause. Dawn Marie and Terri-Thank you for making a difference each day in your classrooms. I forward to I have asked my daughter Helen to get more involved. To help me get the Junior Auxiliary in our Unit off the ground. She agreed and thinks it s a good idea. Together Helen and I are going to learn more about Junior Auxiliary. What Junior Auxiliary details, what are the benefits (future scholarships), and upcoming events in 2017 to attend. Specifically, one thing that we want to learn is ways that we can honor military children. If you have a daughter, granddaughter or great-granddaughter that is eligible, please get in touch with me stacey@honeymans.com or What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. Jane Goodall Stacey Honeyman, Auxiliary President CHAPLAIN Christmas and/or Hanukkah Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy temple in Jerusalem. Hanukkah is celebrated for 8 nights and days. The festival is observed by the lighting of the lights of the Menorah, this Menorah has 9 candles or lamps, the one on top is used to light the other eight, one for each day of the celebration. Christmas eve and the start of Hanukkah are on the same day this year. This is rare, and has only happened 4 times in the last 100 years. Christmas means Christ's Mass, the celebration of Jesus Christ's birth. Christ means anointed, and anointed is defined as "to smear, or rub oil on, synonyms: consecrate, bless, ordain, hallowed. Luke 19:10 says "for the son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost". Bob Martin, Chaplain Around the Post Welcome to ! What are we going to do to top ? Tough question To recap Soldier Shipments: We sent three shipments totaling 45 boxes to Afghanistan and Kuwait in the Spring, 2016, and three shipments totaling 31 boxes in the Fall, 2016, to Afghanistan and New Zealand. Topping that will be hard but we ARE up to the task! Once again, we can always use donations to send to the troops the baskets at the front of the lounge can use some attention if you care to donate DVDs, toiletries, hand warmers, socks, gloves, snacks, magazines, phone cards, or any of the DOD approved items. For your information, we are no longer sending ANY books of any kind since they take up too much room in the boxes, so please hold off on bringing any of your books to the Post for donation. We are always looking for new deployed units to support so if you have an APO address for a GI, let us know and we will send some of our fantastic We Care packages to them. Once again, I want to thank all our members for their generous donations. (especially the DVDs) The items we send seem to bring happiness and joy to the troops as a little bit of home arrives with each package. A special thank you to the Auxiliary for providing our miniature American flags and to Jim Friel for not only folding and stuffing them, but for teaching other members how to help. Thanks Jim One more thing for Let s rejuvenate and grow our Post..! Let s get new members, let s remind our current members to renew their membership and find us new family members. I challenge every member of this Post to sign up a new member during this year. It s what we do! Help a Vet, Some way, every day January Newsletter Tim Pappy Schenck, Past Commander & Adjutant

3 January Newsletter PAGE 3 BINGO January 14th & 28th Come out and support our charities Children s Welfare Foundation, Colorado Wounded Warrior and Fisher House. Bingo is held on every second and fourth Saturday of the Month at Post beginning at 6:00 PM. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Four Chaplains Memorial Service POST Saturday February 4 1:00 PM SUPPORT OUR TROOPS CARE PACKAGES Don t forget to drop off some items to be shipped to our troops. A basket is located at the entry of the Post along with a suggested list of items needed by our troops. The DOD approved list of items is also on our website: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ POST Hall Rental Are you planning an upcoming wedding, graduation party, bridal shower, baby shower or birthday party? Check with us for the available dates for the hall. Shirley The Four Chaplains, also sometimes referred to as the "Immortal Chaplains," were four United States Army chaplains who gave their lives to save other civilian and military personnel during the sinking of the troop ship USAT Dorchester on February 3, 1943, during World War II. They helped other soldiers board lifeboats and gave up their own life jackets when the supply ran out. The chaplains joined arms, said prayers, and sang hymns as they went down with the ship.

4 December Newsletter January 2017 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Broncos Pot Luck 2:25 PM 4 5 Auxiliary Meeting 6 Jake Cooking Legion Meeting 7 PM 12 Meeting 7 PM 13 Dennis 14 Bingo Jen Cooking Steak & Cat Fish Jake Cooking 28 Bingo

5 January Newsletter Page 5 ADVERTISERS PAGE Advertised your business here! $10.00 Month or $ year. Price varies depending on size of ad Contact Editor: Shirley or smstarle@msn.com