The Henry G. Fix Post 23 meeting opened on Thursday, October 5th at 8:00 pm. The meeting was opened by Commander Beth Welch with a salute to the Colors, POW/MIA observance, the Pledge of Allegiance, and Preamble to the American Legion Constitution. Chaplain Meyers offered an opening prayer. 26 members were present. Dan Haygood of Palisades Art Gallery was present as a special guest.
The minutes of the previous meeting were presented and approved. The finance and social reports were approved.
Bills were approved for payment. Service Officer Nancy Grandy reported that a welcome home card was sent to Jon Rajdl who recently returned home from deployment.
A birthday card was sent to Arden Sorenson for age 90, and an anniversary card was sent to Owen and Lois Wiese to celebrate 70 years.
The membership report was given by Jon Schmidt. He reported that our 2024 goal is 204. For 2024 we currently have a total of 123 members at this point. This puts us at 60% of our goal already!
Bob Bennett has sent out information about the Oratory Contest.
The District Oratory Contest will be held on January 21st, 2024 in Humboldt. The school Veteran’s Day Program will take place on November 10th. Our Commander and Honor Guard will participate in the program. Paul Evenson had no report for Legislative Report.
Brian Siemonsma had no report for baseball.
Gary Lyngen and Frank Koens are continuing work on the Past Commander pictures. Our Post Blood Drive will take place on Friday, October 20th from 11 am to 5 pm. Our goal is to collect 26 pints. Commander Welch asked for ideas for the Post to celebrate the 4th of July.
Midwest Honor Flight will soon have flight number 17. Several of our Post members will be on that flight. A welcome home ceremony will be held at the Sioux Falls Arena at 9:30 pm on Tuesday, October 10th.
Our next Post meeting will be Thursday, November 2nd. The meeting will be at 8 pm with the meal starting at 7:00 pm. The next Post breakfast will be on December 3rd with a delicious meal of french toast. The next District meeting is October 21st in Tea, with social at 11 am, meal at 12 pm, and meeting at 1 pm. The next County meeting will be in Sioux Falls at Post 15 on October 24th with the meeting at 7 pm and a meal prior.
Commander Welch is working on the Veteran’s Day program for the Legion. Our Post program will take place on Saturday, November 11th. A thank you card was received from the Kingsbury County American Legion for our participation in their event.
The monthly raffle drawing for September took place. The 4 winners were: Tom Larson, Jase Benson, Jill Leitch, and Jean Deboer. Each will receive $150. Commander Beth Welch closed the meeting with the usual ceremony at 8:31 pm.
-Respectfully submitted,
Mark Wiesner, Post 23 Historian
