Liz Bennett is Unit Member of the Year

Henry G Fix Unit #23 of Garretson, SD is pleased to announce Liz Bennett as our Unit Member of the Year 2019-2020. Liz joined our auxiliary in 2016 and is a PUFL member. Her membership is due to the service of her husband Robert.

As we continue to celebrate our centennial birthday, Liz has worked diligently to preserve the legacy of our Unit. Based on Liz’s background of being the network administrator at the Garretson Public School for 36 years and as adjunct professor at Southeast Technical Institute for the past 20 years, she built and maintains a website not only for our auxiliary but also for The American Legion in Garretson.

She spent many hours researching our archives to provide interesting facts since our organization began in 1921. The website tells who we are and what we stand for in supporting our veterans and children. She provided information on our purpose, our officers, and our Preamble of the American Legion Auxiliary.

Liz has a website category what is called “Interesting Facts,” which begins with information from 1921 to present. She has compiled the names and dates of our Girls State representatives from 1947 through 2019. She also provided unit scholarship winners as far back as 1988. Members can also see on our website some of the projects that our auxiliary partakes in with pictures and articles.

The American Legion celebrated their birthday with a celebration in the Post home for the community. Liz organized a table for the Auxiliary with a display of our lighted emblem, candles representing the four pillars and displayed many of our history books and scrapbooks for review.

Liz is co-chairman for our Girls State program and helped present the information to the Junior girls at our local school. She took it upon herself to send them information about the Girl State program via email to all Junior girls and invite them to our Unit’s presentation regarding Girls State.

She suggested they have their I-pad available at the meeting so they could go on the Auxiliary website to review the Girls State program.

The previous year’s Girls Staters were also present to give first hand information on their time at Girls State. Liz has also volunteered to judge our local scholarship applicants and assisted with the presentation of dictionaries to our 3rd graders at our local school.

On a personal level Liz and her husband have led student tours to Washington, DC, Boston, New York and Philadelphia since 1992. Liz and her husband have been married for 47 years. They have two children and two grandsons. They are members of United Church of Garretson.