Post Talk
NORTH BRANCH POST # 85
By Glenn Pierce, Adjutant
Meeting Schedule:
Bar Finance & Accounting November 11th at 3:30 pm
Membership Meeting November 12th at 7:00 pm
SAL Meeting November 18th at 6:00 pm
Michelle Still, Auxiliary President – This month the American Legion Auxiliary will celebrate 100 years of “service, not self,” as we support our veterans, military personnel, and their families. At our meeting on Nov. 12, we will celebrate the 100 years in three ways; bring a clothing item to donate to the St Cloud VACHS, wear something sparkly to the meeting, AND, we will have special treats. Please come out and celebrate with us.
We have scheduled Veterans’ Day Parties to honor our veterans at Bickford Senior Living on Nov. 8th and at Ecumen on Nov. 11th. Both parties begin at 2:00 pm. These parties are for the entire American Legion Family to participate, and your presence is requested to help entertain and visit with the residents. The seniors really do enjoy the time we share with them.
Orv Otterness, Post Service Officer – Our last meeting with the County Veterans Service Officer at the Legion Hall in North Branch again brought a guest speaker for us. This one spoke and had hand-outs on nutrition and healthy eating. Very interesting and lots of “food” for thought. Try to make the meetings.
I attended the state Legion’s Fall Conference during this past month. With the aging of the veteran population it was good to hear that there is consideration for more Veterans Homes in the future. Sites mentioned were in Preston, Montevideo and Bemidji. They are hoping to have these homes up and running in the next 3-5 years. They are working on the funding and it is thought that a couple of them will be under way soon.
Glenn Pierce, Gaming Manager – In November we will introduce a new exciting Linked Bingo experience to be played on our current electronic gaming system. This new game is designed to give the money back to the players quickly with a progressive ball count on each game. The Linked Bingo game will be played daily from 11am – 1pm, again during happy hour from 4pm – 6pm and nightly from 7pm – 10pm Monday through Friday. Haven’t had enough? It will also play all day Saturday and Sunday. Every game will have a consolation winner. There are 3 distinct and exciting progressive jackpots that can be won. The major jackpot will begin at $10,000.00!
Glenn Pierce, Adjutant – HELP NEEDED!!! We are slowly losing the programs that have benefited so many and been so successful to our organization in the past due to the declining participation of our membership. One of our last Midsummer Ambassadors, Elise Toussaint went on this year to win the Queen of Lakes. After 60 years this program is NO MORE. 2008-2009 was the first year we broke away from having a Queen and 2 Princesses to having 3 Ambassadors, sharing equal roles! It was also the 50th Anniversary of the Midsummer program and we were excited to have our 1st Queen from 1958 in attendance, Sharolyn Bloomquist Olson. Now it looks like our Legion Baseball Program played their last games in 2019. Just the most recent records in the office go back 20 years for this program and now it will fade away because there is no one to manage or coach the team. If you or anyone you know can devote some time towards the youth of our community please let us know.
