Overview of Unit 109’s Committees
To achieve the mission and purpose of the American Legion Auxiliary the efforts are divided into committees. The committees develop the plans to achieve their goals, which then get executed with the help of members and friends. Members should belong to one or more committees. No, it isn’t overwhelming, a little of your time, energy, and brain power goes a long way in accomplishing the goals.
Americanism
Purpose Statement: To inspire, recognize, and perpetuate responsible citizenship through education and acts of patriotism, in order to raise awareness and increase appreciation of the price paid for our fundamental freedoms. Each year there is an essay contest for students in grades 3-12.
Current Chair: Linda Lohrfink
Children & Youth
Purpose Statement: To work collaboratively with The American Legion to direct and sponsor programs and services that provide care and protection for our nation’s children, especially those of our military and veterans.
Current Chair: Paula Reisz
Community Service
Purpose Statement: To strengthen our local communities with uniquely identified opportunities of service by providing volunteer leadership, encouraging the stewardship of its patriotic citizens, acknowledging our country’s military history, and supporting the families that have sacrificed for our freedom.
Current Chair: Patty Calvert
Education
Purpose Statement: To promote quality education for children and adults through classroom activities, literacy programs, scholarship promotion, and support of education beyond high school, especially for military children
Current Chair: Millie Finck
Girls State/Girls Nation
About this program: What single American Legion Auxiliary program can be inspirational, educational, life-changing, and fun? It is the ALA Girls State/Girls Nation, a marquee Auxiliary program. At the American Legion Auxiliary Girls State, high school female students who have completed their junior year (they apply while juniors) are competitively selected to participate in a seven-day mock governmental program of campaigning, debating, voting, and electing mock local and state leadership. Our Unit offers this to two young ladies each year.
Current Chair: Sharon Knecht
Junior Member Activities
Purpose Statement: To interest eligible young women (under age 18) in adult Auxiliary membership through positive experiences of mission-based volunteer opportunities that instill the ideals of the organization.
Current Chair: OPEN
National Security
Purpose Statement: To support our Military and their families. The Auxiliary’s National Security program hopes to ease the worries of those deployed so that they can focus on the monumental task of protecting our country
Current Chair: VACANT
Poppies
Purpose Statement: The Poppy Program raises community awareness and respect for our veterans by educating Auxiliary members and the public about the symbol of the poppy, taken from a line in the poem “In Flanders Fields” written on the battlefront during World War I by Lt. Col. John McCrae, Connecting the visual image of the poppy with the sacrifice of service made by our veterans has been an important goal of the American Legion Auxiliary Poppy Program since its inception in 1921. On Memorial Day and Veterans Day, millions of red crepe paper poppies—all handmade by veterans as part of their therapeutic rehabilitation—are distributed across the country in exchange for donations that go directly to assist disabled and hospitalized veterans in our communities.
Current Chair: VACANT
Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation (VA&R)
Purpose Statement: To initiate, sponsor, and participate in programs and services that assist and enhance the lives of veterans and their families, ensuring restoration and/or transition to normally functioning lives physically, mentally, socially, and vocationally.
Current Chair: Paula Reisz