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Post Commander: Greetings, Comrades! I hope this Newsletter finds you all in the best of health and spirits. March was a great month, filled with successful events, dinners etc. I would like to thank all the volunteers and participants who supported our Post. The many successes are a testament to the collaborative efforts of all our members working together to make a difference. If you are or have been involved in any community events, please inform me so that it can be documented for reporting purposes. Also, I am in the process of planning events with not only Veterans but Firefighters and other community entities as well. Our events will not be successful without continual membership involvement, so we encourage as many volunteers as possible. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please present them to me or our Quartermaster, Dave Moran. I want to thank all the members who donated to support our Post in sponsoring the Lemon Grove Little League. Your contributions are highly appreciated. Special thanks to all who helped in the recruitment of new members as we are currently at 100.33%, and continuously receiving applications and welcoming new members. Please come and meet the new members, build friendships and comradery. Remember, our Post is only as good as we make it. If you want to get involved more, there are plenty of opportunities. Lastly, Post Elections are coming up, and this is the time of the year where you can select our leadership for the next year. If you are interested in running for a position or want to make your voice heard during the election process, please join us at our monthly Post meeting on April 9th at 1900.

Sr Vice Commander: I wanted to take a quick moment to thank everyone for your support of my efforts at the post as your Sr. Vice Commander. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting and working with many of you in person, was deeply enriched by the post’s leadership, and encouraged by all to try new things to best serve and build our presence in the Lemon Grove community. As some of you may know I recently moved to Ramona, CA. and although it was a difficult decision for me to transfer from Post 2082, I felt it was the right decision to stand down and encourage local leadership the opportunity to continue serving this amazing community. I will be eternally grateful for the friendships I have made, the leadership opportunities to learn, and the trust shown by all to try new things. Rest assured, I will continue to visit and support Post 2082’s events. Each of you all have a special place in my heart, we should all embrace change for the positive, and I strongly encourage all of you to get involved – this is your post, share your ideas, as it will only be as great as you want it to be. Cheers, Todd

President VFW Riders: We would like to remind all that our Lemon Grove VFW Riders will hold our annual elections on Tuesday, 9 April at 5:30pm. We currently have two candidates for President and three candidates for Vice President. It is an exciting time for the Riders as we continue to grow membership and increase our community involvement. We would like to give a shout out to our Road CAPT for navigating our Riders safely in support of a Wreath Across America fund raising event and to other Riders for their support of The Wall that Heals. Special recognition of Cochise who rode a donated bike with a sidecar (from DDA) carrying our very own member Joe Garcia to the American Legion 255 for a breakfast event. We would like to remind all that we have a ride planned out to March AFB this month on April 20, 2024 so please contact our Road CAPT at VFW2082@gmail.com for more information, locations, times, or changes– be sure to include VFW Riders, Post 2082 in the subject line. Our 2024 schedule has been created and posted, so for those interested in participating please visit the post for a copy. Also, if you are interested in learning more about the VFW Riders, please email us at VFW2082@gmail.com for more information and include VFW Riders in the subject line. Cheers, Viper

Junior Vice Commander: Post Hop for 27 April is full and dates/times have been confirmed. Final price is $43. For those who have paid the initial $20 deposit you can pay remaining balance to me, Andrea, or the Bartender on duty. Final payments are due NLT 23 April. Look forward to seeing you guys. Appreciate the support of all and those who provided dishes for February’s Black History Month Potluck Dinner. The St Patrick’s Day Meal was a huge success, thanks for all who attended and was able to chow down on Vern’s Waffles and “Home Made” Corn Beef Haddish!! Thanks for the continued support of USS Michael Monsoor’s crew. May 18, 2024 we are planning a First Annual Chili Cook Off. Flyers will be posted at the Bar and the Information Board with details.

Chaplain: Thank you to everyone that came out to support the April Blood Drive, this month marks 40 years the San Diego Blood Bank has been serving the local community. Every day they must collect 350 units of blood to meet the needs of hospital partners. May 4th we will hold CPR First Aid training in the Canteen from 9:00-12:30. The class is open to the community; the cost is 40.00 and the Post will pay for our volunteer bartenders. There will be a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board to register, or you can email me at lauriescamman@gmail.com, please put CPR training in the subject line. Year to date our Post has donated 417 pounds of canned and dry goods to Heavens Windows. You can check out how they are supporting our community at www.heavenswindows.org. Senior Gleaners of San Diego County, a volunteer organization with a mission to address community hunger, needs more people over 55+ to help pick fruit going to waste after rains have delayed picking hundreds of trees. If you would like to help or have trees that need to be harvested, check out this link.

Senior Gleaners – Senior Gleaners of San Diego County (seniorgleanerssdco.org )

Joe Brunner was sent back to Grossmont Hospital with pneumonia, he has his phone and has been well enough for visitors. (He likes black coffee and donut holes!) Let's all wish him well.

Auxiliary President: Dear Auxiliary members welcome to spring now yeah, hopefully no more big rain storms. I know we are all done with the rain. I hope everyone had a nice Easter. I hope everyone is getting healthy for the summertime. We are praying for a speedy recovery for Jacque McKibben. She is recovering from hip replacement.This month we will be taking nominations and voting for new Auxiliary board members for the upcoming year. We will have mass installation next month on May 11 upstairs in our hall. I encourage all of our board members to be present for this installation of new officers. I’m looking forward to a great productive year working with all of you guys with the post members and supporting them. Remember we work as a team all the time.Communication is very important. Period.Thank you to all the volunteers that helped me at my dinner. It was a huge success. I will be cooking April 26th. Linda will be cooking her famous breakfast pies on 14 April. There is a sign up list for her breakfast. Our parking lot sale is April 6. This is for our cancer fundraiser month. All proceeds go to cancer. If you can make any fresh baked goods, please give them to Rosie on Friday or drop them off early Saturday morning. Our post hop party bus is this Saturday, April 27, this is always a good time and a great opportunity to visit other Posts and make friends. Have a safe trip.May 5th is our district meeting. If anyone is interested in attending please let me know.May everyone continue to stay healthy and remember if you want to volunteer at any time, please let me know. We need volunteers in the kitchen for cooking and the parking lot sale.

Sincerely,

Denise Swerdloff

Auxiliary President

Veterans Resource Fair in San Diego

April 2024 Post Leadership News Letter

Annual VFW Membership Two for One Year Deal