November 2015

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF ELK RIVER-ROGERS VFW POST and AUXILIARY 5518 November 2015

VETERANS VOICE

Greetings to all. I hope everyone enjoyed their summer and fall and preparing yourselves for the winter. As in the year’s past our Post con-tinues to do wonderful things for our community. We have donated thousands of dollars to our commu-nity, volunteered countless hours for many wonderful causes and continued to partner with many wonderful sports programs from the Elk River/Rogers area. Some of the significant events that have taken place this past year are, MN Rugby has placed permanent metal goal posts on the far south side of our land, Otsego Little league has built batting cages just to the south side of our main building and we assist-ed the 257th Military Police Compa-ny, stationed in Monticello, with a

Commander’s Column

large monetary donation for their summer picnic. Also, at the Fall Conference our Post was nominated for “All American” Post status. This nomination is further recognition that our Post supports our local com-munity. Thank you all for your vol-unteering efforts. You are truly making an impact in our local com-munity. Please feel free to share our website and e-mail addresses with everyone. The more people know about us, the more we can assist our veterans and our community. Look forward to seeing everyone at our Christmas Party. John Wisniewski Post Commander http://vfw5518.wordpress.com/ vfw5518@gmail.com

Do you know someone  worthy of the following  

Honors??  Scout of the Year Teacher of the Year Bus Driver of the Year VFW Firefighter Award VFW EMT Award VFW Police Office Award  To suggest a nominee to be submitted by our Post, please contact:  Scout or Teacher Awards: Melody Shryock, Youth Activities 763-712-1873 or mkshryock@gmail.com  Bus, Fire, EMT or Police Awards: Don Nix, Safety Chairman 763-428-4959 or LoriDonNix@aol.com 

November 2015

AND THE WINNERS ARE…. This Fall our Post & Auxiliary we ran 3 Essay Contests: 5th Grade Essay “Why We Say the Pledge of Allegiance” 1st– Emma Cira, Meadowvale Elementary 2nd– Kaylyn Breyen, Meadowvale Elementary 3rd– Rylee Donald, Meadowvale Elementary Patriot’s Pen Middle School Essay “What Freedom Means to Me” 1st– Grayden Snyder, 8th grade, Spectrum 2nd– Caleb Rogers, 8th grade, Spectrum Voice of Democracy Audio Essay “My Vision for America” 1st– Grace Olson, 11th grade, Elk River H.S. 2nd– Anna McGlone, 10th grade, Spectrum 3rd– Elizabeth Brayden, 11th gr., Elk River H.S.

We are VERY excited for these young students! The top winners will find out how they did on the District level and the 7th District Awards Ban-quet, December 11th.

Interested in hearing what our youth have to say?

Join us prior to the January meetings for our local awards presentation. All of the winning students will present their essays to our mem-bership. The Awards and our monthly meetings for January will be held at the American Legion located at 525 Railroad Drive, Elk River.

Hello All. My name is Mary Touve and I am hon-ored to serve as the Auxiliary President for 2015-2016. We were challenged with the possibility of ending our Charter as we were lacking adequate attendance at our monthly meetings. We are happy to say that several Auxiliary members stepped up and are coming on a regular basis…giving us the required “quorum” to hold of-ficial meetings. It is important that we have reg-ular attendance of at LEAST five members each month or we cannot hold official meetings. Please consider attending, even if just a few times a year. We changed our meeting time to better accommodate attendance. They are held from 6:30-7:30pm on the first Tuesday of the month. Meetings are still at our post home in Otsego. As of August 21, we are now the VFW AUXILIARY. The gender-specific eligibility re-quirement remained for more than 100 years until July 20, 2015, when delegates to the VFW’s 116th National Convention in Pittsburgh voted to amend the dated by-law to extend the same membership opportunity to eligible males. Let’s utilize this change to grow our Auxiliary. Eligible members must be at least 16 years old. They can include: Husband/Wife, Widower/Widow, Father/Mother, Grandfathers/Grandmothers, Sons/Daughters, Grandsons/Granddaughters and Brothers/Sisters. We will dis-cuss this at our December meeting, where we will share and seek ideas to grow our membership. Let’s work together in 2016 on two im-portant tasks. Let’s grow our Auxiliary and make a bigger impact in our community, serving our Veterans and their families. God Bless America and God Bless our Veterans! Mary J Touve (2V), Auxiliary President

November 2015

Upcoming VFW Events 2015-16

December 2015

1 Christmas Potluck/Santa/Mtgs **American Legion Post** located at 525 Railroad Dr.

6:00 pm Social Time (Santa 6:10) 6:30 pm Dinner

RSVP for Santa *Bring a Dish to Share Brief Post & Aux. Meetings after Dinner

5 Monthly Meetings **American Legion Post** located at 525 Railroad Dr.

6:00 pm Youth Essay Awards 6:45 pm Auxiliary Mtg 7:30 pm Post Mtg

22-23 Midwinter Conference **Minneapolis Marriott City Center** VFW State Midwinter Conference, Seminars and Voice of Democracy Awards Banquet

Visit: http://www.mn.gov/vfw/midwinter.html

January 2016

February 2016

2 Monthly Meetings **VFW Post Home– Otsego**

6:30 pm Auxiliary Mtg 7:30 pm Post Mtg Auxiliary Layette Month– Please donate layette items or money to purchase items for our annual Layette Donation

1 Monthly Meetings **VFW Post Home– Otsego**

6:30 pm Auxiliary Mtg 7:30 pm Post Mtg Officer Nominations at Both Meetings

3-6 District Hockey Tourney **Elk River Ice Arena**

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! 7th Dist. Tournament Hosted by US!

Auxiliary Members sell tickets/ VFW Members- Locker Room or Ice Duty

Contact Jim Hesselgrave at 763-712-1873

March 2016

Attention Auxiliary Members: Your 2016 Dues are now due!

Dues are $20.00 With your paid membership you are eligible for the

National Cancer Grant (Up to $600.00) and the Auxiliary Cancer Grant of $100.00

This is a wonderful benefit for our members. The VFW Auxiliary also offers many other benefits and opportunities to it’s mem-bers. Our Mission has always been to support our Veterans and their families and to promote Patriotism throughout the United State of America!

Please consider sending your Dues today

We must receive your 2016 dues by December 24, 2015, for you to remain a member in good standing.

WE NEED EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!

Send to: Vicky Hesselgrave, Aux. Treasurer 7601 166th Avenue NW

Ramsey, MN 55303

MEETING LOCATION:

ALL Post and Auxiliary monthly meetings will be held at the Post Home in Otsego unless

otherwise noted.

November 2015

Every Day is Veteran’s Day for the Claims Office By Jon Gohn, Claims Director, VFW Department of Minnesota

In the spirit of Veteran’s Day this month I wanted to take a moment to shine a spot lite on the claims office.

Did you all know that your Department houses one of the “Best Kept Secrets” out there when it comes to helping veterans and their families? Many of you may know of the services provided by the Claims Office and our staff, but what most of you probably are not aware of is that we do not serve just the veterans of the State of Min-nesota nor do we just help with disability compensation claims.

The Department of Veterans Affairs in St. Paul houses the Veterans Service Center which also includes the Restricted Access Claims Center or RACC Room, the Pension Maintenance Center, Debt Management Center, Vocational Rehabilitation, Health Care with all of its internal clinics and Community Out based Clinics, Burial Claims and assistance at Ft. Snelling and many other departments and other agencies always ready to help our vet-erans. Regarding our Pension Maintenance Center (PMC), most find it interesting to know that we service twenty-one states. Here in St. Paul do not only take care of those in our State, but also take care of veterans or their depend-ents from Minnesota to Texas, and as far West as Alaska and Hawaii.

The Debt Management Center is tasked with handling debts that have been incurred by veterans and their dependents for overpayments. At the point where these debts have been created our office has the opportunity to assist those individuals in developing payment plans, compromises or attempts to assist our beneficiaries obtain waivers for these. This is especially crucial when their monthly income is superseded by justifiable expenses. We do assist people from all across the Country regarding debts that they may have, and what we can do to help them rectify their problems.

Most understand what it is that we do in regards to assisting veterans in obtaining their Disability Compen-sation, but do you know that because of the housing of the Restricted Access Claims Center or RACC room here in St. Paul we represent and assist numerous veterans from all across the Nation who may have a claim housed there? The claims that are maintained in the RACC room are sensitive claims that cannot be worked at the Re-gional Office where the claim originated. That means that we are also dealing with VA Employees, relatives of VA employees, other Veterans Service Officers and others whose files have been deemed to be Sensitive.

Many times we also deal with grieving families at their most vulnerable time. When their loved one passes away we help to ensure that they receive any potential burial benefits they may have entitlement to. Many of the funeral homes and County Veterans Service Officers in the State of Minnesota are stupendous when assisting fam-ily members with these needs; however we are also an intricate part of this process. Whether that be help in ob-taining monetary benefits, burial flags, headstones or getting them in touch with the proper personnel to ensure that their Veteran gets their ever so deserving Funeral Honors that they have earned. We can all agree that hearing the observing a final 21 Gun Salute, hearing the last bugle call, and seeing the Flag presented to the family of one of our Nation’s brothers or sisters, is probably one of the most humbling and heart touching experiences we can all witness.

As you can see we are an all-encompassing office, and quite frankly this only scratches the surface of the amount of help we bring to Veterans and their families around our Nation. Not only do we strive to ensure that the individuals in the State of Minnesota are receiving everything that they deserve, but we are being the watchdogs for many across this land and beyond. We may not always be perfect in what we do, but the satisfaction in knowing that we are doing our best to help those that need and deserve it leaves a sense of immense pride and perfection in accomplishment at the end of the day.

With that said I hope you all had an enjoyable Veteran’s Day and celebrated in your own individual way, Thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you have done, and continue to do.

November 2015

Northwest Metro VA Clinic 7545 Veterans Drive, Ramsey, MN 55303

About Our Clinic: Our mission is to provide Veterans readily accessible healthcare by providing primary care, mental health care and specialty care close to their home. We will offer these services with courtesy, compassion, friendliness and concern for you and your family by following Veterans Affairs Customer Service Standards.

Scope of Services: Primary Care including chronic disease management, patient education and Health Promotion Immunizations Mental Health Services with on-site staff and telemedicine capability linked to providers in Min-

neapolis Tele-Healthcare with Minneapolis providers Laboratory Services Women’s Health Care - health care for the unique needs of female Veterans Radiology/Imaging routine x-ray services our provided in the clinic, complex x-ray and imaging

is provided through the Minneapolis radiology department. Specialty Care - our clinic provides specialty care for veterans that qualify for dental services.

We also provide eye exams and issue glasses, and provide audiology services. All other special-ty care is done in Minneapolis.

Hours: Monday - Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Eligibility: You must be enrolled in the Minneapolis VA Health Care System to receive treatment at this clinic. Enrollment in VA health care is determined annually. Most honorably discharged veterans are eligi-ble for treatment. There may be a co-payment required based on income.

All Veterans are encouraged to enroll in the Veterans Affairs Health Care system. If you would like to receive an application for Health Care Benefits by mail, please call (612) 467-2071 and ask for a 10-10EZ application for health care benefits mailed to you, contact your local County Veterans Ser-vice Officer for assistance.

How to Access Care at the Northwest Metro Community Clinic: Once you are enrolled and have been accepted, an initial appointment can be made by calling 612-467-1100.

November 2015

Elk River - Rogers VFW 5518 P.O. Box 66 Elk River, Minnesota 55330

NON-PROFIT U.S. POSTAGE

PAID

Elk River, MN Permit No. 13

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