NEW HARTFORD AMERICAN LEGION POST Clinton St New Hartford, NY (315)

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1 Lunches Served Daily Monday-Friday 11:00 AM-2:00 PM NEW HARTFORD AMERICAN LEGION POST Clinton St New Hartford, NY (315) The Friendly Post Hours of Operation Monday-Saturday 11:00 AM-12:00 AM Sunday 12:00 PM-12:00 AM JANUARY - FEBRUARY DATES JANUARY 1st-New Years Day Post Closed/ Will open at 3PM 7th-Board of Directors Meeting-6:30 PM 7th-Auxiliary Meeting-6:30 PM 8th-Executive Board Meeting-6:30 PM 8th-SAL Meeting-7:00 PM 14th Tuesday Night Dinner Serving 4:00 7:00 PM 15th-Post Membership Meeting-7:00 PM 16th-Post Color Guard Meeting-6:00 PM 20th-Oneida County Legion Western Memorial Post 1846 Westernville 7:30 PM 23rd-25th-Mid Winter Conference-Albany FEBRUARY 4th-Board of Directors Meeting-6:30 PM 4th-Auxiliary Meeting-6:30 PM 5th-Executive Board Meeting-6:30 PM 5th SAL Meeting-7:00 PM 11th-Tuesday Night Dinner Serving 4:00 7:00 PM 14th-Valintines Day 17th-Joint Oneida County Legion Smith Post 24 Rome-7:30 PM 19th-Post Membership Meeting-7:00 PM 20th-Post Color Guard Meeting-6:00 PM QUOTE OF THE MONTH "If we knew where opinion ended and fact began, we should have discovered, I suppose the absolute." ALEC WAUGH English author NEWSLETTER 2014 COMMANDER S MESSAGE We hope that everyone had a good Holiday Season and can look forward to another year. My wife, Peg and I arrived in Florida on December 18th and are settled in. I received a very good medical report before we left and I feel great. The doctors will keep an eye on my progress. Thanks again for all thoughts and prayers, they really helped with my recovery. The December Holiday Parties all went well. December 7th we had the Children s Christmas Party upstairs and as always, it was well received. We can t thank the Auxiliary members enough, who bought and wrapped all of the presents for the children. They also served the lunch and the cake and ice cream. John Dooley and his staff did an outstanding job of preparing lunch. Thanks, also to our Color Guard members who served drinks. I didn t mention names for fear of leaving someone out, but you know who you are and we truly appreciate everything all of you did. We would like to acknowledge Bobby Colp and Babs for all of their time and patience in decorating our Post for the Holidays. Bob took care of the outside and inside decorating, including the Christmas Trees upstairs and down. Thank You!!! The same goes for the Veteran s Christmas Party held on the 14th and a special Thank You to the ROTC Cadets from Utica College who join us every year to help out. The Color Guard was there to render a salute to each veteran as they entered the Post. The ladies, bought and wrapped all of their presents and the ROTC and the Color Guard helped get them seated and returned to their buses after. This is one of the most enjoyable times we

2 spend here with these veterans who are confined to area nursing homes. The look on their face tells it all and it is the sincere appreciation we have for them for their service to our country. The Post Christmas Party took place the evening of the 14th and was also well attended. My thanks to everyone who lent a hand to help make this an enjoyable evening for those that attended. January and February will be fairly quiet as we move towards Spring and hope Winter will be generous to us in the form of mild to very mild. The Post will be represented by officers from our Executive Board at Mid-Winter Conference in Albany on January With regret we have accepted the resignation of out Post Adjutant, Dave Excell. Dave has informed us that he has health issues to deal with, along with the recent passing of his wife, Judie. We all wish him well and hopefully he will be back with us soon. In the mean time I have appointed Victor Gazzilli to fill the rest of Dave s term. NOTICE!!! I inadvertently published Gary Fountain s address as grfoutain7@gmail.com. The correct e- mail address is grfountain7@gmail.com. I apologize for this. Gary will still need all information for the newsletter by the 10th of the month before the month in which it is due. Again, should anyone need to contact me, I can be reached at by mail at: Fred Williams 1113 Harbour Point Dr. Port Orange, Florida Or me pegwill19@cs.com. Or by (315) Thank You. Let us pray that our servicemen and women return home soon and safely to a grateful nation. For the Good of the Legion, Fred Williams, Post Commander THANK YOU I want to thank the people that submit articles for the newsletter for getting them to me early. It was very much appreciated as I am still learning the system. If you have any suggestions for making the newsletter better let me know. Gary Fountain 3rd Vice Commander AUXILIARY NEWS The next meeting for the Auxiliary will be Tuesday, January 7, 2014 at 6:30PM. We welcome all our new and current members to attend a few minutes early so we may have refreshments and get acquainted. Please join us. We hope everyone had a blessed and healthy holiday. The children s and veteran s Christmas parties were a great success. The ROTC from Utica College was, as always, a wonderful addition to the veteran s party. It was nice to see them conversing with our vets and sharing. Thanks to all who made both of these parties possible. We also sponsored a serviceman s family this year for Christmas. It was Army Sgt s family from Booneville. They have three children, Brooke 8, Braden 3 and Bryan 1. Bryan just came home from the hospital in Philadelphia just last month. He has been there since he was born. I am sure we couldn't give them any better Christmas present then they already had, having Bryan home, but I m sure we made it a little easier for the parents. The winner of the cookie raffle well be announced in the next bulletin since submission was due before the day of the drawing. Remember that the 2013 membership cards are in and the dues are $ They can be sent to Janice Hurley at 1904 Redfield Ave, Utica, NY or drop off at the Post in the Auxiliary mailbox in the lounge area. Help us be 100% participation again this year. Any questions, please call Janice The New Hartford Auxiliary unit 1376 would like to welcome the following new members to our unit. Please welcome: Elizabeth Palaka, Shelia Ryan, Jeanie Griffiths, Mary Jane Rothdiener, Anne Stepnick, Donna Lea McGovern, Barbara Foppes, Alice Spath, Gertrude Hart, Carol Pritchard, Allison Liesch, Laureen Pettinelli, Debra Potaczala, Mary Reilly, Bethany Curtis, Mary Kemp. Please pray for our service me and women and continue to support our veterans. Monica Lawendowski, President

3 FROM THE DESK OF THE POST CATERER Our Post Caterer, John Dooley will cater all Legion functions as well as Friday s and Tuesday s dinners. He also will cater all private functions and a menu is available at the Bar with several options to choose from. Please give him a (315) to book your special event. John has given us a list of Specials that will be available along with the regular menu on the Friday Night Dinners. He plans to do this through out the year and the following Specials will be available on Friday Nights: FRIDAY NIGHT SPECIALS JANUARY 3rd Come See What s Cooking JANUARY 10th Stuffed Peppers JANUARY 17TH Shepherds Pie JANUARY 22nd Chicken Parmesan ***JANUARY S*** **TUESDAY NIGHT DINNER** Golabki, Pierogi, Kielbasa with Salad, Rolls and Coffee, Tea TUESDAY NOVEMBER 14, 2014 Serving from 4:00-7:00 PM Donation - $8.00 *****FEBRUARY S***** TUESDAY NIGHT DINNER Roast Beef With Mashed Potatoes, Vegetable, Salad, Rolls, Coffee, and Tea TUESDAY FEBRUARY 12, 2014 Serving from 4:00 7:00 pm Donation $8.00 Respectively Submitted, John Dooley, Post Caterer JANUARY 31st Mushroom Stew FEBRUARY 7th Golabkies FEBRUARY 14th Valentine s Special FEBRUARY 21st Stuffed Peppers FEBRUARY 28th Hats and Broccoli with Chicken in Alfredo Sauce SAL RAFFLE 50 SAMSUNG SMART TV The winner was John Furmanski. We thank all the people that bought raffle tickets.

4 COLOR GUARD REPORT The next Color Guard meetings will be held on January 16th and February 20th. If there are any changes you will be notified by our gracious secretary Janice Hurley. We have been extremely busy this past Fall. Our Unit has participated in Wakes and Graveside services for the Excell, Doolittle, Koscielniak and Critelli families. Our sympathies are extended to their families. On a very sad note Judie Excell of our Colorguard passed away this Fall. She was a very dedicated member of our group who enjoyed being at all our Events. She was loved by everyone and will be greatly missed by us. Farewell Judie. We also extend our heartfelt thoughts to member Joanne Fountain who lost her brother John Koscielniak this Fall As stated we have been very active. Below is a list of our functions to date:1.veterans Day Ceremony - Purple Heart at the Post 2. Veterans Day - Hughes School 3. Veterans Day - Senior Center 4. Veterans Day - Myles School 5. Whitestown Veterans Day Parade 6. Veterans Day Ceremony at the Post 7. Veterans Day - Sunset Woods 8. Veterans Day - Presbyterian Home 9. Veterans Day - New Hartford Memorial Park 10. Veterans Day - Bator Post - New York Mills 11. Clinton Holiday Stroll Parade 12. Naturalization Ceremony - Federal Courthouse - Utica 13. Childrens Christmas Party - Post 1376 At this time the Color Guard has taken part in 100 Events. We have given back to our Community 1852 hours of service. This is a record for us and at the time of this we are not done for the year. All of our functions are under the direction of Capt. Nelson Pohoresky. Donald Wisnoski, Historian. POST LOTTERY REPORT OCTOBER 2013 LOTTERY NUMBERS DATE/NUMBER 1/181 2/496 3/803 4/092 5/925 6/511 7/729 8/684 9/410 10/276 11/554 12/054 13/921 14/634 15/501 16/004 17/004 18/788 19/855 20/909 21/635 22/005 23/420 24/ /544 26/047 27/119 28/544 29/516 30/953 31/436 NOVEMBER 2013 LOTTERY NUMBERS DATE/NUMBER 1/834 2/373 3/513 4/179 5/350 6/853 7/963 8/7260 9/056 10/490 11/536 12/371 13/800 14/650 15/198 16/887 17/172 18/532 19/268 20/ / /052 23/617 24/181 25/481 26/928 27/863 28/Post Closed 29/584 30/642 Disclaimer: Every effort is made to accurately report these numbers. The official numbers are those recorded on the Post Lottery Payment Log by the Fund Raiser Chairman. The Post will not be responsible for typos in the newsletter. Lottery News: With your mailed newsletter you will find the 2014 lottery letter and ticket will be the 25th year of the New Hartford Post Lottery program that has earned over $100,000 in support of Post baseball and other programs. Sales have been a bit lower during the economic doldrums of the past couple of years, but hopefully, with a more upbeat economy, every Post member will participate and help make the 25th year the best year yet for the Post Lottery. Extra tickets are available at the Bar if you can sell or buy more than one. Anyone reading this that gets the newsletter ed to them can request that a ticket be mailed to them by ing me at eyeman@adelphia.net. Just tell me how many you want and an address to mail them to. Thank you in advance for your support of this program. Terry Johnson PC, Lottery Chairman

5 LOTTERY NEWS If your have not yet turned in your 2014 Post Lottery ticker, do so ASAP. The play for 2014 tickets starts January 1st. It is not too late to get in, all tickets turned in after January 1st will play from when they are received by the lottery. We again are offering a 2015 membership to the Legion, SAL or Auxilary members who sell ten or more tickets. If you can sell 5 you will earn a free Tuesday Night Dinner. To date, there have been over 175 winners in You can t win if you don t play! Each ticket plays every day in 2014 and multiple wins are possible (and happens). Extra tickets are available at the bar or you can me at eyeman@adelphia.net and I will be happy to mail you a ticket or tickets. Thanks in advance for your support of this program, which raised over $100,000 for children and youth programs over the past 25 years. Lottery Chairman Terry Johnson PC NEWSLETTER ON LINE Please help us in controlling our mailing expenses. Most of you have a computer and you can get your newsletter online and it is VERY easy to do. Search for New Hartford American Legion Post The search should give 2 results, the facebook link, the other is the website it will say New Hartford American Legion Post 1376 the Friendly Post. Click on that and it will bring you to the Legion s website. In the options section click on newsletter and the month. That s all there is to it. You don t even have to print it as it is there to refer to whenever you want. By doing this you will be saving the Post the major expense of printing and mailing. Once you have it, please contact Fred (315) and press 5 to leave your name to have it put to Duplicate on the mailing list and you won t receive a newsletter by mail. Give it a try and see how easy it is! Gary Fountain, 3rd Vice Commander The Marines were backing-up LAPD on a call that someone had broken into a store. At the scene, the cop told the Marines to "cover" him as he approached the store (to police, "cover" means to point your weapons in the direction of the threat, to Marines it means lay down a base of fire!). The Marines promptly laid down a base of fire. The Marines fired 178 rounds before they stopped shooting. The thief, probably a little scared at this point, called 911 and reported, "They're shooting at me!". NEWSLETTER VIA NOTICE!!!! For those that would like to receive their newsletter via , send your name and your address to post1376@yahoo.com In order to read the newsletter when it is sent to you, you will have to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. If you do not have Acrobat Reader installed, please visit get.adobe.com/reader to download. There is no charge to download this. Mike Williams, SAL Member

6 SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE REPORT Scholarship applications will be available at the Bar after the 1st of the year. The last day to submit an application is April 1st. If you have any questions regarding scholarships, please give me a call, Ron Ouimette Thank You. Ron Ouimette, Chairman SAL NEWS The next two Sons meetings will be Wednesday January 8th and Wednesday February 5, at 7PM. If you have not paid your dues for 2014, they are due by January 1, Dues are twenty dollars. If you pay by check, make it out to S.A.L Post If you pay by cash, make sure your name is with the payment. Dues can be sent to Bob Byrd, 4 Foxcroft Road, New Hartford, NY 13413, or put them in the S.A.L. mailbox next to the bar at the post. The sons wish to thank all post members, who buy Queen of Hearts raffle tickets. The son s also thank all post members who brought a raffle ticket for a 40 inch Samsung television. The profit we make is used for scholarship we give every year to a post members son or daughter. The Sons have made monetary donations to our Post Boy Scout Troop, The Utica College Girls Softball team, and the Oneida County Sons of the American Legion. We wish all Post members a Healthy and Happy Respectfully submitted Robert Byrd, Adajant New Hartford American Legion Post 1376 is planning to sponsor an Invitational Bowling Tournament for the VFW and the American Legion bowlers. This tournament will include members of both organizations, including the Sons of the Legion (SAL), Auxiliary as well as the Legion. It will also include all VFW members and Associates and Auxiliary along with the members of the Marine Corps League. This inaugural event is being planned for the week-ends starting March 29, 2014 and ending May 4th. This Tournament will be held at the Pin-O-Rama and Vista Lanes. The team event will be held at the Pin-O-Rama Lanes and the Doubles will be held at the Vista Lanes. There will be NO Singles event with the Team and Doubles consisting of the six game combine. This was decided upon due to the fact that many older bowlers would not have to bowl six games in one day. Tony LaPolla, a member of Post 1376 SAL Squadron has been appointed Tournament Manager. This Tournament could have as many as 300 Teams or more than 1200 bowlers that would be staying at local hotels. With these bowlers would be family and friends that will attend and this could be a great event for our Post. I will be sending over 700 invites to Posts to bowl in the tournament. We will be seeking volunteers to work this tournament on the specific week-ends. We will need: 1. Check in and Lane Assignment Volunteers to work at the Pin-O-Rama and Vista Lanes. 2. Volunteers to send out information by mailing to the Posts in New York State. 3. We will need greeters to work at our Post when out-of-towners come to visit during the weekends of the tournament. 4. We will need add seekers for the program book. 5. We will need volunteers to monitor the scoring at both centers. 6. We are seeking a sponsor for this event to bring up the prize amount. If anyone knows of a business that may seek to sponsor, please let me know. I would like to meet with all departments of New

7 Hartford Legion, with the first meeting in January of A meeting for all volunteers will take place the 1st week in February. The Post will have a mail box to receive applications for volunteers to work at the Bar, and also for entry blanks as they come in. Entry blanks will also be available at the Bar. Entry Blanks and Information Packets will be sent out to all Posts the second week in January Tony LaPolla, Tournament Manager POST HISTORY I received a from the wife of Post member, Ray Perkins. Chick as she likes to be called sent me information about this Post as published in the Utica OD. Our Post received a temporary charter in 1946 with 16 members. Later in 1946, the Charter was approved, with 22 members, all World War Veterans accepted, raising the total to 86 members. The first meetings were held at Butler Hall. In 1947 the membership had risen to 102 members and in 1970 the membership rose to 220 members. Just to mention that the in 1948 the Legion hosted a horse show and rodeo! From time to time we will publish interesting facts about our Post History Thanks Chick, keep those coming in. Fred Williams, Post Commander QUEEN OF HEARTS UPDATE As you may know the Post started the popular game of The Queen of Hearts in November of This Wednesday the POT for the Queen of Hearts is close to $2,000. We are now into our 12th game since we started. Winners have received over $7,500 so far. Also, the balance of the proceeds from the Queen of Hearts help defray the cost of doing business for the Legion. Remember, the Queen of Hearts drawing is held every Wednesday at 8:15PM. You may purchase tickets at the bar during the week or at the ticket table on Wednesday evening. Tickets are $1.00 each with no purchase limit. The Rules for the Queen of Hearts are posted in the Bar area for your viewing. We thank you for your support of the Queen of Hearts. SPECIAL NOTE DUE TO CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEARS FAL- LING ON WEDNESDAY, WE WILL POSTPONE THOSE TWO DRAWINGS UNTIL JANUARY 8, YOU MAY STILL PURCHASE TICKETS, AND THOSE PROCEEDS WILL BE INCLUDED IN THE JANUARY 8th DRAWING. Respectfully submitted, Bill Brucato, Manager THINGS YOU DIDN T KNOW ABOUT THINGS YOU KNOW WELL Life Savers got their signature shape by accident, when the machine employed to press out a standard mint malfunctioned, inadvertently punching a hole in each.

8 BOY SCOUT REPORT New Hartford Boy Scout Troop 4 turned out in force to help celebrate Veterans Day at the Veterans Memorial park in New Hartford that took place at 3:00PM on November 11th. Two days prior the annual Scouting For Food Drive was held with the drop off point at our Post parking lot. Once again all food donations and collections were given to the Feed Our Vets Organization. Mr. Rich Synek had his trailer in our Legion parking lot and the Troop #4 Scouts were able to fill it with 2,264 food items! This was our largest collection ever & exceeded last year's effort by over 600 food items. We also collected nearly $250 in monetary donations; again the most ever. Thanks to all you may have donated food or made monetary donations. We would also like to thank the Legion along with Terry Tesak and Heather who provided popcorn and soda to our participants. We hope all Legion Post #1376 members had a Happy & Healthy Thanksgiving & you all had our best wishes for the Holiday Season. On Sunday November 24th I attended the Eagle Scout Court of Honor for Troop #4's newest Eagle Sean Blenis which was held at the St. Thomas parish center. Sean is our 64th Eagle Scout & I extended my best wishes and congratulations along with those from Commander Williams and NH Post #1376. For his Eagle project Sean was in charging of painting 129 fire hydrants! Lastly; a big Boy Scout shout out (hubba-hubba! ding-ding!) to the New Hartford Sons of the American Legion from our Post for their recent and generous monetary donation to the Troop #4 Treasury. While truly unexpected it was greatly appreciated at a time when our annual Re- Chartering process will be coming due in early 2014 with Chartering dues as well as our Legion dues on the increase for the year. I presented this donation to the Troop at the Eagle ceremony. Thank you all SAL for your kind thoughts. Yours in Scouting Rich Watkajtys Legion Scout Chairman The American Legion Riders Report December 2013 The American Legion Riders of Post 1376 would like to thank the Legionnaires, the Sons of the American Legion and the Auxiliary of Post 1376 for all of the support that they have given us over this past year. Commander Williams and everyone have treated us with respect and the ladies have been extra nice and always make us feel welcome after a long ride or hot parade. We have just wrapped up our fifth great season and it is amazing how quickly the time has passed. Please join me in welcoming our new supporters to the organization. Most of these supporters have been helping us throughout the years all along and I am very grateful for that. (A list of supporters will be published after installation.) Also, we have four new riders that will join us for the next season. Welcome: Bill Yount, George Christiansen, Mark Hickox and RichardOwens. I hope that they will enjoy our rides, parades and other events. Personally, I am very proud of all of our riders and proud of the good deeds that they have accomplished over the past five years for our Veterans and Community causes. P l e a s e v i s i t t h e w e b - s i t e, or national at or our Facebook site for pictures and activities. A list of what was accomplished and donated during 2013 will be delivered to the Legion s Historian and is available upon request. POST 1376 COLOR GUARD HOLLIDAY RAFFLE RESULTS 1st Prize Snow Thrower Won By Leroy Usyk 2nd Prize $ Gas Card Won by Dave Sherman 3rd Prize 2 Dinners Won by John Knott

9 NOTICE PLEASE READ!! "If you pay your Legion membership online, you will have to send the Post membership person proof that you paid your dues. There is a receipt at the bottom of your online confirmation to send to the Post. I cannot send your membership card until I receive this confirmation. Please send this in as soon as possible." This is a reminder for your 2014 membership renewal notices. You should have started receiving them in June. Please note that if you receive a renewal notice from National and you have paid your 2014 dues, just disregard the notice and throw it away. If you are not sure you have paid your dues, just check your membership card, if it says 2014 on it, you are paid. Thank You. To be eligible for membership in The American Legion you will have had to serve at least one day on active duty during any of the dates listed on the back of the application form, in any branch of military service. A DD214 separation paper is required along with your application when joining showing that you honorably served. Remember if you served from the start of Desert Storm (August 2, 1990) to the present and have been honorably separated from active duty your first years dues will be paid by our Post and if you are on active duty the Post will pay your dues for as long as you remain on active duty, just fill out the application and include a copy of your ID showing you are on active duty. Pass the word and help your Post maintain its membership strength. If you know of any eligible Veteran, who does not belong, bring them to the Post, show them around and sign them up. Eligibility dates are on the back of the application, which are available at the Bar. HISTORY GENERAL JOSEPH STILWELL George Marshall once said that he gave one of the most difficult assignments of any theatre commander to General Joseph Stilwell. That tough assignment was to lead American and Chinese forces against Imperial Japan in the China-Burma-India theater. Japan s military depended heavily on the rich natural resources found in China and Southeast Asia. General Stilwell s job was to roll back the tide of Japanese occupation and disrupt the flow of these resources. Stilwell s no-nonsense leadership style made him an effective command.. MEMBERSHIP REPORT Our next membership meetings will take place on Wednesday, January 15 and Wednesday, February19th, starting at 7:00 PM. Please plan on attending our meeting and voice any concerns that you may have. As always, there will be refreshments served after the meeting. We currently have 828 members paid so far, which includes 36 new members. This gives us 84% of our quota of 975. New Hartford American Legion Post 1376 would like to welcome the following new members to our Post. Please welcome: Evan T. Hughes, Keith Proctor, Craig Eberly, Heinz H. Schmalz, James E. Notarianni, Joseph Roche, Mason Fisher, Sam J. Saccoia, Michael Lennon, Candace Gordon, Latoya Ocasio, Kevin Kennedy, David H. Brown, Brian C. Middenhorf. Janet Keesler & Duane Clark Post Membership Chairpersons TAPS New Hartford American Legion Post 1376 regrets to report that the following members have left us: JAY DOOLITTLE JOHN CHAPMAN ROBERT CRITELLI RICHARD FOSTER GRANT THEM ETERNAL REST

10 NEW HARTFOR LEGION POST 1376 WISHES YOU NEW HARTFORD POST 1376 THE AMERICAN LEGION 8616 CLINTON ST. NEW HARTFORD NY,