2025-2026

Sonya Sallee

673 W Sandpiper Avenue

Hermiston, OR 97838

Ph: 503-656-8088

Email: ortreasvfwa@gmail.com

NOVEMBER

Well, here it is getting closer to the end of the year and getting close to the holiday season. This is the time of year that our hospitalized veterans and their spouses need us the most, there are so many of our veterans that do not have family nearby and they will be spending the holidays alone. I feel so sad for them and if we can make our life a little cheerier, we need to work to do this for them.

What I would like many of our auxiliaries to take gifts to the veterans or spouses that are in your local nursing homes and facilities and if you are lucky enough to be near a Veterans Hospital so much better.  It is very easy to do all you need to do is call your local care facilities, especially close to Veterans Day, and find out how many veterans or spouses that they have in their facilities. Then go shopping, buy candy, or fleece lap robes or slippers or puzzle books and put them in bags and take them to your facilities. It brings such joy to those people, even those that have family, but it shows that we are still thinking about them and we care. Take a couple extra bags of what you are taking to the veterans and tell the staff that if they have people that do not have family nearby to give them one of your bags, it makes them ho. Then find out how much money you spent, how many miles you drove and how long it took you to do this great thing for our elderly veterans and families.

I am working on trying to get in contact with the volunteer person at White City so that we can start shipping products to the facility. I have one auxiliary that is ready to send an order, but I haven’t been able to get a hold of the volunteer yet. I will try calling her again tomorrow and maybe sending her an email. I would like to find someone there that we can ship our stuff to and start getting some stuff for the veterans down there. I will continue to work on that this week.

I have had twenty of the auxiliaries that have paid their $2.00/member obligation for the hospitals so far. I will be calling the other auxiliaries that have not sent this money to me and have them get their checks sent in. I would like to have all that money by the end of the year, its much easier than trying to get it later in the year. This is something that can be in your standing rules so that the treasurer can write the check at the beginning of the year and then you do not have to worry about it later. Hope you have a great month, cannot wait to go to Western Conference and see all the people that I only get to see a few times a year. Please think about doing something nice for our hospitalized veterans.