PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

 Presidents Message 

September 2026 

 

Greetings Brothers and Sisters.

 

Happy Fall Ya’ll. The weather sure changed quickly here. It is windy, cloudy and is about to rain. Not that I really mind with all the fires we have had here, but I sure miss the sunny warm days already.

 

I can’t believe it is September already. School starts next week so please remember to slow down and keep an eye out for kids heading to the bus or walking to school. September is Suicide Awareness month; I hope that everyone has a suicide awareness display set up to remind everyone of the warning signs and resources available to those that may be struggling with mental health issues.

 

Did you have the chance to attend any of our recent Training Academies? We had a lot of positive feedback on them, and I am so happy that so many of you attended. We had a lot of fun and of course I loved seeing all of you. It’s good to get back to the basics occasionally and I feel like we forget all the little things that we used to do.

 

I have a surprise for you. At our Mid-Winter Conference not only we be honoring our VFW scholarship winners, but we have the chance to see our Illustrating America winners as well. The deadline for the Illustrating America contest was changed by National to December. We decided that they deserved a little recognition as well and will display their artwork as well as let you know who the winners are at Mid-Winter.

 

But that is not all the surprises. As usual we will have a meeting on Saturday afternoon, but it will be brief. At that meeting you will receive a schedule of breakout trainings to attend. Yep, more training will be available to you. Some of the sessions will be short and some will be longer, such as the ones for secretaries and treasurers. If there are subjects that you would like more training on, please feel free to send me an email and let me know what you want to learn more about.

 

Here is a list of important upcoming events:


  • Now. 6-8 Western Conference in Phoenix, AZ (Information is available on the AZ Dept. VFW website.)
  • Jan. 11-13 National President Donna Mills is coming to visit us in Redmond
  • Jan. 22-24 Department Mid-Winter Conference in Bend.
  • Feb. 2-7 National Mid-Year Conference in the Dominican Republic

 

Check out the Department Auxiliary website as we have been busy updating it and will post more information as soon as we have it. The web address is: vfwauxor.org

 

District meetings are also coming up. Please plan on attending. Your districts play an important role as they are the "go between” your Auxiliary and the Department.

 

I hope that you all had a fantastic summer. I know that I did. I can’t wait to see you all soon. Until next time, take care and…

 

TREAT EACH OTHER WITH KINDNESS AND RESPECT

 

Loyally,

Terri Steller

Department of Oregon President

tlsteller@gmail.com