1223 OFFICERS

Commander Jason Hicks President Karen Haugen John Lopez Ouartermaster Sandi Cass Aux. Treasurer 701-200-6147 Cancer Chairman 605 19th St E., West Fargo, ND 58075 Roger Christopherson Post Surgeon Veterans Family Support Chair Linda Gibson 701-299-5983 Joann Lien 701-388-1563 Membership

V.F.W. POST 1223 1505 Ctr Ave W Dilworth, MN 56529

NO-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID Permit No. 371 Moorhead, MN

Post Phone
Bingo Hot line # MEMBERSHIP Post Auxiliary 2012 661 793

233-6100 233-4786
2013 619 719

The 1223er: A Bi-Monthly Publication Issue Date: November 2012 Veterans of Foreign Wars & Auxiliary of Albert E. Johnson Post 1223 1505 Ctr Ave W., Dilworth, MN 56529

November 2012
SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

Veterans Day 2012!!

1:00 - Club Opens - 2:00 - Ladies @ Eventide 4:00 - Stew - Bingo TBD - call Bingo hot line for times (218-233-4829)

Bingo 2:30
8

Early Bird Bingo @ 6:30 Chili @ 11:00 Bingo @ 7:00 Bingo: 1:30 & 5:00 Karaoke
9 10

SATURDAY 3

BURGER NIGHT 5 - 7:30 Bingo 1:30 &

5:00
11 Jr. Girls Meeting
12

Tasty Tacos 1-5

13 14

Ladies Aux. Meeting - 6 PM Bingo 2:30

Tasty Tacos 1-5
Bingo 2:30
POST MEETING 8:00 pm

Bingo 6:00

Biscuits Early Bird Breakfast& Gravy 8 - 11am Bingo @ 6:30 Chili @ 11:00 Mens Aux Bingo @ 7:00 Bingo: 1:30 Meeting - 7 PM Karaoke No Eve Bingo 15 16 17

Bingo 2:30

12:30pm

BURGER NIGHT 5 - 7:30

Bingo 1:30 & 5:00
18 19

Bingo 6:00
21

Bingo 2:30
22

Early Bird Pancake Breakfast 8 - 11am Bingo @ 6:30 Bingo @ 7:00 Chili @ 11:00
Karaoke 23

20

Bingo: 1:30 & 5:00 24

Bingo 1:30 & BURGER NIGHT 5:00 5 - 7:30

25 26

Tasty Tacos 1-5

Bingo 2:30 27 28

Bingo 6:00

Closed
29

Early Bird Chili @ 11:00 Bingo @ 6:30 Bingo @ 7:00 Bingo: 1:30 & 5:00 Karaoke
30 Early Bird Bingo @ 6:30 Bingo @ 7:00 Karaoke

Bingo 1:30 & BURGER NIGHT 5 - 7:30 5:00

Tasty Tacos 1-5

Bingo 2:30

Bingo 6:00

Bingo 2:30

12

1934 77 YEARS 2012

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #1223, Ladies Auxiliary & Mens Auxiliary VOL. 39 NO. 13 November/December
LADIES AUX PRESIDENTS CORNER - CONTINUED
where our members have an opportunity to hear from our legislatures on Veterans issues. We donate to the VFW National Home. This is just a short list of what your dollars are used for. The membership is only $20.00, I hope you will take a few moments and drop your check in the mail Our meetings have moved to Mondays at 6:00, starting in November, I hope you will join us. It is a great time to hear about the programs we support and sponsor. The meeting normally last about an hour. The December meeting will be our Christmas party, lots of fun, food and games. Please join us. The Ladies Auxiliary VFW and Perkins Restaurants in Minnesota have joined together in an exciting project. Perkins will be making a donation from the use of a voucher that you, your family and all your friends may bring to a Perkins located in Minnesota on Thursday during the months of October and November, 2012. And, they will also be honoring the voucher on Veterans Day 2012. Stop by the club and pick up a voucher! Our Jr Girls unit is busy making tie blankets and filling back packs for the homeless veterans in our area. If you can help them out with a donation of fleece material for a blanket, men's t-shirts, underwear or socks it would be greatly appreciated. Just drop it at the club. Keep our Veterans and their families in your prayers. Karen Haugen

COMMANDERS CORNER
by Jason Hicks
Greeting Comrades, summer is over and fall is here, now to get ready for winter. This is the time for business to pick up at the club. I am proud to announce that we will start to utilize our kitchen and dining area more efficiently in the near future (Hopefully Nov 1st) I was approached by Al Gordon (former owner of Altonys) to do some cooking at the club/Post. After many meetings with Al, the Post membership and the Ladies Auxiliary, we approved the following: Tuesday Friday from 4:30- 8:00 pm we will be serving a limited Italian menu and several American items (to include the infamous Willies hash browns). Now I am fully aware that there are many rumors and lots of speculation about this arrangement, I'll be the first to say that we are trying something new to hopefully increase our business, which will increase our gaming, which will hopefully increase our membership and let a new crowd of people realize the VFW is more than just a place where old Veterans drink and play bingo. If you have any questions or want some clarification on how this is going to work, feel free to come to a Post meeting and ask. In closing I would like to thank Dan Hunt for spearheading the VFWs' role in Beyond the yellow ribbon program. This program helps our deployed soldiers and their families with problems that might arise when there is a deployment of a loved one. This will be a focus of the VFW for years to come, as with all the cuts to budgets we need to fill the gap as the need will still be there. Also as many of you may know the current cuts to the department of defense has trickled down to funerals and burial honors, there was a small contingent of National Guard soldiers who helped at every funeral by folding and presenting the flag to the family. This program has been cut, however, we are first or foremost a Veterans organization and we will not change how we conduct funerals. We will continue to conduct our military honors that have been earned to our Veterans.

MENS AUX PRESIDENTS CORNER

by Joshua Haugen
Well fall is finally upon us; it brought us some much needed rain along with the cold and the wind. The Men's Auxiliary was able to get out and get our 2 mile stretch of Hwy 9 cleaned up before the weather started to turn. After a couple hours of walking and 4 sore backs and we had it looking like new. I would like to invite everyone to our pancake breakfast's we host the 3rd Saturday of the month. The cost is $5 with 5 and under free. We serve from 8am to 11am. This year we have an added bonus to our breakfasts, we now have a drawing each week for 2 free pancake breakfast. All attendees are welcome to enter and after each drawing all names will go back in the box for a drawing to be held at the end of our pancake season. The final prize will be a $200.00 Gift Card to Wal-Mart. This May the Men's Auxiliary is hosting the Kick-off to the Cowboy Up Ride. We will have our breakfast a silent auction, pulled pork dinner and entertainment to end the evening. All of this is staying the same but I am very happy to announce that the Cowboy Up Cruzin for the Cure motorcycle run is joining us and we will be hosting a bike run that same day to add to the event. If you have any questions about the bike run or would like to join the bike run feel free to contact myself or any member of the Men's Auxiliary, and we would be happy to assist you any way we can. I hope everyone a warm and comfortable transition from our wonder summer we had to inevitable frosty winter ahead Step up to Serve our Veterans Josh Haugen 701-261-4763

Yours in comradeship

LADIES AUX PRESIDENTS CORNER

by Karen Haugen
Fall is here, it is a great time to go for a drive and view all the beautiful colors. It is also time to renew your membership to the VFW Ladies Auxiliary. Your membership dollars make it possible for your Ladies Auxiliary to help meet the needs of our veterans. We host bingo at the Fargo VA Hospital 6 times a year. We are able to support the Christmas at the Hospitals program for our veterans. We donate to events such as Legislative Day,

December 2012
SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY
1

Post 1223 now has an AED (Defibrillator) on site

2 3 164 5 6 7

Chili @ 11:00
No Eve Bingo
8
Biscuits & Gravy

Bingo 1:30

Bingo 1:30 & 5:00

9

BURGER NIGHT 5 - 7:30

Tasty Tacos 1-5

Ladies Aux. Bingo 2:30 Meeting - 6 PM

10 11 12

Bingo 6:00

Bingo 2:30
13

Early Bird Breakfast 8 - 11am Bingo @ 6:30 Chili @ 11:00 Bingo @ 7:00
Karaoke 14

Bingo 1:30 & 5:00

15

Jr. Girls Meeting 12:30pm BURGER NIGHT Bingo 1:30 & 5 - 7:30 5:00
17

Tasty Tacos 1-5

Bingo 2:30
POST MEETING 8:00 pm

Bingo 6:00
19

Bingo 2:30 Mens Aux Meeting - 7 PM

20

Early Bird Bingo @ 6:30 Bingo @ 7:00

Karaoke 21

Pancake Breakfast 8 - 11am

Chili @ 11:00 Bingo 1:30 & 5:00

22 Chili @ 11:00

18

Bingo 1:30 & BURGER NIGHT 5 - 7:30 5:00

23 30

Tasty Tacos 1-5

Bingo 2:30 25 Closed

Bingo 6:00
26

Bingo 2:30
27

Early Bird Bingo @ 6:30 Bingo @ 7:00

Karaoke

Bingo 1:30 & 5:00

Bingo 1:30 & 24 Xmas Eve 5:00 Bingo 1:30 & 31 New Years Eve BURGER NIGHT - 5 - 7:30 5:00
Upcoming Meetings

Bingo 6:00

Bingo 2:30

28 29 Early Bird Bingo @ 6:30 Chili @ 11:00 Bingo @ 7:00 Bingo 1:30 & 5:00 Karaoke

Nov 5th, Ladies Aux at 6:00 Nov 8th, Mens Aux at 7:00 Nov 11th, Jr Girls at 12:30 Nov 13th, House meeting 7:00 & Post at 8:00 Dec 3rd Ladies Aux at 6:00 Dec 8th - District Meeting @ Crookston - 10:00 am Dec 9th, Jr Girls at 12:30 Dec 11th, House meeting 7:00 & Post at 8:00 Dec 13th, Mens Aux at 7:00 Josh Haugen (Pres) & Troy Winter (Sr. Vice) of Post 1223 Mens Auxiliary, Presented a $100.00 check to the Jr Girls

Clay County Veterans Service Office Report October 19th, 2012, Tom Figliuzzi
Beyond The Yellow Ribbon. THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE. Please Read The Yellow Ribbon Signage is now installed and displayed at the Clay County Veterans Service Office. We are now putting together a referral list to assist us. How can you help? Please call or stop by with your ideas or suggestions in how we can build this list. Remember folks, this Yellow Ribbon Support will only be as effective as the input that we receive from the community, as the Yellow Ribbon was visioned and designed to be a major help or solution to many of the issues for our troops/veterans of the troop/veteran's community. And it is built of the veteran's community, both civilians and veterans alike. So please don't think the next guy is doing all the work, I need you to call or stop by to give some advice or phone numbers and individual contacts of those you believe should be on that Yellow Ribbon Referral Help list for our Troops/Veterans. Every person who reads this letter knows at least one person, agency, or business that would be helpful to go on the Yellow Ribbon Referral List. I need you to call with that. In the next newsletter edition (next month) I will report to you the level of response that was received from this request for helping with this. Please be one in that count that calls or stops by to help. Volunteer Program. The Volunteer program that the VSO operates is comprised of veterans, widows of veterans, spouses of veterans and NonVeterans too. They donate much of their time, talent, and generosity throughout the year to serve you. You have been welcomed th by them when you come to our office. Do you want to do something in return for them? Well on December 7 , we will be holding the annual Volunteers Recognition Event. And during this event, we always put together a gift bag. If you have something you would like to donate to a volunteer's bag, then please bring it here before December 7th. Thank you. Homeless Veterans. th October 25 , our office will remote out to the Fargo-Dome to help those veterans that are less fortunate. I will be there, as well as many of our volunteers. Also, as many of you know, our office needs warm clothing at this time of the year to put in our Homeless Locker. If you have something at home to donate, please consider this. Right now we are almost completely out of hats. Future Activities In November we will hold our Quarterly Clay County Veterans Advisory Committee. The Commanders will be invited to attend to help support, guide and advise the best path for the Veterans Service Office. And Finally I have been informed that many of our former members of the National Guard and Reserves believe that they are not entitled to many benefits of that of Active Service Veterans. Did you know that many within these groups do/can receive the VA Home Loan Guaranty Program? This is a HUGE benefit. Many are still not aware of that. Please pass this on to those that have served or are still serving. Thank you for your continued support for the Veterans & their families as well as to our Volunteers.

Comrades, MEMBERSHIP If you are a continuous member, your 2013 payment is due by December 31, 2012. Many of you have already paid, but some still have not. You have several options to pay your dues. You can return the letter you received from National with your payment, you can pay online with a credit card, or you can stop in to the Post and pay me. You can also mail your payment to me at the Post. John Lopez, Quartermaster

VETERANS DAY 5K RUN/WALK & 10K RUN

Vietnam Veteran's Chapter #941 is hosting the 2nd Annual 5k Run/Walk The event takes place on Saturday November 10th, 2012 at the Dilworth VFW Post 1223. COMMANDERS CORNER Registration begins at 8:30 am, with the run starting at 9:30 am. There will be a $25.00 entry fee, refreshments and a complimentary T-shirt for the entrants. In addition to the Veteran's Day run, the VFW Post 1223 is having there monthly Biscuits & Gravy Breakfast. Cost of the Biscuits & Gravy Breakfast is $5.00 per person and 5 and under are free. For more information, please contact Larry Nicholson at 218-236-0959