Hall-DeWinter American Legion Post 145

Thank you to the staff, middle-schoolers, and grown-up helpers who placed 1,300 veterans' grave flags at the Norway Township Cemetery this morning. It was all done in about 45 minutes - with an additional 20 minutes to round the kids up. If you enlarge the picture, you will see a lot of flags. Most small rural communities must be similar. Have a nice Memorial Day Weekend, and remember the reason for the holiday.

Legion breakfast this Sunday from 8:00 - 11:30. Adults are still $9.00, I believe, and children six and under are free. The public is welcome!

Longtime member Jerry Coates was laid to rest yesterday at Norway Twp. cemetery. Jerry was the "real deal," rising from private to major with two tours of duty in Vietnam, one as the commander of a combat infantry company. In addition to rows of medals and ribbons, he was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for personal courage in battle. Jerry was one of the solid members who carried this post on his back when it nearly closed. Members of both the local American Legion and VFW, along with two active duty Army NCOs partcipated in military graveside rites.

Post 145's regular business meeting will be this Thursday at the post hall at 7:00. Some of us plan to participate in Friday services for longtime member Jerry Coates. I'm sure we will discuss that. We fed 162 paying customers at last Sunday's breakfast.

We had about 20 at the morning coffee and donuts last Tuesday. I think three folks scheduled appointments with the veterans service officer to look into benefits and claims. The post was rented last weekend for a birthday party. Legion all-you-can eat breakfast on the 27th and the first Thursday monthly meeting at 7:00 on March 3rd.

All-you-can-eat pancake breakfast planned next Sunday, Jan. 23rd. Adults = $8.00; children under six are free. All are welcome. Dickinson County veterans service officer will be there to answer questions about benefits and claims.

Longtime member Richard Adams has passed away. Our deepest sympathy to his family and many friends. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Dennis here. We have about 20 members who paid-up this past week, so I am a little overwhelmed. Please bear with me. By the way, last year we had a dozen renew online, which works, too. Just use any browser to look up Michigan American Legion and find the membership page. They will walk you through it. I did it last year just to test it, and spent 15 minutes. Whatever suits you. Our next regular meeting is at 7:00, August 6th.

We fed about 110 customers this morning (3/8/20) and raised about $90 on the 50/50. Congratulations, Bruce! Thanks for all who came out to support us. Welcome to new members Bill Zanona and Tom Schuckman. Our next breakfast is on April 5th.

The post hosted a Norway Music Boosters' open mic night and art display last Friday evening. On Sunday, we turned the hall over to the Norway softball girls who needed to raise money for new jerseys. Point is, we want to open our hall to school groups and other youth organizations. In some cases we can do that for little or nothing. Our young people are our community's future. Wally Zychowski is the Building Committee chairman. We had over 100% membership renewal this past year and gained several new Legionnaires. We lost Alice Lemieux near the first of the year. For many years she was our only lady regular members. Alice was a Korean War vet who rose to the rank of captain in the Air Force.