On Saturday, December 14, members of American Legion Post 66 and VFW Post 8870 gathered at the Legion Hall in Edmonds for our annual Christmas gathering. Many thanks to Paul Bustard for providing turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, which he has done for a number of years.
In gratitude for Paul’s efforts, Post Commanders Les Abel and Rose Gilliland presented Paul with a handsome leather jacket, decorated with appropriate USMC insignia. Paul puts in many hours seeing that our annual event is well fed.
Paul had a bit of an delay in getting the turkeys on time from Costco, his usual source, where there were some issues with timing expectations. By way of apology, the fine folks at Costco, provided the turkeys at no charge and also committed to continue providing the turkeys free in the future. The food; turkey, mashed potatoes, ham, and all the trimmings were delicious!
Post Commanders Les Abel and Rose Gilliland presented checks from each post to Mike Reagan in support of his Fallen Heroes Foundation.
A variety of items contributed by members of the two Posts were auctioned off to raise funds. Mike Reagan offered to produce two sketched portraits for winning bidders, which sold for a total of $ 1,000. Other items and door contributions came to $ 611. The total of $ 1,611 was split between the two posts.
Reagan surprised (stunned might be a better word) Past Commander Mike Denton with a Christmas gift of a portrait sketch of Mike’s then teenaged mother, (shown at right) circa 1932, which he showed as a “sample” of his work. Reagan said he “mined” Facebook for the Denton photo.
One of the long standing traditions of our Christmas party is the collection of toys for underprivileged children, and donations of food four our local food bank, which is developing a new focus on the needs of veterans for the coming year. Our comrades were generous as always in their donations. Commander Gilliland arranged for the delivery of the food donations to the food bank. and personally presented the toys to the Chaplain’s office at Naval Base Everett for appropriate distribution to children of active duty members of the armed forces.
