American Legion Auxiliary News Release
NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
8945 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46260
Contact: Tabitha Rhoda, (317) 569-4565; trhoda@legion-aux.org for Mary “Dubbie” Buckler
November 10, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
American Legion Auxiliary Celebrates Veterans Day Across the Country
INDIANAPOLIS--The American Legion Auxiliary will be honoring Veterans Day and its 91st year in history by reaching out to the community in powerful ways.
Carlene Ashworth, American Legion Auxiliary national president, is spending Veterans Day in Washington, D.C., strengthening relationships with other veteran organizations such as U.S. Veterans Inc.-DC. Ashworth and local Auxiliary unit volunteers will participate in a homeless veterans apartment move-in, in which several permanent housing units for veterans are being furnished and set. Volunteers will help move light articles from moving vans into the apartments and also helping to set up furniture and household supplies. The Auxiliary volunteers have also been asked to help in feeding the group of volunteers and veteran residents.
Ashworth will also be attending the Veterans Day Observance at Arlington Cemetery and showing support for all fallen soldiers by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
American Legion Auxiliary National Vice President Kris Nelson will be spending Veterans Day in Indianapolis. Nelson will be representing the Auxiliary at many activities hosted by the city’s Veterans Day Council.
Nelson will join David Stephens, the Council’s Thank-A-Vet Coordinator, who has worked with schools across the greater Indianapolis area, including five schools news to the program this year, to collect more than 2,000 student-made thank-you cards. Together they will personally distribute the cards at Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center.
The stop at Roudebush is only one part of the day for both Stephens and Nelson. As part of the Veterans Day Council committee and a national leader of the world’s largest patriotic women’s service organization, the two will also attend the musical prelude of the 38th Infantry Division Band of the Indiana Amy National Guard and a memorial service on the north steps of the Indiana War Memorial where Indiana Air Search and Rescue will be bringing a helicopter full of veterans, senators and VA representatives. Following is a parade with 80 participating groups. The evening concludes with a Veterans Day banquet where military personnel, veterans, JROTC, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and supporting organizations in the community will be recognized for their accomplishments the past year.
In Wendell, N.C., American Legion Auxiliary members, town folks, Boy Scouts and JROTC members will be helping with yard work and making small repairs to the home of a Marine of the Vietnam era. And in Ely, Minn., the Auxiliary will be building a large, Americans with Disabilities Act-accessible wrap-around deck for the lodge and dining room at the Veterans on the Lake center upstate. Both activities are part of Mission Serve, the ServiceNation coalition’s civilian-military initiative, connecting the civilian and military communities through a broad array of service and volunteer partnerships designed to address the challenges of our nation and military communities.
Founded in 1919, the American Legion Auxiliary is the world’s largest patriotic women’s service organization. With a membership over 800,000, local American Legion Auxiliary units have a strong presence in more than 9,500 communities nationwide. The American Legion Auxiliary’s mission to serve veterans, their families and their communities is carried out through its hundreds of outreach programs delivered by its members, volunteers and National Headquarters.
The Veterans Day Council of Indianapolis is a voluntary organization whose primary purpose is to bring about a wholesome and constructive relationship between the community on one hand and veterans of our Armed Forces and members of active or reserve military forces on the other. The activities of the Council culminate in its annual observance of Veterans Day.
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