Saturday, July 2 will be a very important day for the future of Post 66 and our American Legion Family. The American Legion year begins on July 1. Our newly elected Post 66 Commander, Yvonne Hampton will be conducting the first post membership meeting of the new year in the dining hall, and all members of Post 66 are being asked, invited, requested, and encouraged to attend.

If the Saturday meeting time is a success we may have them more often. Possibly one a quarter. After the meeting, there will be a New Member Orientation held for all the new members and all members of our American Legion Family, a lunch will be included.

To ensure we have enough food for lunch we will be asking you to let us know if you will be coming to the Orientation. More information on the Member Orientation will be posted on the “NEWS” page of our website. To ensure we don’t run out of food for lunch, we hear there are some really cheap Vietnam-era MREs we could get as a backup for those who don’t let us know they are coming. :=)

First Vice-Commander

Pancake Breakfast Photos

Post 66 wants to give all who helped with our Sunday, May 22 fundraising event a big GOLDEN THANK YOU! It was our volunteers who made the day such an ENORMOUS success, by helping with our Pancake Breakfast, Silent Auction, and Car Show.

Regarding our wonderful young people who helped, we heard nothing but rave reviews about their positive interactions with our American Legion Family, and friends in attendance.

• Sigma Pi Fraternity from Cal Poly
• California Conservation Corps
• Naval Sea Cadets, and
• Boy Scouts of Troop 6, chartered to Post 66

We also want to thank:

• Rich Powell, Jerry Lenthall, and Roger Steele – for serving as pancake breakfast greeters and handing out plates
• Kitchen and Pancake/Sausage crew – Barbara Fisher, Carol Flores, Denise Topham, Jason Meeks, Gail Crawford, Richard, and Sassy Fisher, Bobby Evensen, Marian, Jeff Pillers, and
• Fred Hampton & Debra Santana, for doing the car show registration and selling tote bags and T-shirts
• Hugo Santana and Fred Hampton help with the road closures
• John Madonna Construction for allowing us to use their barricades, delineators, and signs
• Nora O’Donnell – Silent Auction
• A special thank you to Dean Treanor for donating his Marlin’s baseball, 4th of July jersey for our silent auction.
• Laurie Richards, Betty Bristol, and Linda Medici for selling poppies, T-shirts, totes, and making handouts for Legion and Auxiliary information while recruiting new members.
• Ed Muraski and his team of car show judges
• Helpers from the start to finish, Dave Glidden and Rick Pushies
• Bart Topham and the Central Coast Veterans Memorial Museum staff for opening up the museum for our breakfast visitors
• Special thanks also to the Veteran Services Office and Gabriel Granados of SLO County Health Agency Prevention and Outreach Program, for supplying us with items for driver’s goodie bags and giveaways for all!

Yvonne Hampton
First Vice-Commander
Commander Elect

COMMANDER’S CORNER

Hello Legion Family!

This is my final newsletter article as your Legion Commander, and it has been my privilege and honor to have served in this role for the past two years.

We’ve had a challenging journey, especially with finding ways to safely open during the Covid pandemic, welcome members back to the Post, and resuming our events like Boys and Girls State, Memorial Day remembrance, and even embracing an enhanced Pancake Breakfast by adding a Car Show and Silent Auction component thanks to our incoming Commander for 2022/2023, Yvonne Hampton.

I was very fortunate to have a very talented and dedicated team of volunteers to work with during my tenure and am so happy most of them will still be serving in their same jobs under Yvonne’s leadership.

We created a long-term investment plan to see the Legion through any other challenges that arise in the future, and that’s the best thing we can do; plan for the future and ensure those who follow us have a secure base from which to keep operating.

What is equally important, is to encourage our members to step into the varied volunteer roles that are available in the Post Leadership.  There are still openings for 1^st and 2^nd Vice and the Executive Committee.   There are also appointed positions – jobs for anyone aplenty!  If you enjoy what the Post has to offer and what we do to help Veterans in our community, please consider putting in a little extra time by joining the great group of members who are serving now. If you are interested in any of these volunteer positions or want to know more about the commitment level they take, please contact Yvonne or Rich Powell, our adjutant; or anyone on the Executive Committee.  Remember; everyone that is currently a volunteer member of the Executive Committee began as a member who answered the call to take on a leadership role, and I hope you agree that it takes all of us, in some way large or small to make this a viable and supportive organization for veterans and the community.

Thank you for your support, for being a member of the Post 66 Family, and as always; I send best wishes that everyone is staying connected and healthy.

Nora O’Donnell
Commander
commander@slolegion.org

Junior Past Commander

As we wrap up the year for Commander Nora ODonnell, I want to thank her for stepping up for a second term as Commander of our Post 66. It has been a tough two years, fighting Covid effects and keeping the post active.

I am really excited about the new promise of Commander Yvonne Hampton’s tenure as Commander. I want to tell everyone that her efforts to help the post recover from the financial injury that Covid put on our Post was way beyond outstanding. She needs to be recognized by everyone for the 100’s of hours she spent making the events of Armed Forces Weekend a huge success. She did so much more than raise money; she made the American Legion relevant to our community again. Her reaching out to the community for support gave people in our community a chance to show support for veterans in a very real way. Her asking for donations of food, supplies, and auction items helped the Post raise thousands of dollars. Even though some people resisted her effort, she persevered and made things happen.

Thank Yvonne, I will always be a supporter of your efforts. I am happy to see that she will be trying to make a change in our meeting schedule for Post business; with a meeting scheduled for July 2, 2022. I tried a Saturday meeting myself, as commander and was happy that we had 30 people show up. I hope that we can get even more people taking an interest in all that we do as Legionnaires. Our post has some challenges ahead and we need everyone to step up and lend a hand. We ask for volunteers, at almost every event, but the truth is that only a few dedicated members are always there to be counted.  We have experienced and talented members that could be contributing more to the mission of the American Legion, but they hold back because they don’t feel they need to participate. WELL, I AM ASKING YOU TO HELP. PLEASE COME TO THE MEETING AND LET US KNOW WHAT WE CAN DO TO BE SUCCESSFUL

Dave Glidden
Junior Past Commander

AMERICAN LEGION  AUXILIARY (ALA), UNIT 66

Auxiliary Unit 66, has elected the following leaders for the 2022/2023 year.

• Laurie Richards-President
• Jacqueline Plumey-1st Vice
• Denise Topham-2nd Vic
• Executive Committee-Janet Andrews, Bernie Ann Lewis, and Janice Somers
• Glenda Powell-Treasurer
• Janice Somers-Secretary
• Chaplain-Faith Ann Fieldhouse
• SGT at ARMS- Roberta Kassak