From the Desk of the Chairman
May is here and last month on April Fools Day we received a notification from Headquarters that many of us took for an April Fools joke. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. More in a minute. May is Military Appreciation Month, and it is also Mental Health Awareness Month. May 5th is a festive celebration of Cinco De Mayo and May 10th is Mother’s Day. I pray that you still have a mother available to celebrate this day. May 16th is Armed Forces Day and the 25th is Memorial Day where we all remember the fallen.
Rogue Chapter sits at having awarded 1,996 Medallions with about half of the month remaining. As I am mentioning in the body of the newsletter, national will be looking to see if a chapter or two would be willing to take over this program so that it remains a vibrant recruiting tool. We purchased all the remaining Vietnam and GWOT Medallions in stock at HQ and still have quite a few Cold War Medallions, but we only have a handful of WW2 & Korean Medallions in stock. Efforts are afloat to keep this program alive, but we must first resolve the Association’s debt and then find funding to purchase additional stock.
April Member of the Month was Jamie Callahan-Luckin. Jamie is a life member that has worked for years supporting veterans by sponsoring the veteran’s breakfast in Grants Pass since 2017 and recently partnering with Cheryl Bright to also sponsor the breakfast at Punky’s in Medford, being a Guardian on Honor Flight, sponsoring Medallions and giving us numerous opportunities to award over 127 Medallions at Senior Fairs in Grants Pass. She has been a sponsor for VeteRun for several years, helped pay for numerous memberships into NCOA and in April came to Central Point to help award 25 Medallions. She has supported the Vietnam Wall project by helping provide invitations and flyers to support the dedication of the Wall. Her father is a Vietnam veteran, and she not only has a soft spot in her heart to support veterans but goes out of her way to actively support veterans across the board! Who will be the Member of the Month in April? Maybe it will be you!
When I first heard of the decision to close the NCOA as of April 30, I went into shock. I called HQ and told them it would be impossible to close our operation and have all the checks cleared before we closed our account. I quickly looked for other options to keep our VeteRun going and honor our scholarship applications. I quickly found another local 501 c 3 that also wanted to keep VeteRun going because they knew how important this project was to fight veteran suicide and mental health. I spent most of my time over the first week on the phone with other NCOA members looking for a lifeline to keep us afloat. Then in Mid April the Board reversed their position as new information came to light. I have offered my assistance and experience to help NCOA re-tool, and I have been blessed by many of you who have shared kind thoughts and support to me. Thanks to all of you who have committed funds to help NCOA through this difficult time. You are much appreciated. More information will be shared when it becomes available.
I would love to hear from all of you with your thoughts and suggestions. If you have any ideas or suggestions, either contact me at retiredveteran89@outlook.com and I can assure you that your leadership will take note.
Strength in Unity & Leadership By Example,
MCPO (SCW) Terry M. Haines, USNR Retired
Chairman, Rogue Chapter #1260