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Keith Olson offered our invocation, with special thanks to the military preceding Veterans Day on Friday. He then introduced our Student Guests and Athletes from Hillcrest, all seniors. Gigi (Gabrielle) Cox comes from upstate New York and is in her third year at the school, serving as student body chaplain for the lower campus and hoping to become a missionary. Elizabeth Olstad is in her second year at Hillcrest, originally from Ham Lake, Minnesota, and serves as student body chaplain for the upper school, with tentative thoughts of becoming a teacher. Our Student Athletes were Grace Geraghty, from Connecticut, and Emma Rademaker, from Appleton, Wisconsin. Both Grace and Emma were part of the Hillcrest girls' soccer team that just finished its season.  Our other guest was Steve Austvold, also partially pictured above. Zack Stach circulated a sheet to sign up for Salvation Army bell ringing at Service on Wednesday, November 23rd; we will also be volunteering on Friday and Saturday, December 16th and 17th, at the same location. November 29th will see us helping to stuff back backs at the United Way. Zack then led off brags and fines, contributing for having to leave the meeting early. Keith Olson reported that when he went to pick up our student guests, he saw Brad Hoganson who described them as the "cream of the crop." Randy Kempfer also contributed for needing to leave the meeting early and also to respond to inquiries regarding his bandaged finger, part of which he lost while preparing the fixings for wild rice soup, necessitating a trip to Lake Region. Katie Johnson then contributed for the reference to her employer. Kathy Austvold rose to tell us she was back from South Carolina, while this writer concluded the brags with reference to two recent cases where the court found in his clients' favor. Rick Wilson, Commander of our local American Legion, was our speaker and he started out by reminding us that we were 104 years removed from November 11, 1918, when at the eleventh hour the Armistice was signed "to end all wars." Unfortunately, that did not happen, but he did remind us that the military exists not only to fight wars but to defer conflict. In that regard, he quoted Douglas MacArthur, who said "soldiers above all people pray for peace." Rick served eight years in the Army. He talked about the Veterans Day program put on for students at the high school this past Friday, which is in part sponsored by the Veterans Council, made up of the DAV, the VFW, the American Legion and their auxiliaries. The Council also is responsible for the Memorial Day program. The DAV has over 293 members in the Fergus Falls Post, while the VFW has 474 and the American Legion has 290, with a goal of reaching 312. Membership use to be limited to anyone who served in the military during specified periods but now the specified periods have been dropped as long as one served after November 11, 1918. Rick has been a member of the American Legion for almost 44 years, and he told us it was founded by a son of Teddy Roosevelt's. The American Legion is responsible for putting the flags up on our main street for those days when flags are scheduled to be displayed. It, along with the VFW, each have a color guard which serves at about three to five funerals a month. The pandemic caused a hard hit to the Legion's charitable fundraising from which they use to give out about $17,000 to $18,000 a year. A bus was purchased last summer from Productive Alternatives, and the Legion continues to support summer baseball and is looking at getting involved in women's softball. Its restaurant and bar are open, but they are struggling to find kitchen staff, so right now are limited to seven or eight tables in the bar area for dining. A second cook was recently hired. Rick bemoaned the fact that they have not had a local entrant in the Legion's oratory contest for the last three years, noting the national winner received a $18,000 scholarship this past year. Katie Johnson commented that participating in the contest was one of the best experiences in her life. Our American Legion is in one of ten districts in the state, with its district stretching from Morris to Thief River Falls and over to Bemidji. |
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