Invocation: Garro Ellis
Flag Salute: Jon Sampson
Song: Colleen McGauley & Brad Hannink
Good News & Announcements
Mike McCoy shared that his wife found a long lost sister through Ancestry.com.
Mike Willis made a plea for Spoke editors and Brad Barnes, Sue Benham, Dave Turner, and Justin Lealand were nice enough to put their name down. Thanks!
Jeff Green thanked us for his wife's retirement.
Joe Hay welcomed our newest member, Ryan Rozell. Ryan provides financial services.
President Ray reminded us that he is still running his "Bring a New Member and get 3 Free Makeup Days" campaign.
President Ray thanked the Christmas Committee, Steve Sanders, Ben Taft, Larry Reider and Mary Castaneda, for the great job they did (again) this year organizing the CALM event.
Russell Judd narrowly missed a fine for the huge
Bakersfield Californian article that recognized his success in pulling KMC out of the red. Congratulations!
The program
Portrait of a Warrior Gallery
Presented by:
Lili Marsh, Founder and Chairwoman
Jason Geis, Sgt. Major (Ret.) U.S. Army, Co-Founder, Current Director
The Gallery features the portraits of the 27 post 9/11 warriors from Kern County that were killed in action or died as a result of wounds suffered on the battlefield.
In addition to the portraits of our fallen heroes there is a Vietnam Room picturing the photographs of our local Vietnam fallen; a Resource Room for veterans that includes extensive information pertaining to health & mental health assistance, veteran services, veteran based recreational activities throughout the state, and so forth. The Education Room is a unique space for a variety of veteran organizations to hold meetings, school field trips will have Q & A sessions with veterans and learn about the cost of freedom as well as weekly lecture series for veterans living in Kern County.
The Portrait of a Warrior Gallery is local 501c3 Non-Profit. There are NO administration fees and we have NO paid personnel. They are all volunteers. All donations go directly to the Gallery and the memory of our fallen warriors. Which is why they actually run in the black.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Friday from 10am - 5pm and Saturday from 11am - 3pm. Also, they are open during special downtown events like First Friday.
Visitors & Guests
Jerene Battist, guest of Garro Ellis
Mark Witsoe, guest of Jack Gotcher
Kevin Pope, guest of Ed Paine
Jim Drnek guest of Lynnette Zelezny
Photos by Girish Patel
