Our election was held in May and your officers for 2008-2009 are: President- Robin Janisch, Vice-President- Rachael Dolan, Secretary-Penny Cusker, Treasurer-Judy DeRosa, Historian-Lucille Bidzinski, Chaplain-Maryann Working, Sergeant-At-Arms- Virginia(Ginger) Johnson, Asst. Sergeant-At-Arms-Tracy Wasliewski. Congratulations.

We will be sending 5 girls to Illini Girls State in June. The ALA is paying for four and the SAL is generously paying for the fifth young woman. Shannon Montanez spoke to us of her experience at the American Youth Conference in Volley Forge, PA.

Membership drawing: Susan Schuerr, Betty Taylor, Diane Raihle were not present to win. Cathy Ruiz received the consolation prize of $15.00. At the 10th District meeting, I was presented a trophy from Department for our Membership reaching goal. I presented same to our Membership Chairman, Robin, at our meeting. Great job!

Poppy Days was a success. The Memorial Day service was attended by many at the Train Station and Memorial Service for our deceased.members of the ALA and AL were honored at the Post. The luncheon served by Past Commander Bob was delicious. Thank you to Ruth and everyone for your continued support.

I attended our local schools’ Honor Nights and presented our American Essay medals in May. These winners were listed in last month’s newsletter. The receipitant of our Educational/ Vocational Scholarship of $1,000.00 was Brittnay Becker of Grant High School.

The Gold Star Luncheon was wonderful to attend. These woman who lost their sons and daughters during our wars, deserve our support. Thank you Chairman Dorothy Jenkins.

Our Bingo is growing. Thank you to Jerry Kandziorski for pitching in when we first started our new “team” and to the men of the Legion for all of their support. Also congratulations to Jerry for his election to Commander.

June 8th: 2nd Division meeting at Gurnee Post. Elections will be held for Division.

June 9th: Our ALA meeting at 7:30 p.m.. New President will close the meeting.

June 14th : FLAG Day. Let your flag be shown! Remember, if it is hung horizontal, the stars are on the left top corner. The same for vertical. Did you know our Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy. The words “under God” were voted in by Congress in the spring of 1954. Indeed, God has blessed our country.

June 16th: Our Unit will host the 10th District meeting. Elections for the District will be held as well as a Memorial Service for all our ALA deceased members from the 14 units within our District. I am Chaplain for 10th District and will conduct this ceremony assisted by our Unit Chaplain Jackie Dolan.
ALA 88th Department Convention will be July 9-12, 2008 in Springfield, Illinois.

This newsletter is my last as your President. I thoroughly enjoyed serving our unit and taking pride in our many accomplishments we had achieved. Thank you to all of my Chairman who were diligent in their duties. I will continue to serve if needed on the previous chairs I held and look forward to the new year. I know we woman are here for the same reason – to assist our veterans in any way we can. We are all busy with our families but I feel if these men and woman had not enlisted and served us, we would not be able to enjoy the life we now are experiencing. After the Memorial Service, many asked me to repeat the last part of my speech: God looks favorably on those (our military) who sacrifice their lives for another human (us). I believe their last breath on this earth was followed by their first breath in Heaven.