Leon Burson American Legion Post 395 510 E. Dearborn Street Plano IL 60545-1647

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage Paid Plano, IL Permit No. 10

November - December 2012 Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Veterans Day Dinner 11th Nov. 2012 , Social/Cocktail Hour starts at 5 PM.

Dec- Children's Christmas Party Feb 9th Annual Dinner/Dance 5pm

Progressive Lightning is back!

Every Friday at 6pm Progressive Pot Lightning is BACK!

We started with a Jackpot of $500 It could get to $4,999.00!

Eligibility in the American Legion is based on honorable service with the U.S. Armed Forces between the following dates: (Apr 6, 1917 - Nov 11, 1918) World War I (Dec 7, 1941-Dec 31, 1946)World War II (June 25, 1950 - Jan 31, 1955) Korean War (Feb 28, 1961 - May 7, 1975 Vietnam War (Aug 24, 1982 - July 31, 1984) Lebanon/Grenada (Dec 20, 1989 - Jan 31, 1990) Operation Just Cause (Aug 2, 1990 - *) Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm

*Because eligibility dates remain open, all members of the U.S. Armed Forces are eligible to join The American Le-gion at this time, until the date of the end of hostilities as determined by the government of the United States. You must have served at least one day of active mili-tary duty during one of the dates above and honora-bly discharged or still serving honorably. For any questions please contact our membership chairman, or stop at the Post. An application form is available at our website. www.planolegion.org.

Annual Christmas Party Santa will bring Toys, Refreshments, And a Clown

Where: American Legion Upstairs Hall When: Sunday, December 2, 2012 2pm – 4pm

Age Limit is 10 years and younger Post Members’ (Legion, Aux, or SAL.) Name . Childs Name Age M/F ___________________________________________________________________. ___________________________________________________________________. ___________________________________________________________________. ___________________________________________________________________. ___________________________________________________________________. ___________________________________________________________________. Return or call by November 25th to: Leon Burson Post 395, 510 E. Dearborn St. Plano, IL 60545-1647 Phone: 630.552.8313

AT-EAZE Legion News Cut off for next Newsletter is Dec 15th. To all of our SNOWBIRDS, safe travels. We have had a very busy and full year up to date. We have made several upgrades and repairs to our building. We needed to do so, and I felt it was time to get them done. By doing them now we have saved thousands of dollars in the long run. In 5 years we might not be able to, and now we will NOT HAVE TO! Our members approved all re-pairs and upgrades. We now have our POW/MIA Remembrance Table in place, a long with a POW/MIA Memorial Plaque. If you have a POW or MIA that needs to be on the Memorial please contact me to make arrangements to do so. The names will be read at our Veterans Day Ceremony November 11th. This year we have a full schedule for Veterans day weekend, We will be visiting all of our Local schools and our own activities. We have also been requested to help Sheridan with their activities on the 12th of Nov. For our Veterans Dinner on the 11th of Nov our Guest Speaker will be Danny Russell USAF Vietnam Veteran who was shot down TWICE in one day . Our ceremony will start at 5 PM social hour, At 6 PM the Colors will be posted then dinner. To all of our Members/Veterans no cost, other guest's will be asked to pay $10. A sign up sheet will be in the lounge. When you walk into the lounge the east of the front door a poster of upcoming events are posted, please check it every week. We also do our best to get stuff in the local papers as well . We are doing the best we can , we'll make a mistake or two I am sure of that. Our Sgt at Arms Jerry Salois is the news letter point of contact. He can only put in what he receives and what he knows. For those of you who have not been to a meeting in awhile, I sure would like to see and meet you. Our Meetings are held on the 1st Monday of every month at 7 PM. Our Post is evolving to met the needs of the next generation of members, Our interest is for the good of the legion and it members is all units. We count on the support of our members, and our guest's to help keep the light's burning. Did you know we have food on Friday's from 5 to 8:30 PM, Our LIGHTNING RAFFLE is back to a progressive jackpot again (not to exceed $4999.) , The Auxiliary has Line Dancing every Tuesday night from 7 to 9 PM with over 30 people per week, We also have The Talk of The Town Swing band the first Sunday of every month. We are also adding to our Legion Family the "American Legion Riders", it will be our own chapter. It was approved at our October meeting. I will speak for my self and family and tell you we all enjoy the events being held and the roles each of us take on. So if you have not been in for awhile Please come in on one of the above events and see for yourself what is going on. Remember we have a VAC food basket program that will issue a Holiday food basket to those in need. We are here for each other in happy and sad times. My family and I Wish all of you The very Best Holiday's

Robert Whitmer, Commander

HONOR GUARD DETAIL Our Honor Guard continues to present military honors at funerals for any and all veterans when called upon, no matter the weather, God Bless Them.

Medical Aids available at the Post. The user DOES NOT need to be a Legion Member.

There is NO charge. Call us.

If you have a Soldier coming home, let us know so we can set up a WELCOME HOME for them. We can

also inform them of their available Benefits!

Remember Veterans - you get a 10% discount at all Home Depot stores on all purchases, take

advantage of this offer.

The Legion has been nonstop with activities and shows no sign of slowing as the weather changes from summer to fall. We have our new addition to our monthly schedule “The Talk of the Town” swing band. They will be performing every first Sunday of the month from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm in the upper hall. Come down to listen to this energizing band or show us some of your moves on the dance floor. Friday November 2nd the “Ditch Diggers” will be performing at the Legion after Lightning. Back by popular demand the band will play from 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm. The Ditch Diggers recently played at our American Legion Days event this past June. Veterans Day November 11th is approaching fast with a weekend of activities planned. Members of the Post will be visiting local schools, and the Post will be hosting a Veterans Day dinner for all Veterans, family and friends. Also the Honor Guard will be per-forming a ceremony at our very own memorial park here in Plano. Check our website or on find us on Facebook for all the details. Facebook is a great way to reconnect with friends or keep in touch with family. It is also a great tool to keep up to date on all the fun and exciting things going on here at the Plano American Legion. All of our events, holidays and information is located on our page. The Facebook page is monitored by a number of officers at the post that can answer any questions that you may have. Post a question to our wall or send a Facebook message and we will get back to you with an answer as fast as we can. Come down and play Progressive Lightning at the Plano American Legion. We have our own style of lightning here in Plano. Lightning is a fast-paced game that can be won with 3 numbers, but here in Plano we want you to have an enjoyable night out with good people, food, music and more. Lightning starts at 6 pm and is over approximately at 8:30. Many of our Lightning attendees stay after and have a drink with the staff and friends. We could run through all 12 games of lightning in 30 minutes but we want our patrons to enjoy themselves with dinner, drinks and hopefully win some money! If you haven’t come down, give us a try, we play every Friday at 6:00 pm. If you are a regular thanks for your support! Remember, Lightning is PROGRESSIVE so a good time could win you big

bucks! Ralph Torres, Jr. Vice Commander

Auxiliary News: Next meetings are Nov. 6th and Dec. 4th, always scheduled the first Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. Our Halloween Party was again a success; the children had a great time with the Palm Reader, the Story Teller many other games, treats and goodie bags to take home. We will be assisting the Legion with the November 11th Veterans Day dinner – we have been assigned the POW/MIA table and ceremony – a great honor! We will be mailing ‘Packages for Soldiers’ soon, if you have items to donate please bring to the Posts lower level. Don’t forget the up-coming Christmas Party – call to help if you can. Our Auxil-iary 2nd annual Dinner/Dance will be held February 9th, a Valentines Dinner, be sure to mark your calendar to save the date – we are hoping to get the Talk of the Town Swing Band ~ cross your fingers. If you have not updated our Auxiliary with your phone, address, or email that we re-quested last year 2011 please text or call Punky (Yvonne) with the information 630-220-5254 (please leave a message with your name and phone number so she can call you back) or email her at needhamyvonne@aol.com with the informa-tion requested. We are also trying to make a current calling list for funerals, should you wish to be on the list also please call/text/email that information to Yvonne. Every little bit helps that you do and we appreciate everything you do, even if it is to only call and update your information – we need to update, the records are very old. Thank you to all who have already done so in the last year and anytime you do move or change numbers please contact us. Maybe you’d like to stop in and see all the updates being made in the building. Re-member: our main mission is being a Veterans Service Or-ganization -Thanks for being a member and Thank You for helping in the mission of the Auxiliary!

Melody Herreid, President

Yvonne Needham-Gibson, 1st Vice President

We are forming our own Chapter of the American Legion Riders. We are planning to have a meeting to assign any persons inter-ested in holding a spot in the chapter. This does not mean you HAVE to take one, so please do not let that hold you back from becoming a member! It is okay to say NO and just be a rider... We can all go over the by-laws and find out what is expected of us as ALR . I see the ALR as a tool to help all of us as members of ABATE, LEGION Family and riders. It would give us one more reason to RIDE !!!! and do something good ..... I ( Bob Whitmer ) took on the Director spot to get the ball rolling . This chapter can be as easy as we make it. The KISS RULE works great for me.

SIMPLE is good. Robert Whitmer, Commander

Weekly Events

Line Dancing every Tuesday at 7pm Pool League Tuesdays & Thursdays

at 7pm Lightning Raffle Fridays at 6pm

Check out our New Menu! Dart Leagues Sundays

Here’s How to Contact US!!  Email: planolegion@aol.com 

On the Web: www.legionpost395.org Phone: 630-552-8313

Membership: Welcome to Ed Morris, Donald Hord, Robert H. Macy, Luke Losic, Cory Swanson, L. D. Thedford, Terry R. Ovitt, Brad Hilderbrand and James B. Kowall!

Art McGava, Sr. Vice Commander

We Have Wi-Fi! Bring your laptop, & Join us!

Heads up fro the Adjutant, A group of us attended an officers train-ing seminar on October 13th at Yorkville Legion. We were edu-cated in the duties and responsibilities of each Officer and the Post. I am very happy to say that all of our officers have been performing their duties very well. However, each of us was surprised at some of the information not previously passed on. This is not the fault of our predicators. They too did not get the letter or were not in-formed. By order of the I.R.S. I am required to have the DD-214 of each member of Leon Burson Post 395 on the property at all times. This is necessary information to qualify the post for non-profit status. What I need from each member is a copy of your DD-214. This information will be kept in a locked safe in a locked drawer. Your information will be as safe as the Honor Guard rifles. I only need a copy, it does not need to be notarized. I am sure this will be an inconvenience to all of you, I’m sorry, it’s the law. Please help me accomplish this as due to the new privacy law I cannot go to the courthouse to get the needed information.

David Hulne, Adjutant

Thank you to everyone who helped in any way with the Sandwich Fair Booth this year. You know who you are. We could not have done it without your help. This was our 56th year at the Sandwich Fair, which is a fund raiser event for our Scholarship Fund. We deposited $2,009.23 into the Scholarship Fund Account and sold $360.00 in flags. TV/DVD winner was Brian Kahl from Plano, IL., 50/50 winners were Jim Hill, Dennis Whitmer, and Nancy Glover from Plano, IL. , Sam Skinner, from Rock Falls, IL. and Justin Thob from Sterling, IL..

Wendell Dominy, Fair Chairman

Listing of upcoming Honor Guard Veterans Day events. DAY DATE PLACE FUNCTION TIME

Friday Nov. 9th Plano Middle School Veterans appearing before students 7:45a -8:15a to discuss their personal feelings about what Veterans Day means to them with service flags. 6 – 10 vets. Friday Nov. 9th St. Mary’s School Same as above. 9:45a-10:30a. Friday Nov. 9th Emily Johns School 14 -16 vets lunch with 4th graders 11:45 – 1pm and share their experiences and personal artifacts with the students. Sunday Nov. 11th Memorial Park Honor Guard Services at park to 10:30-11:30a include naming new bricks, 3 volley salute, taps. Sunday Nov. 11th American Legion Dinner with speaker. Presentation 5:30-6:15p of colors at 6pm prior to dinner. Monday Nov. 12 Sheridan Veterans Rifle squad and all service colors 10a – 1:30p Memorial with US, POW/MIA, & Legion colors with chrome rifles to march and fire at ceremonies held at their Veteran’s Memorial in conjunction with the Sheridan Legion. 16 - 19 vets. Police Chief Bergeron would like to have a practice sometime the week before at Sheridan to include their Legion and singer, etc. More information on any of these please contact Jim Hill at 847-417-9861.

VETERANS and Current members of The Armed Forces, This includes the GUARD and Reserve . The LEON BURSON POST 395, AMERICAN LEGION . 510 E Dearborn St. Plano, IL. 60545 would like you to stop in and find out about the Legion and the role we have within our community. Have you been to the Kendall County Veterans Assistance Commission ( VAC ) 630-553-8354 since you separated from the Service ? That is one of the things you need to do ASAP. By doing so you get into the VA system and the staff at the VAC is there to help you. Do you miss the brother/sisterhood and family bonds of the service ? Do you want to help fellow Veterans and your community ? Contact Bob Whitmer, Art McGava, Ralph Torres or Jerry Salois at 630-552-8313 or e-mail me " Bob Whitmer, Post 395 Commander" at "planolegion@aol.com " Membership in the American Legion offers several benefits, like discounts from Hotels, Car Rentals, Eye Glasses and more. We are civic minded, involved in our community, school programs, Present Honors for fellow veterans, Wel-come Home Service Members when they return. Our Post hold's social and fund raising events on a regular basis. Our Legion Members are all Veterans, The Sons of The Legion, are just that, The Women's Auxiliary are Mothers, Wife's and Daughters of Veterans. Our Post is becoming more active and would really like to have you involved in growth and transition into the future. Post 395 has been a part of Plano for the last 92 years. It was founded at the end of World War I by local service men returning home and saw the need for our Post. Today we still have that need and our mission is the same. I invite anyone to visit our Post and find out more about the Legion's Mission and meet our mem-bers. You can find more detail on line via, "www.legion.org" also about our Post at "www.planolegion.org" and on Facebook under Plano American Legion Post 395.

IN MEMORY OF US ARMY SSgt ROBERT D. HERREID

10-10-68 SVN /CAM

MIA Wally & Melody Herreid Wally and Melody Herreid

Your Business Card should be here, reaching over 500 Members. Please Contact Post 395 for information.

This Newsletter is sponsored by the following:

Veterans Day Dinner 11th Nov. 2012 , Social/Cocktail Hour starts at 5 PM. We ask all guest to be seated by 5:50 PM prior to Ceremonies Start. Our Guest speaker will be Sgt Danny Russell USAF Vietnam Veteran who was shot down twice in ONE day. The Boy Scout Troop 71 will be on hand to aide those who need it. If you have memorabilia to display it is welcome. Veterans are free, the cost of others is $10. we will have a cash bar. A sign up sheet is in the Lounge, your RSVP is needed to order the meal. You may call in your RSVP. The meal is being catered by UPPER CRUST of Yorkville, The menu is:

MEATS Baked Ham with Honey Mustard Glaze Herb Roasted Chicken

VEGETABLES Gingered Carrots Au Gratin Potatoes

SALADS Bow Tie Pasta Classic Caesar

ACTIVITIES FOR OCTOBER & NOVEMBER for the Children & Youth, Americanism, and Community Service Committees.

Day/Date Activity Start in Oct PSA’s on WSPY for driver and other safety issues in conjunction with Plano Police Chief Steve Eaves and Mayor

Robert Hausler. Sat./11-3 8:30am. Set up “fallen Heroes” moving wall, veterans memorabilia, and handouts showing what aid the AL can

give to veterans and / or their families. This is in conjunction with helping Rural King have a nine day Veterans Day celebration. Wall and Memorabilia from 10am to 2:30pm. Rural King will continue their honoring veterans all the way through Sunday, November 11th.

Fri./11-9 7:45am until 8:30am at Plano Middle School. Veterans speaking with students & faculty about Vet. Day and what it means to them. Flag folding, Taps, personal experiences.

Fri.11-9 9:45am to 11:15am at St. Mary’s school. Speak to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders about Veterans Day. Discuss the flag folding, taps, and rifle salute, and personal experiences.

Fri./11-9 11:45am to 12:45pm at Emily Johns Intermediate school. Veterans share lunch with and speak to the entire 4th grade class. Each veteran will sit with a lunch table with about 10-12 students. There the students discuss that veterans experiences during the time and conflict during which they served. Each veteran will bring various memorabilia to show and discuss with the students.

Sat. /11-10 ALL MARINES CELEBRATE THEIR BIRTHDAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHESTY WHERE EVER YOU ARE!! SEMPER FI.

Sun. /11-11 11am to 11:15 am at Plano’s Memorial Park. Ceremony in remembrance of the end of WWI, Armistice Day. At the 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month, November. Names of new bricks for the Memorial Walkway since Me-morial Day are read by the Mayor. Three volley Rifle Salute and the playing of Taps end the ceremony.

Sun. /11-11 5pm to 8pm. Veterans Day Dinner at the Plano Legion.Posting of colors, remembrance table ceremony, and guest speaker round out the night with the catered dinner. Boy Scout Troop 71 will be on hand to assist with the serving of the dinner.

Mon. /11-12 11am to 1pm. Join with the City of Sheridan and their American Legion Post in the Veterans Day celebration at the Sheridan Veterans Memorial. Post Honor Guard, consisting of US, POS/MIA, and all Service colors Color Guard, and rifle squad to render the three volley rifle salute to all veterans.

For changes to the Calendar, Please Contact Art McGava

November 2012 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 SAL 6pm

2 Lightning 6pm Band After

3

4 Talk of the Town 3-6pm

5 Exec. 6:30pm General 7pm

6 Aux. 7pm Election Day

7 8 Muskies Mtg. Upper Hall Scouts 5pm

9 Lightning 6pm

10 Fox Valley Card Club 5pm

11 Vets Day Dinner 5pm

12 Sheridan 10:30 at Plano

13 14 15 Scouts 5pm

16 Lightning 6pm

17 St. Jude Fundraiser 8am-2pm Upper Hall

18 19 Social Night 6pm

20 Exec 6pm

21 22 Thanksgiving

23 Lightning 6pm

24

25 26 27 28 29 30 Lightning 6pm

December 2012 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1

2 Kids Christmas Party 1-3pm Talk of the Town 3-6pm

3 Exec 6:30 General 7pm

4 Aux 7pm

5 6 SAL 6pm

7 Pearl Harbor

Day

8

9 Pearl Harbor Breakfast

10 11 12 13 Muskies 7:30 Scouts 5pm

14 15

16 McGava Christmas Party Upper Hall Battle of the

Bulge

17 Social Night 5pm

18 Exec. 6pm

19 20 Scouts 5pm

21

Winter Begins

22

23 24 25

Christmas

26 27 28 29

30 31

Official End

of WWII