Volume 5 Issue 3

THE LIBERTY

Detachment of New York

Sons of The American LegionSons of The American LegionSons of The American LegionSons of The American Legion

Dates of Interest:

• Feb. 10 Membership Target

Date 75%

• Feb. 21-24 Washington Con-

ference

• Feb.29-Mar.1 Hill Day Albany

• March 4-5 Oratorical Contest

• March 9 Membership Target

80%

• March 15-17 American Legion

Birthday

• April 13 Membership Target

Date 90%

• April 13-15 National Com-

mander Visitations

• May 2-5 Spring Meetings Indi-

anapolis

• May 11 Membership 100%

• May 13-14 Homecoming

Inside this issue:

Squadrons in Action 1

Commander’s Message 2

From the Adjutant’s Desk 3

Mid-Winter Collection Drive

Homecoming 2016 4

Children & Youth Report

VA&R Information 5

Membership Report

Americanism 6

SAL Radio 7

Other Detachment News

And Information 8

www.sonsdny.org

Suite 1300

112 State Street

Albany, New York

12207 (518) 463-2215

Mid-Winter Issue 2016

Share The Pride Share The Pride Share The Pride Share The Pride ---- Build the Pride Build the Pride Build the Pride Build the Pride

Sons and Legion Family Sharing the Holiday SpiritSons and Legion Family Sharing the Holiday SpiritSons and Legion Family Sharing the Holiday SpiritSons and Legion Family Sharing the Holiday Spirit

Sons from the 7th District at the Canandaigua VA

Santa’s Helpers at the Bath VA Elves helping at the Brooklyn VA

PAGE 2 DETACHMENT OF NEW YORK NEWSLETTER VOLUME 5 IS SUE 3

First of all, on behalf of Marie and myself, I would like to offer all members of the Legion Family our best wishes for a joyous and healthy New Year.

As we get ready for the Mid-Winter Conference, the half-way point of the Administrative year, we have actually completed two-thirds of our Visitations. After Rensselaer County on Janu-ary 21st we will spend the month of February in the 7th and 8th Districts. After our annual visit to Washington DC, we will complete our visits to the 3rd District with one last tour of the 7th Dis-trict, starting in March.

I would like to express our gratitude to all mem-bers of the Legion Family who accompanied us through the 1st, 6th and 9th Districts in Novem-ber. Having a great traveling party is key to having successful tours through the Districts. I would also like to thank everyone who made donations to my projects. Remember, it’s not too late to make a donation to Operation Com-fort Warriors or the Legacy Scholarship Fund. Congratulations, Detachment of New York !! We have reached 60% in membership, a week ahead of the target date. As of this writing the Detachment is at 62.7%. I would like to con-gratulate the 6 Districts and the 37 counties who have already reached this plateau.

While reaching this target is an achieve-ment, it is not m e a n i n g f u l unless we con-tinue to send in the member-ship. Let’s keep our foot on the accel-erator and keep our eye on the ultimate goal, 100%.

A reminder, that we are fast approaching the annual Walkathon Day. I would like to em-phasize to all members of our Detachment the importance of this event and our duty, as Sons, to raise the money needed to provide the most updated medical, rehabilitation and recreational equipment for our injured troops.

Hopefully everyone has saved Saturday, May 14, 2016 to join us at the Joint Homecoming in Albany. It is shaping up as a great event.

May God continue to watch over our troops and our veterans and may he always continue to Bless America.

COMMANDER’S MESSAGE by Joseph L. SantaCroce, Jr.

WALK-A-THON 2016

Saturday April 16, 2016

Go to the Detachment Website under Quick Links at www.sonsdny.org

FROM THE ADJUTANT’S DESK

by Robert J. Avery

PAGE 3 DETACHMENT OF NEW YORK NEWSLETTER VOLUME 5 IS SUE 3

Welcome to this 97th Annual Mid-Winter Confer-ence of The American Legion Department of New York. I am hoping that you will all en-joy this annual event which provides for both an educa-tional opportunity and a chance to meet fellow Legion Family members. We are pleased to welcome National Vice Commander William Hill from Maryland this year. Also visiting us from New Jersey is the leading Candidate for Na-tional Vice Commander Joe Korba.

According to the De-cember 31, 2015 National Membership Report, there are 362,319 members in our organization which is an in-crease of 4,310 over the prior year. Nationally we ended at 101.20% of goal, which is up over a half of a percentage point from 2014. We had 39,295 members who did NOT renew in 2015. The Na-tional renewal rate was 89.02% last year. Here in New York we ended with a 90.64% rate which is 14th highest in the Nation. That being said, we had 2,748 members who did not renew. As for our membership total, we finished in 37th place in the Nation with 99.75% of our goal which is BELOW last year. Our final total was 29,298 members.

Let’s get moving on member-ship! We are very close to making our 60% goal. The remaining Membership Tar-get Dates are as follows:

February 10, 2016: 75% Membership Target Date

March 9, 2016: 80% Membership Target Date

April 13, 2016: 90% Membership Target Date

May 11, 2016: 100% Membership Target Date (total percentage)

July 26, 2016: 105% Membership Target Date

All Squadrons will soon be receiving the 2016 Consolidated Squadron Re-port (CSR). National is send-ing these out to the various Detachments within the next several weeks. This form is the most important document that you need to complete. The compilation of all volun-teer hours and donations from Posts and Squadrons are reported to Congress each year by the National Commander of The American Legion. There are minor changes to the form this year. We only receive one CSR for each Squadron in our De-tachment. Squadrons who have not received a CSR by mid-March should contact Anne Wilsey at Albany HQ 1-

800-ALEGION. You are re-minded to complete and sub-mit your CSR to Detachment HQ by April 30, 2016 for De-tachment judging. Reports will then be forwarded by the De-tachment Adjutant to National HQ.

Also, all Squadrons are reminded to complete and for-ward an Officer Certification Form (OCF) to HQ immedi-ately following their annual election of officers in May. This task can be completed on line. Your Squadron is not rec-ognized without a current offi-cer report on file at Albany HQ. Squadrons will not re-ceive membership cards with-out an OCF. The OCF and much more information are always available on our De-t a c h m e n t w e b s i t e (www.sonsdny.org). Also there is a wealth of information at the National website at www.sal.legion.org.

For the Good of The American Legion Family, Robert J. Avery, Detachment Adjutant

STUDENT

SCHOLARSHIPS

The American Legion Family has

over a dozen Scholarships available

to students. Check them out on

the Detachment Website Scholar-

ship page at www.sonsdny.org un-

der the Main Menu Line PRO-

GRAMS.

PAGE 4 DETACHMENT OF NEW YORK NEWSLETTER VOLUME 5 ISSUE 3 PAGE 4 VOLUME 5 ISSUE 3

Legion Family Homecoming

Honoring

Department Commander Jim Yermas

Department President Jan Mahoney

Detachment Commander Joe SantaCroce

Saturday, May 14, 2016

The Desmond Hotel

Albany, New York

(More Details To Come Later)

Hotel

Rooms

$119.00/night

Dinner

Tickets

$65.00/pp

Mid-Winter Collection Effort

During our Mid-Winter Conference in Al-

bany, the Detachment will be conducting a

drive to collect personal care and toiletry

items for the Tri-County Catholic Charities

of the Diocese of Albany.

The collection would include such items as

soap, shampoo, deodorant, shave cream,

d i sposab l e razo rs , t o o thpas te ,

toothbrushes, body lotion, etc.

While we have asked in advance via email

and social media for everyone to bring

some items from home, we are also asking

everyone to collect the unused toiletry

items in your hotel room during the dura-

tion of your stay at Mid-Winter.

A collection box will be available in our

meeting room at the Radisson for you to

deposit your items each day, and we will

also have a collection box at the Public Re-

lations Table at the Desmond.

Catholic Charities runs many programs for

homeless and needy in the Albany area,

including assistance to children and Veter-

ans, as well as Veterans Housing. All items

collected will be presented to them after

the Conference. We hope you will help out!

PAGE 5 DETACHMENT OF NEW YORK NEWSLETTER VOLUME 5 ISSUE 3

Welcome to Mid-Winter 2016 from the C&Y Committee. Don’t forget to pick up your free CD on the C&Y programs for our children, and don’t forget our little speech and presentation at 1:00pm on Saturday at the Des-mond. Since January 2015, 28 individuals affected by Autism, ranging in age from 2 to 26, have died due to wandering away from the safety of their homes or schools. To the autis-tic, it is basically their form of communication. With the assistance of two American Legion Child Wel-fare Foundation Grants, the Na-tional Autism Association (NAA) has been able to address the wandering issue to save the lives of kids with Autism by cre-ating the Big Red Safety Box initiative. The first Grant allowed NAA to produce 1,000 Big Red Safety Boxes. NAA put them online for free and they were

gone in less than 6 hours. At the American Legion National Children & Youth Con-ference, the NAA gave proof of the level of need for these re-sources. The initiative was a dream come true for the NAA, and with the help of the Legion it has been very successful. 49% of children with Au-tism engage in wandering be-havior, with 35% wandering at least once a week. 42% of the cases involving a child 9 or younger ended in death, and 92% of wandering deaths were from drowning. The Big Red Safety Box includes educational materials for caregivers as well as:

2 wireless door/window alarms; Adhesive stop signs to place on windows or by doors; Emotion cards so kids can express how they feel; Safety alert window stickers for car or home win-

dows to alert responders that an autistic child is present; Safety alert wristband to signify child is autistic; Personalized shoe ID tags with the child’s emergency information. The second Grant by the CWF allowed the NAA to create 5,000 more Big Red Safety Boxes, which allowed for triple the distribution by the NAA. Wendy Fournier, Presi-dent of the National Autism As-sociation stated to the Legion that “Because of you, we were able to start this program, and have provided resources to 6,000 families in the US. Be-cause you helped us with the seed money to start this pro-gram, it has since helped us raise additional funding, and we have now given a total of 18,000 Big Red Safety Boxes, thanks to all of you.”

Richard Hodge, C&Y Chairperson

Children & Youth Commission

PAGE 5

On Veteran’s Day a fund raiser was held at the Lodge at Welch Allyn, Inc. in Skaneateles, NY. The goal was to raise money in support of the CNY Hub of Honor Flight. The project, although not strictly a Sons event, involved mostly Sons in the planning and execution. The Sons involved were Rick Keyes, Eric Amberge, Jeff Dove, Jed Dove, Duane Wiedor and Jason Slottje. All members of Squad 239 of the Robert J. Hydon American Legion. They spent 250 hours planning the event, assisted by other members of the Legion Family and members of the community. The event was attended by 210 people includ-ing WWII, Korea, Viet Nam, the Gulf and Iraq Veter-ans. The event was emceed by newsman Dan Cum-mings and included quest speakers; Reverend John “Jack” Kissel, US Navy Korean War; Father Moritz Fuchs, US Army WWII; Vice Admiral Robert B. Mur-rett, US Navy; Bart O’Neill Murphy II, US Air Force Persian Gulf War. The 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, NY Army National Guard supplied a Color Guard for the posting and retiring of the colors. With the dinner, si-lent auction, and donations, the event raised over $50,000.00 for Honor Flight Syracuse.

VA&R - Honor Flight by: Bob Cox, Chairperson

PAGE 6 DETACHMENT OF NEW YORK NEWSLETTER VOLUME 5 ISSUE 3 PAGE 6 VOLUME 5 ISSUE 3

Americanism Essay Contest 2016

so don’t count them out. If you remember last year, it’s still too early to count any District out. Thank you to the entire membership for your hard work towards retaining and recruiting membership for our organiza-tion. Without the dedication and determination of you all, this or-ganization would not be as strong. I hope to see a lot of you at our Mid-Winter Conference. If you should have any questions please contact myself or the membership commission person from your District..

Gaither Espy, Membership Chairman

As we welcome in the cal-endar year 2016, let me give you our final membership numbers for our 2014-2015 membership year. We had 29,298 members, for 99.748% of our goal. This was only 74 members short of our goal and-placed us 37th on the National level and 10th for the Eastern Region. Our renewal rate was 90.64% which is excellent, 14th on the Na-tional level, great job. The National average for renewals was 89.02%, which was an all-time high. We have always done well with renew-als, but we can get better. We had 2,674 new members for the year but also lost over 2,700 members. We are closing in on our January 20, 2016 target of 60% of our goal. As of the latest report

January 14 we have reached this goal and are at 62.73%. Out-standing job, swamping Liam in the Albany office the last week of December and the first week of January. We don’t need to wait for the last minute to send in transmittals but I’m happy they got in. The Detachment already has 37 Counties at or above 60%. Also 6 of our Districts are above 60%. There have been some changes on the leader board but not the top spot. Dis-trict 1 has been in the lead and is currently at 71.57%. District 2 jumped into the 2nd slot at 69.96% followed by the 10th Dis-trict with 67.96%. District 5 and District 7 are on top of their game

Contest Information Grades 1 -5 Contest Information Grades 6 - 8

“What America means

to me"

“What the Constitution of the United States

means to Americans”

The contest is open to all New York State school children in First through Fifth grades. There will be one winner from each grade level participating. Each winner will receive fifty dollars for them-selves, and fifty dollars for their classroom.

The deadline for the contest is April 19th, 2016.

To view and print all program documentation, go to the Detachment Website (See Below).

The contest is open to all New York State school children in the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth grades. There will be one winner from each grade level participating. Each winner will receive One Hun-dred Dollars.

The deadline for the contest is April 19th, 2016.

To view and print all program documentation, go to the Detachment Website (See Below).

Information Letter, Contest Flyer, and School

Information Sheet can be found under Quick

Links on the Detachment Website at

www.sonsdny.org

Information Letter, Contest Flyer, and School

Information Sheet can be found under Quick

Links on the Detachment Website at

www.sonsdny.org

Membership

DETACHMENT OF NEW YORK NEWSLETTER VOLUME 5 ISSUE 3 PAGE 7

SAL Radio by Ken Kraetzer

We can always use help with stories, if you would like more

info or would like to be a part of the SAL Radio team,

contact Ken at kgk914@aol.com or 914-450-9554.

Discussions have been initiated with the New York Yankees about affiliating with their Pinstripe Bowl. When attending this past year, they did not have a color guard. This may present opportunities in the future to have outings to a summer game and the Pinstripe Bowl, at which a SAL Squadron or Legion could pro-vide a color guard.

Our coverage of the Army-Navy game in Philadelphia had 98K page views on Facebook more on YouTube and Twitter.

We are moving ahead on two projects for Chaplains Hill at Arlington National Cemetery. We expect to have the lists of Protestant Chaplain's names KIA in Korea, Vietnam, and Cold war to add to the Protestant Chaplains Monument. We will be developing the design for the plaque with the same person who designed the Jewish Chaplains Monument and the Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance. We are also going for-ward with design of monument to honor five Chaplains KIA in recent conflicts with space for future casualties. This will be an Interfaith Monument that will recognize that Chaplains of all faiths work closely together. Challenge on thus one is the approval process that may require approval of Congress. We have done this before and believe our prior supporters will go to bat for us again. Funding to cover both projects is in the bank at the Jewish Welfare Board, basically left over from 2011.

Public Relations Commission

The overall objective of the Public Relations Commission is to coordinate the internal and external image and message of the Sons of the American Legion, and promote the goals achieved by it’s membership for all to learn and appreciate. To accomplish that task our goal is to report all newsworthy items in an effort to educate ourselves and others of the ac-tivities and programs of the Sons of the American Legion.

We need you to tell us, and show us, what is taking place in your Squadron, County, or District, what you are doing to raise funding, and how are you providing service to our Vet-erans and your Community. Please forward all articles and photos from your Squadron or other activity for inclusion in

the SPRING issue no later than APRIL 18th, 2016.

Send to: Gabe Cinquegrana, PR Chairman, 4178 Angela Way, Canandaigua, NY 14424

Email to: gcinqueg@rochester.rr.com

Commission Members:

DETACHMENT OF NEW YORK NEWSLETTER VOLUME 5 ISSUE 3 PAGE 8

The Francis M. Dalton Squadron 282, Lima, Livingston County held their annual Santa Party on December 12, 2015. A good time was had by all

James Coates coajam1@gmail.com

Kenneth Kraetzer kgk914@aol.com

Kevin Harrington kevinmrsq1231@aol.com

Timothy Van Patten II Tbk@rochester.rr.com

William Clancy III bill@urbanupkeep.com

Making A Difference

On December 15, Sons from Staten Island and other Legion Family mem-bers delivered and presented over 340 gifts to Children at St. Finbar's Heart Share School. The children are part of St. Finbar's First Step Program for kids afflicted with forms of Autism. 2nd District Squadron Commander Michael Rodriguez is dressed as Santa Claus and Kings County Auxiliary President Catherine Rodriguez is Mrs.Claus.

The Sons in Staten Island also helped to distribute over 2,500 turkeys during the Thanksgiving Holiday.

In November, Anthony J. Navarino, Commander S.A.L. Squadron 1296 Staten Island, New York, was the recipient of a letter from Pastor Mark Hallinan at St Mary of the Assumption + Our Lady of Mount Carmel + St. Benedicta Parish in Staten Island. The letter read in part “Many of the families we serve face real diffi-culties in providing for their most basic needs. I am grateful that your members have such an active con-cern for those in need, and were willing to deliver these turkeys for us. Your members will be in my prayers during the celebration of our Thanksgiving Mass.”