American Legion Greer Post #11 held its monthly meeting on June 17, 2021 at the Post Home. Commander Clayton Rados called the members to attention. Chaplain Donald Kotab gave the invocation, which was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. The Preamble to the Constitution of the American Legion was recited by all members. Commander Rados had previously thanked the cooks for the fine meal and then called the meeting to order. There were 20 members in attendance for the meeting with one guest, Caden Goodrich, John Stone’s grandson.

Adjutant David C. Isebrands read the minutes of the May meeting. There being no additions or corrections, a motion was made by Robert Kisely to approve the minutes as read. The motion was seconded by Melvin Horner with the motion being carried.

Treasurer Dan Gruenwald passed out the account transactions and balances for Greer Post #11. All bills have been paid. Jerry Ehrisman made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report as presented. Joe Stedronsky seconded the motion with the motion being carried.

Committee reports as follows:

Americanism – Don Kotab updated the Post on the scholarship winners, Jaden Peters, Megan Soukup, Abby Brunsing and Mackenzie Roberts. Jaden Peters was the only recipient able to attend tonight as the others had previous commitments but will attend at a later date. Jaden gave a nice thank you and thank you notes were read from Abby Brunsing and Megan Soukup. Nolan Dvorak, our Boys State representative, was unable to attend but will attend at a later date.

Baseball – no report.

Legion Riders – Two Riders, Bruce Specketer and Jay Youngbluth, are currently circling the state with State Commander Fred Nelson on the State Commander’s Run. It began in Hot Springs on June 16th and will end back in Hot Springs on June 19th. The group will be in Wagner on the afternoon of June 18th at approximately 4:40 PM. Commander Nelson is raising funds for the South Dakota American Legion Foundation. The Riders will be doing the brat/hamburger lunch again on July 30th in the Wagner Super Food parking lot. The money will be going to the Midwest Honor Flight Program.

Service Officer Merle Stone sent out a get well card to John Havranek. Francis Beeson’s name was also brought up. He will also send out a card to Francis. Also, Melvin Horner brought up to the members that Arnold Horner is now in the Good Samaritan Center here in Wagner.

Czech Days parade was brought up for discussion. There will be no candy thrown out per parade rules. Commander Clayton will pick up the Jeep and bring it to Tabor. Robert Kisely will meet him there and ride in the parade.

605 Unity Jam was discussed. We will have a profit of approximately $250.00. We stopped selling at 5:00 PM as the crowd thinned out and we were to help with putting out the flags on Sunday as Monday was Flag Day. Commander Rados thanked those who helped as well as John Fuchs who arrived to help about the time we decided to shut down. The profits will be used for the Midwest Honor Flight Program. Bob Kucera made a motion to have Greer Post #11 sponsor a veteran to go. This funding will be from the Post’s account separate from the fundraising. John Stone seconded the motion with the motion being carried. There will be two more Honor Flights this year, September 18th and October 19th.

The Post will post colors on July 9th at Friday night races here in Wagner. Commander Rados will use his pickup and take the flags and weapons to the race to use. The Post will also be selling the 50/50 tickets. 50% of the ticket sales go to the winning ticket, 10% to the cleanup crew with the remaining 40% going to the group selling tickets. We need more members to help.

Commander Rados thanked all those who helped at the Memorial Day services. The money donated to the Post for the meal following the service will be taken to the State American Legion Meeting in Huron June 24th-27th. Chaplain Kotab stated there are a few more names to be added to the list read at the Memorial Day services and gave the names to Service Officer Merle Stone.

We have five delegates going to the state American Legion Convention in Huron. The five planning on attending are Post Commander Clayton Rados, Past Post Commander Robert Kucera, District 8 Commander Greg Geiman, Adjutant David C. Isebrands and Jay Youngbluth.

Cooks for July are Russell and Marlene Stone, Doug and Janet Koupal, Bob and Barb Kucera and Greg and Kathy Geiman.

Monthly drawing winner was Bruce Specketer who was not in attendance.

Chaplain Kotab gave the final prayer.