American Legion Greer Post #11 held its monthly meeting on September 16, 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. Sharon Haar was also recognized for receiving a gold star for her 5000 hours of volunteer hours for the VA Volunteer Services. Two guests were present for the fine meal. Olivia Breen, who was the Legion Auxiliary Girls’ State representative and Milton Haar, who is a son of a Legion member. Commander Rados then called the meeting to order.

Adjutant Dave Isebrands, red the minutes of the previous meeting. It was noted that the District 8 meeting will be held in Hurley on September 26th at 1:00 PM and not in Volin. Merle made a motion to accept the minutes as read with the correction of the District 8 meeting to be held in Hurley and not Volin. Bob Kucera seconded the motion with the motion carrying.

Treasurer Dan Gruenwald gave the monthly treasurer report. All bills received have been paid but is awaiting the bills yet for the food sold at the Legion stand for Labor Day.

Don Kotab is our Americanism Officer. He stated Jen Lhotak is our new school coordinator to work with. We will have a program again on November 11. Information has been received again for Boy’s State as well as the Oratory contest.

Jerry Seiner, our baseball coordinator, reporter noted that our baseball is all done for the season.

Bingo-No Bingo was held during the Labor Day celebration. We will have to determine at a later date if Bingo will be offered at next year’s celebration. We will have our Holiday Bingo as usual this year.

Service Officer Merle Stone gave his report.

Legion Riders Director, Bruce Specketer, gave his report. The Riders held their annual Veterans’ Ride on Sunday during Labor Day weekend. We had a good turnout. The ride honored Tom Pranger who originally began this event. Tom passed away earlier this year. The riders received a nice letter from the Midwest Honor Flight Program as the Riders had raised enough money from the Wagner Super Food’s brat/hamburger feeds to sponsor an individual for the program. Joe Stedronsky is leaving tomorrow as a participant. We will have four other members going in October.

Old business – we had a moment of silence for Norma Reinschmidt as well as for those who have recently passed. Commander Rados checked on new stoves when he was in Sioux Falls. They are very expensive but he did find one at Bouza’s appliance store and went ahead and purchased one. He also purchased a new coffee pot as the current one was leaking. We had two Legion members plus two SOL members work the 50/50 drawing at the races. Bob Kucera made a motion to donate all the money received to the SOL. Melvin Horner seconded the motion with the motion passing. A thank you to the Fort Randall Credit Union and the Wagner National Guard will be posted in the Announcer for their efforts of printing the monthly treasurer’s report and the monthly newsletter.

Labor Day – We had a great turnout again for our stand on the midway. We ran out of chips on Monday evening and we sold all the hotdogs. Every shift went well and thank you to all who worked. We debated on whether to have coffee available or not. A round of applause was given to Commander Rados who worked tirelessly all three days.

We have a number of individuals who expressed interest in joining our American Legion Post. We will continue to follow-up with these individuals as we need more members.

Veteran’s Service Officer, Jerry Seiner gave his report. The Gulf War Syndrome which was set to expire has been extended another five years until 2026. Tomorrow, September 17th, is MIA/POW day and he have us a reminder to fly our flags if we have one. The VFW is having their annual gun raffle at $20.00 per ticket with 200 tickets being sold with three guns being given away. The drawing will be held on November 11th. There are three flags needing retiring due to wear.

There will be an Operation Chow Line event held at our Post on Thursday, October 14th. Pancakes and sausages will be served free to service members, veterans, their families and caregivers. Various veteran service organizations will have resource booths set up as well. Flyers will be hung up for public notification.

Our monthly drawing winner is Dan Gruenwald. Prayer was given by Chaplain Don Kotab and we closed in due form.