By Betsy Turner
The holiday season started early for the American Legion Family at Post 31. Preparations began on November 30, 2023, for the annual American LegionAuxiliary Holiday gift shop for patients at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center. The gift shop was opened to the patients on December 1, 2023. The 2023 gift shop was especially welcomed. It was the first in-person gift shop since 2020 and the beginning of COVID 19. The gift shop allows hospitalized patients to choose small gifts for their immediate family members. Auxiliary members help the patients choose gifts and then giftwraps them for the patients, so they are ready to give to family members.
Pictured left to right: Kathy Hogue, Ahyoka Raven, Johnny Raven, Dortha Parsons, Andrea Skelly, Marsha Duckworth, Margaret Yost from American Legion Post 31 and American Legion Auxiliary Unit 31. Front: Michael White, VAMC Volunteer Services.
As soon as the gift shop was over members of American Legion Auxiliary Unit 31 began preparing the American Legion Family Holiday Dinner, which was held on December 3, 2023. The dinner is held each year for American Legion Family members (Legion, Auxiliary, Sons, and Riders), their families and guests. This year Unit 31 prepared a dinner for 100 people.
Next on the agenda was the preparation of the annual fruit basket gifts for the patients at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center and the West Virginia Veterans Nursing Home. This year, in addition to American Legion Post 31 and the American Legion Family, several other community organizations contributed fruit for the project. On December 8th, a group from American Legion Auxiliary Unit 31, American Legion Post 31, and American Legion Riders gathered to assemble the fruit bags for both groups of Veterans. These gifts were delivered to the hospital and nursing home on December 9th.
Past Post 31 Commander, Bruce Grimes; American Legion Riders Advisor, Cliff Shingleton; Unit 31 members, Carla Wilfong and Margaret Yost; and VAMC Volunteer Services, Michael White.
But the activities didn’t stop there. On December 16, 2023, members of American Legion Auxiliary Unit 31 and the Legion Family (Legion, Sons and Riders) came together to fill Christmas Stockings for the annual Children’s Christmas Party. Sixty stockings were filled with candy and other small items for the children. The party was held on Sunday, December 17, 2023, at 2:00 pm. Marsha Duckworth, party organizer, also had Christmas crafts and games for the children. The high point of the afternoon was a visit by Santa Claus and each child was able to visit with the Jolly old gent, personally deliver their Christmas lists and have their pictures taken. The party concluded at 4:00 pm and approximately 40 children attended.