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Victoria Lisenbee

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Reflections on the Past Two Years – June 1997– June 1999…….
By Shirley Croucher

In September of 1997 we began hearing about the Navy Ship Museum’s plan to bring the destroyer USS Charles F. Adams to Bay City for permanent berthing. The committee’s recent fundraising efforts include highway billboards and a two-week stay of "The African Queen," the original steamboat used in the film starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. Boat rides will be offered each day, July 21– August 4, for $15, and the movie will be shown at the State Theater on July 23-24.

In October of 1997, several members attended the dedication of the WIMSA memorial, and Jan Roy represented our unit at the ribbon cutting of the Museum of Navy Women at Great Lakes Naval Training Station. Unit 32 hosted the All Servicewomen’s Luncheon at The Embers in Mt. Pleasant on Saturday, November 1, 1997.

Our unit continued to help raise funds toward the WN goal of $10,000 for a "Patriot Chair" for the WIMSA memorial. Fundraising began for a Vietnam memorial in Lansing, and Shirley VanBuren urged our participation in the Veterans Memorial Labor Day ceremony at the State Fair. Our unit decided to continue the practice of donating to the Navy Women’s Foundation in memory of deceased members. Pat Saint Amour and Sara Feldbauer updated past contributions and formulated a plan to stay current.

Elizabeth Ehman proposed a book-lending plan which seems to be working out well, the calling committee was reactivated, and Florence Gaus suggested using paper name tags because of the inconvenience of bringing the tag box to meetings.

Unit 32 continues to participate in the WN "Springheart" label project, and placed third in the national total. Doris Graham who is active in this, also crochets lap robes for distribution to VA hospitals. In addition to the lap robes, our unit made up 75 "personal" bags for women patients in four of the six VA facilities in Michigan.

Revision of unit bylaws to comply with WN was a major item of business from November 1998 to April 1999. New copies are available.

To top the two-year span, Jan Roy from our unit was elected WAVES National president at the the Hawaii convention in July 1998. Our unit purchased an ad in the convention program and donated a door prize for the raffle.

A "Creed" was composed to be read at meetings, and the purchase of our own sound system was made possible by a donation from a unit member in April 1998. It was deemed necessary to raise unit dues from $7 to $10, effective December 1998.

Stella Staley continues to stay on top of the volunteer hours WN project, and reported 4,272 hours for this fiscal year. Two members, Doris Graham and Ruth Smith, each contributed 1,000 hours. Thanks to everyone who kept track of their hours and completed the paperwork!

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