Dear Auxiliary Brothers and Sisters,
My name is Kathy Walsh and I am the Veteran of Foreign Wars Representative for the Department of Oregon at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center. I am writing you today to invite all those that wish to attend the Christmas gift giving at the Medical Center for the veterans that are hospitalized during the holidays. This year the day for the Veterans of Foreign Wars will be held on December 12, 2018.
We are fortunate enough that we have five (5) Auxiliary members and two (2) Post members that volunteer at the hospital every Wednesday. For those of you who are unaware of what a volunteer would do I will give you a very brief description of our work. Every Wednesday we begin our day very early with placing coffee pots and snacks to various departments within the hospital. The morning paper is taken to each ward, clinic, emergency and pharmacy. After having done the coffee and papers we then go to the wards with the comfort cart to see if there is any comfort care items a patient would need. This could be as simple as a tooth brush, comb, quilt or neck pillow being just a few of the items we offer. We could also be asked to assist the Volunteer Service Office with any clerical requests that would need to be done for various departments. As you can see we try our best to ensure that our hospitalized veterans are cared for and comfortable during their stay.
On December12 we will gather at 8:30 in the morning in room 201, located in building 101, to place the items that Auxiliary members have made and brought to the hospital into Christmas bags. These bags are the size of a luggage bag and made out of Christmas material. We deliver approximately 250 Christmas bags. I have collected to date 165 crocheted or knitted hats from Canby/Aurora, 90 Christmas bags from Sandy and 18 pairs of brown work gloves from Molalla. Tualatin is providing stuffed teddy bears for all 250 bags. Other items that have been placed in the bags in the past include daily planner books that can fit in a pocket, decks of cards, pens, pencils, puzzle books (crossword, word search or Sudoku), stockings, neck scarfs and neck pillows. I am asking each Auxiliary to please help participate in this wonderful event. I would need to know if your Auxiliary has any items that they would like to purchase or contribute to the Christmas bags. If you could let me know this information before November 24th that would be a wonderful help.
I would also like to invite any Post or Auxiliary members to come and join us for this wonderful time. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the smiles and joy from our hospitalized veterans from what they would receive from our organization. So I encourage each of you to consider joining us for this event.
Thank You,
Kathy Walsh, Department of Oregon Veterans of Foreign Wars Volunteer Representative