COMMANDER’S CORNER
Fellow Legionnaires of Vermilion Post 29:
As we begin a new year, let us review the last year. Our Post lost severallong-time Legionnaires. Our departed brothers were appropriately memorialized at our annual installation banquet. We will continue to remember our departed brothers at our annual function.
In August, our communities were stricken by a devastating flood. Yet, we did not flinch in the face of such a disaster. We reached out to each other and together, we began to put our towns and villages, farms and suburbs back together. Simply put, we got on with the business of living.
On a brighter note, notwithstanding the destruction and loss, we were active throughout our city and parish during 2016. Our community involvement was recognized by the Woodmen of the World which bestowed the Community Partner Award on Vermilion Post 29. And our Post recognized the efforts to improve downtown Abbeville by the city’s Main Street Manager Charlene Beckett by naming her Citizen of the Year.
We celebrated our 97th birthday in March 2016 with a great display of attendance by you Legionnaires and your families. Throughout the year, we observed not only our birthday but the achievements of the Abbeville Post 29 American Legion baseball team as the team captured the championship of the Southwest Division. We extolled our Boys and Girls State participants. We participated in the annual Vermilion Government Day. Legionnaires distributed fresh popcorn to hundreds of children who came out to the Scare on the Square. Legionnaires from Post 29 were also present in partnership with the Rotary Club of Abbeville during the 2016 Christmas Stroll.
Our Post has partnered with and contributed to the support of the revamped Vermilion Council on Aging to assistant in the care and feeding of our parish elderly many of whom are aged veterans. We now have a member of the Post serving on the Council’s Board of Directors.
Our annual Food Drive for Needy Vermilion Veterans was a great success. A few tons of food and over $1200.00 in cash was donated in support of our food drive.
The Post was able again this year to assist the Christian Service Center in its efforts to feed the needy in our parish. Moreover, Legionnaires from Post 29 donated and delivered a truckload of books to the Veterans Home in Jennings, Louisiana.
Post 29 continues with its support of scouting in Vermilion Parish by supporting various Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts troops.
Throughout the year, we recognized the contributions and sacrifices that our military veterans have made to our Nation. Representatives of Post 29 participated in the dedication of a POW/MIA Memorial Monument in downtown Abbeville. We also supported the dedication of a Gold Star Monument by the Abbeville Garden Club and recognized Mrs. Fred Hoyt for her efforts to lead such endeavors. We attended the second annual Veterans Mass at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church.
In recognition of Veterans Day, Post 29 Legionnaires enjoyed our annual Veterans Breakfast. We paraded to downtown Abbeville to commemorate our parish veterans and to change the Stars and Stripes and service flags at the veterans’ plaza.
It has been a truly grand year to be a Legionnaire of Vermilion Post 29. What to expect in the coming year? An equally active year. We will continue with our traditional events. But there is more to achieve.
We will continue to work out an agreement with Entergy to support the energy provider’s efforts to provide service during a time of declared natural disaster.
We will continue to partner with community organizations to meet the needs of our veterans and their families throughout Vermilion Parish.
We will continue with our efforts to improve our physical assets. New chairs were acquired this past year and we will explore the possibility of acquiring new tables. Acadiana Shell and Limestone donated tons of limestone in order that our parking area could be improved. We continue to retire our debt associated with the installations of new air conditioning. As we make similar improvements to our building in the coming year, our ability to provide an affordable venue for weddings, baby showers, family reunions, corporate meetings, investment seminars and other events increases with each happening.
In March 2017, we will celebrate the 98th birthday of the American Legion and Vermilion Post 29. Members of the Executive Committee have begun to work on our 100th birthday in March 2019. As part of that milestone, we will initiate an undertaking to rededicate the downtown bridge in Abbeville.
That bridge was dedicated on November 27, 1938 by Post 29 as the “Vermilion Memorial Bridge.” Plaques were placed on the bridge to commemorate those veterans of Vermilion Parish who gave their lives in the Great War, World War I. According to the Saturday, March 6, 1943 edition of the Abbeville Meridional, metal plaques were place on the bridge that read, “To Those Who Died That Liberty Might Live.” The minutes of our Post reflect that shortly after the United States entered World War II, the dedication plaques were removed and used to meet the Nation’s need for metals to construct armaments for the war effort.
I believe it is time to restore the plaques and rededicate the Vermilion Memorial Bridge to all Vermilion Parish veterans who have given their lives that our liberties might survive.
I encourage each of you to lend your support to this long-term effort for without your support this undertaking and others cannot be accomplished. This is your post and what we do we do for each other. So, I encourage each of you to renew your membership, attend our monthly meetings (and bring a veteran if you can), participate in the upcoming elections of new officers, and become active in the affairs of the Post. For it is for God and Country and each other that we do what we do as Legionnaires of Vermilion Post 29.
For God and Country
Thomas B. Thompson
8505 River Road
Abbeville, LA 70501
337-893-8172 (home)
337-412-4545 (mobile)
1