By: Megan Way | Photos by Su Phelps
The first Sunday of December the DAV Chapter 13 throws their Annual Christmas Party for their members, veterans, and their families. A table was full of presents were able to be won by raffle. The presents were donated by various organizations. Past District Commander of DAV Jeff Carson and his little assistant/grandson, Parker, called out the raffle numbers and presented the gifts to the raffle winners.
The party tradition has been going on for so long even members can’t clearly remember when it started, one member gives her best guess, “This has to be since 1985.” The Chapter’s Auxiliary ladies cooked turkey, ham, side-dishes, and desserts.
Chapter Auxiliary member Iris Bresinski says, “Buying the gifts and preparing the food it takes at least a month and a half to do all this. The cooking takes a couple days; We need more auxiliary members because we’re overworked, we sure could use a hand.”
Wives, widows, mothers, sisters, brothers and anyone been in the service, but they’re not disabled; they can all join the auxiliary if there is a servicemember in the family. Starting January 1st, 2020, lifetime membership for Auxiliary members is $250 for people 18-80 years old. Anyone under 18 can get a junior membership that is free. Anyone over 80 is free too.
DAV Chapter 13 Commander Everette Rossbach is on his first term, he says, looking towards the next year, “I hope to get more people in.”
VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System Chief of Staff Dr. Ramu Komanduri attended the party. When asked about how DAV Chapter 13 helps the hospital he said, “Oh my god they do so many things. They do the transportation for veterans, they volunteer, the DAV provides so many services to our veterans. Without DAV we couldn’t exist as a hospital or medical system. The DAV is the core of what they support. The DAV and veterans organizations are a tremendous part of what we do.” After the party was over, every member of Chapter 13 including auxiliary together cleaned up the hall and Dr. Komanduri “put all his effort” to help clean too.
