VVA Clermont County Chapter 649 August 2020 Newsletter

August 13th Membership Meeting at 7:00 PM

VVA 649 Meetings

VVA 649 meets the second Thursday of every month.

NEXT MEETING: August 13th

LOCATION Union Township Civic Center

Amphitheater

4350 Aicholtz Road Eastgate Exit of I-275 Meeting at 7:00 PM

AVVA Membership Associates of Vietnam Veterans

Members actively participate

and work in supporting VVA.

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The mission of Chapter 649 of the Vietnam Veterans of America is to provide fellowship, advocacy, education about veter-an benefits, as well as financial assistance, as appropriate, to veterans of all eras, pursuant to the founding principle of the Vietnam Veterans of America, “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.”

Our August meeting will be held again in the Amphitheater directly behind Union Township Civic Center. The buildings are still not open for events. We are asking that you bring a folding chair as

there is limited seating. The meeting will start promptly at 7PM and end at 8:30 PM. We will observe social distancing rules, 6 feet apart, with masks as requested by Union Township. There will be no food served. Water will be provided. In case of rain we will meet on the covered stage. To get to the

Amphitheater, park on the far-right end of the Union Township Civic Center and follow the walking path down to the outside theater. Please lock your vehicles and leave no visible valuables inside!

Our Guest Speaker will be Steve Claybourn from Brushy Creek Reserve. Through their equine assisted learning program many of the emotional challenges experienced by our veterans re-turning from combat deployments can be overcome. Veterans as well as troubled youth have found new direction for their lives through the unique program offered by Brushy Creek Re-serve. This amazing program uses horses and a beautiful ranch like setting to connect mind, body and soul to help veterans focus on their future.

Chaplain’s Corner Hello Everyone, Because of COVID-19 many events have been cancelled - Christmas in July at the Veterans Home, the Clermont County Fair, and Honor Flights until 2021. Even though I can’t visit our veterans in the Ohio Veterans homes or those in the hospi-

tal, I still pray for them. I miss seeing my brother and sister veterans. Please pray for

Mark Brandon and his family at the passing of Mark’s wife Connie on August 19th and for Jim Haas who is quarantined at home with Covid-19. I give thanks to the men and women Veterans who are in harm’s way protecting our freedom. Let us keep all in prayer and please, please Wear Your Masks. Until next time, stay safe and God Bless All!

Chaplain Bill Graybill 523-316-5515

July Business of the Month

The July Business of the Month was awarded to Withamsville

Dominos Pizza for their support of Chapter 649 by providing great customer service when the chap-

ter orders pizza for its meetings. VVA649 Board Member Steve Tam presented the award to Gen-

eral Manager Johnny Patrick and Teresa Jett Ahmed, assistant GM.

VVA 649 August 2020 PAGE 2

August Birthdays

VVA 649 Schedule of 2020 Activities

Aug 13: General Membership Meeting 7:00 PM Union Township Amphitheater

Sept 10: General Membership Meeting 7:00 PM Location TBD

Sept 12: VVA649 Annual Golf Outing at ELK’s Run Golf Course.

Nov 11: Veterans Day Cermony at Helicopter. Union Township Veterans Memorial Park

Birthday Information If your birthday has not appeared here this month or anytime this year, or if the date is not

accurate, please contact Ken Williamson with the correct information. 513-260-6501

Thank You VSO

Thanks to the Clermont County VSO for providing a new tent for the VVA649 Meet and Greets and other public events. We used it at our recent meet and Greet at Walmart. Instant recognition from a distance.

The VVA Veteran printed edition will no longer be published and mailed to members. Budget cuts, due to the Household Goods program being shut down during the Covid-19 Pandemic is re-sponsible for the magazine only being published on-line. The link to read it on your computer is www.vvaveteran.org

08 / 01- Kenneth Patchell

08 / 03- Philip Dodge

08 / 03- Cathy Tam

08 / 07- Richard White

08 / 08- Frank Black

08 / 08- Stephen Hahn

08 / 09- Dennis Elchlinger

08 / 09- Ronald Gleason

08 / 10- Rodney Myers

08 / 12- Curtis Nelson

08 / 13- Charlie Nause

08 / 13- Jimmy Arnold

08 / 18- Mark Brandon

08 / 19- Darlene Sheap

08 / 20- Adam Martin

08 / 22- James Tonkin

08 / 28- Ken Williamson

08 / 29- John Plahovansak

Sorry we missed your birthday: June 7th Jessie Jones, July 6th Leo Ferguson , July 27th Jack Burris

HELP: Looking for New Address of James Tonkin. June newsletter was returned to us.

Cash Raffle. Who couldn’t use an extra few bucks to buy a few masks and take a trip around the block? We need help selling tickets. Call Michael Newman today at 513-607-9309. Tickets also available at our next membership meeting.

$1000

VVA 649 August 2020 PAGE 3

BREAKING: Tester’s Landmark Bill to Provide Benefits to Vets Exposed to Agent Orange Passes Senate by 94 to 6 Vote

Senator John Tester (D-Mont) took to the Senate floor earlier today to urge his colleagues to support his amendment which would expand VA’s list of medical conditions associated with exposure to Agent Orange to include Bladder Cancer, Hypothyroidism, and Parkinsonism—health conditions that each meet the his-torical standard for being added to the presumptive list for service-connection as it relates to Agent Orange exposure.

“This is a historic win for thousands of Vietnam veterans who have been suffering from illnesses after being exposed to Agent Orange, but who have been unjustly denied benefits for decades,” said Tester, Ranking Member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. “With the inclusion of my amendment in this must-pass defense bill, we are now one step closer to providing our Vietnam War heroes with the treatment and benefits they deserve from VA.

A special ceremony took place re-cently at the National Veterans Me-morial and Museum for the unveiling of Ohio's new Purple Heart license plate. These plates are free, along

with other plates for veterans.

15th Annual Golf Scramble Saturday, September 12th

Elks Run Golf Club

NOT A GOLFER? You can still help by get-ting hole sponsors and door prizes. You or a business you patronize can become a hole sponsor for $50. A sign with your name and/

or business name will be posted on the golf course and you will get recognition during the dinner. Door prizes are easy to ask for. We need discount coupons, gift cards to restaurants, tools, gift items, etc.

Of course, we need golf teams. Golf Flyers and forms are on the chapter website, available at the membership meeting, at Everything Bagels, or call Ken Williamson at 513-260-6501.

July Membership Meeting Social distancing with masks at our monthly meeting at the Union Township Amphitheater. Masks will be mandatory in August.

Memorial Bricks Apologies to those members and friends who have had delays getting their memorial bricks installed and/or finding their brick on the VVA649 website. In March we began confirming that the website matched the bricks location and that all new bricks were entered on the website. Hundreds of hours of work have gone into this project. Our webmaster, Wayne Gregory worked every day for a month to get the website brick finder updated. All the bricks, including AVVA members and the dog section are now listed correctly on the website. A few missing and weather damaged bricks will be replaced this month along with brick orders that were placed between March and June this year. Volunteers from the chapter will conduct one last walk

through to confirm that all brick locations match our current list. Then every brick, more that 2000, will be confirmed with the website.

The brick brochure and order form has been revised. If you have the old $30 order forms, please destroy them. New forms are available at the Memorial,

Everything Bagels, Union Township Civic Center Admin Office, Cliff Riley Insurance, and many other locations listed on the VVA649 website.

VVA 649 August 2020 PAGE 4

From the President

Meeting Days and Times

At last month’s board meeting and at our general membership meeting, we discussed the possibility of changing our meeting time and possibly the day of our membership meeting. We decided to investi-gate moving the start time of our meeting to 7PM with food at 6:30. We would adjourn the meeting promptly at 8:30. The time change is ok with our Union Township meeting location, so we are making that change. Starting with the August meeting we will meet at 7:00 PM. Changing the day of our meeting is more complex because it would require a change in our bylaws and a vote by the member-ship. Saturday morning was discussed. Saturday would not be a good day because of Buckeye State Council events occurring on Saturdays throughout the year. If any of you have suggestions or prefer-ences, please attend the next membership meeting or call Ken Williamson when you read this. Scholarships

Scholarships will be presented to our three winning candidates at our August membership meeting.

Photos and story will be in the September newsletter. This year the chapter voted to award three $1000 college scholarships. Two five hundred dollars grants provided by Buckeye State Council were used for one of the three scholarships. In 2021 we will again fund the program for three or maybe four

scholarships. Guidelines for 2020 scholarships are still on our website if any of you want to see what the students must provide to apply. Several years ago we started with one $500 scholarship and have been able to grow the program thanks to our annual fund-raising efforts and the support of our mem-

bers.

Scams

This year scams directed at veterans and the elderly have increased dramatically. One of the worst ap-pears to come from the VA. It involves a telephone call which eventually ends up getting your credit card number. This scam is particularly scary because it imitates the 1-800-827-1000 number as well as

VA identity verification protocol. (See below)

When the phone rings, most veterans will see the following on their call ID system: “Department of Veterans Affairs, 1-800-827-1000.” (Generated by the scammer)

Scam artists: “Hello, Mr. Smith, this is John from the VA, I’m contacting you because the VA is reaching out to veterans to ensure the accuracy of their records with us. Do you have a minute to go over your records at the VA?”

Veteran: “Yes!” Scam artists: “Before I get started, thank you for your service.” Veteran: “No problem.” Scam artists: “Mr. Smith, can you verify what branch of the military you served?” Veteran: “The Army.”

Scam artists: “Ok. Thank you. Can you verify your current address?”

The call goes on to ask general, non-threatening questions and ends up asking for your credit card in-formation to use “in case” you need to pay for incidentals related to your health care. HANG UP on

these calls. If in doubt, call your VA health provider. REMEMBER, the VA, Social Security and

your bank will never call and ask you to verify your information because they already have it.

It is very tempting to string these callers along and “mess” with them. Do not do it - Just hang up.

When you answer an unknown number or an 800/888 call, the scammer now knows they have a good number and will continue to call. Let those calls go to voice mail. You can check your messages later.

Got News? If you have news that you would like to see in the newsletter or a correction, Please contact: Ken Williamson at 513-260-6501