Monthly Meeting for October

Our monthly meeting for October went well. We discussed the Halloween party coming up on the 28th of this month. The fun starts at 7pm; get dressed up in your favorite costume and join us for fun and games!! We will also be having our raffle drawing. If you have any tickets left, now is the time to get them sold and turned back in.

Our next Legion Riders’ dinner is on November 4 at 4pm. Russ will be cooking – come on out and support our Riders group.

We also discussed which rides we wanted put in to the North Pole calendar for 2007. We decided that we would have four runs next summer -

  • Memorial Weekend run to the Veterans Memorial on the Parks Highway in May
  • Fourth of July Parade
  • Anderson Bluegrass Festival in July
  • POW/MIA Ceremony in September

We will also try to participate in as many runs by other groups as possible, with a focus on CMA. They have been awesome in their support for us this summer.

Jim and I will be heading down to Kenai this weekend to pick up our Charter and hopefully our membership cards.  I believe we will be having some type of ceremony at our Post to dedicate our Charter at some point in the future.

Well, that’s all for now.  Hope everyone has an awesome month!

Setpember 30, 2006

Hi all. Sorry it’s been so long since the last blog update. Been a tough summer. Thanks for being so patient with me -

Anyhoo, since the last blog update, we’ve started the Halibut Rod/Reel Raffle, which is going excellent, thanks mostly to Don, who has sold over 400 tickets. For those of you that haven’t sold all of yours, if you are having trouble selling them, let Jim or I know; we can help get them sold. The drawing is less than a month away, so we need to get those tickets sold. If anyone is interested in helping sell the last tickets, contact either Jim or I. Also, if you get a chance, stop over at the Post, the rod and reel is put together and it looks beautiful!! One of a kind, has our logo on it.

Our group is doing Saturday afternoon dinners on the first Saturday of the Month starting at 4:00pm. In October, Don is doing what he calls ‘white-boy enchiladas.’ Sounds tasty! Come on out and join us, and if you have some culinary talent, volunteer to cook for one of our Saturdays. Speaking of food, I found a link to a website called, “The Hairy Bikers Cookbook.” The link is on the left in our blogroll. Check it out, it’s interesting to say the least -

Our next monthly meeting is October 15, 2006, at 4:00pm. We did not have a meeting in September as only three of us showed up. Please mark the date on your calendar and plan to attend. Our group has the chance to get on the Chamber of Commerce Summer Calendar for 2007, but we need to figure out when we want to have our group rides next summer now if we are to be included in the Calendar. The deadline for Calendar submissions is November.

That’s all for now.  See you next Saturday!

June Monthly Meeting

First of all, let me apologize for not getting this post done earlier this week. It’s been rather hectic around here.

We got quite a bit accomplished at our meeting on Sunday. We will be doing a couple of rides next month – the North Pole Parade on July 4, and we’ll also be doing a run on the 29th of July to the Anderson Bluegrass Festival. Dates and times for both events are on our iCalendar. We will leave Post 57 for the run to the bluegrass festival, and it’s optional whether or not you want to camp overnight. Jim and I are planning on staying overnight, and there will be a follow-on vehicle carrying all the camping gear. If you are interested in staying over, get with Jim to drop off your camping gear.

Also, at our last few meetings we have been discussing a charity to sponsor. We have decided to sponsor Alaska Youth Football (also known as Pop Warner Football). Howard Smith (Smitty) was supposed to come to our meeting and tell the group what it’s all about, but he was unable to make it. We went ahead and voted to give AYF the monies collected at our burger burn last month. I got with him to find out what it’s about, and what’s needed. This is the information that I received from him -

Alaska Youth Football

It is the only sport not sponsored by Eielson Air Force Base.

There are three divisions -

  • Rookies: ages 7-10
  • Juniors: ages 10-12
  • Seniors: ages 13-14 (15 if the student is home-schooled)

There are four AYF teams in Fairbanks: Cowboys, Rams, Redskins, and the Saints. Delta Jct. has one team, Green Bay, and North Pole has three teams: Vikings, Broncos, and the Seahawks. The season runs from July 5 – Sept 15. Practice season is from July 5 – July 21, with the regular season starting afterwards.

Moose Creek has 10-11 kids in AYF, and the cost per child is $150.00 if they have their own equipment. If they need equipment, the cost goes up to $185.00.

Well, that pretty much wraps it up for this post. Have a great month, and we look forward to seeing you on July 4 and July 29!!

alr_jun_18_06.jpg P.S. – Click on the picture; it will take you to our new Flickr account. As time permits, I will move the photos from the Memorial Day Run to this account. Also, if anyone else would like to submit ALR-related photos, let me know and I will show you how to upload the pictures.

Monthly meeting

Since only four people showed up Sunday for the meeting, we decided not to have a regular meeting. Instead, we talked about the burger burn (made $71.00), discussed putting on a raffle and how to go about doing that, and came up with a few suggestions for a pet charity to adopt. It was suggested that Pop Warner football is starting up, and has very little support, so that may be the direction to go in. Don had a safety handout; copies of it have been left at the Legion Post for the rest of the members.

I would also like to welcome our newest member, Greta. She recently got her bike, a Harley Street Bob. That puts us up to 15 members and 3 supporting members.

We are still planning on going down the Parks Highway this weekend to place the Auxiliary’s memorial wreath at the Veterans’ Memorial. If anyone else is planning on going, could you send Jim an email and let him know? We’ll be leaving on Saturday and returning on Monday.

Our next meeting will be on June 18, at 4pm. Hope to see everyone there!

Monthly meeting news

Yesterday we had our monthly meeting. Despite the fact that it was Easter Sunday, most of the members were able to attend, which allowed us to get quite a bit accomplished. We were able to welcome Paul DeHaven as a guest. He and his wife are the Directors of the Goldwings of the North Chapter here in Fairbanks. Check out their website; they have rides listed, and Paul told us that all the rides are open to anyone.

A few months ago, Jim (our Director) was approached by our Ladies’ Auxiliary and asked if our Group would be taking the memorial wreath to the Veterans’ Memorial on the Parks Hwy. Although our Group had not yet formed, Jim agreed to taking on the responsibility of ensuring that the wreath was delivered. At yesterdays’ meeting, the members agreed that it would be an ALR-sponsored ride, and it was also agreed that as many members who were not already committed elsewhere would go on the ride. The ride will be for Memorial Day weekend, leaving on Saturday the 27th of May from American Legion Post 30, and returning on Monday, the 29th. Someone will be following the Goup on four wheels, carrying the wreath and all the necessary camping gear. We are, however, hoping that perhaps someone in the group might have access to an RV or pull-behind trailer that they would be willing to let us use for the weekend; that would be much more comfortable than sleeping on the ground. If you can help, please let Jim know.

Russ, our Assistant Director, told us about the recent success with the bike raffle to faise funds for a local woman dealing with cancer. He suggested that we may be able to co-sponsor a raffle in the future, which would get our name out to the public. As co-sponsors, we need not put out any money, just agree to sell tickets.

Our Secretary, Vicki, had also put together a calendar of all the local groups’ rides coming up this summer. The rides are listed on our iCalendar. Our Groups’ events are also listed on the iCalendar.

We also decided to have our first fund raiser. We will be having a pool tournament and burger burn on Friday, May 12th, starting at 5pm. The pool tournament will be limited to the first 20 people that sign up, and there will be cash prizes. The burger burn will be a donation of $5 per plate, and will include all the fixins. Even if you don’t shoot pool, please join us for the burger burn and bring your friends and family. If you are lucky enough to have your road clear, bring your bike!

It was also brought up in the meeting that we should start thinking about adopting a charity. The requirements are that the charity must support either Veterans’ or children/youth programs. Bring some ideas to the next meeting (May 21 at 4pm) for who you think our Group should adopt.

Also, at our next meeting we are hoping that the weather will be good, and the roads will be clear, as we have tentatively planned to meet at the Post at 4pm and ride somewhere (Birch Lake?) and have our meeting with the mosquitoes.

Well, that’s it for the meeting highlights. Thanks to those of you that were able to make it yesterday, and we look forward to seeing everyone at the pool tournament/burger burn!

Ride on, safely

First meeting

Yesterday we had our first meeting. We are now officially a Chapter of the American Legion Riders. Twelve people showed up to get this group off the ground. The meeting took almost two hours, but everyone was happy with the results when it was over.

Congratulation to our new Officers. Both Jim and I appreciated the fact that so many people stepped up and volunteered to take Officer positions in the Group. We were both worried that no one would want to fill the Officer positions and it would be like pulling teeth to get it accomplished. It’s great when you’re wrong in a situation like that.

Our next monthly meeting is on April 16, 2006, at 4pm. We’ll be planning our rides for the summer, so please join us with suggestions on where to ride, either with or without the other clubs/groups in the area.

The following Saturday, April 22, 2006, is the installation of Officers at Post 30. It will be a potluck type of thing starting around 4pm. You can find listing for all of our upcoming events on our iCalendar. If you have something to submit for the iCalendar, please let me know in the comments section of this blog post, or send me an email. For security reasons, I won’t list my email address here, but most of you in the Group have it. For those that don’t, I’ll be sending you an email so that you will have it.

That’s it for now. Ride safely -

First meeting

Just a reminder that our first meeting will be this Sunday at 4pm. If you are not currently a member of the American Legion family, you must join prior to our start time. Stop in at our Post anytime this week to get your membership requirements out of the way.

Also, bring your bike registration with you to the meeting so that we can verify that you meet the second requirement of owning a motorcycle of at 350cc.

It's beginning to look as if there will be more people showing up than the original 10 that we had.  That's great; and for those of you that are reading this, please pass the word on to others.  It would be amazing if we had 30 or more show up this Sunday to get this Group off the ground!

Have a great week, and we'll see you on Sunday–