AN OPEN INVITATION

Northwest Guilford Memorial VFW Post 7999 is pleased to announce that the dedication of its veterans’ monument will take place on Monday, July 4^th, 2011. Please share this information with your viewers/readers. The post has put nearly four years of work into planning and fund-raising to create a monument honoring all veterans, regardless of when or where they served. With Phase One of the monument complete, we are eager for the public to join us on this very special day as we raise the American flag as well as Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and POW/MIA flags on site for the very first time.

The July 4^th event will feature speakers Sheriff B.J. Barnes, Summerfield Mayor Mark Brown, and Post Commander Roy Lee. There will be live buglers, patriotic music, a canon firing, and an appearance by members of the patriotic motorcycle group Rolling Thunder (North Carolina Chapter 6). Light refreshments will be served following the conclusion of the dedication ceremony.

When:

Monday, July 4^th 2011 9:00 a.m.

Where:

Summerfield Community Center

5404 CENTERFIELD Road

Summerfield, North Carolina

This event is free to all members of the public. For more information, please e-mail vfw7999@gmail.com.

RIP, Gerald Stump

Our post was deeply saddened to learn of the sudden passing of Rev. Gerald Stump. Gerry was an amazing speaker, one of the kindest men on the planet, and very, very dedicated to supporting veterans. Our condolences to his family.

Visitation will be held tonight, Monday Aug. 30, at Central Baptist Church (1715 Hwy 68 in Oak Ridge) from 5 - 7 p.m.

Gerry during his service days:
Gerry at the most recent Veterans' Appreciation Day service held by the Summerfield Historical Committee:
We'll miss you, Gerry.

Meeting face-to-face

Earlier this year, our Post Commander Roy Lee and his brother John got to take the Flight of Honor to Washington, D.C. This came about thanks to the efforts of the Northern Guilford High School girls' soccer team. Article can be read here.

Tonight, Roy and John got the chance to meet Annie face-to-face when she and her parents were guests at the annual post picnic/cookout. The guys hope to have the chance to meet other girls from the team whose awesome season enabled them to take part in the trip of a lifetime.
In photo:

Roy Lee (left), Annie Elliott, John Lee

RIP, Lyle Baker

Lyle Baker, affectionately known as "Grumpy" by many members of VFW Post 7999, passed away on Friday, July 16. We will miss his sense of humor, his laugh, and his enormous heart. Our deepest condolences to his lovely wife Linda, and their daughters and grandchildren.

Lyle seemed to always have his camera in hand. Thus, this photo is a classic Lyle pose:



Lyle served as adjutant for many years. He was also active with the Marine Corps League. His full obit can be found here.


RIP, Grumpy. We'll miss you.

Correcting the misinformation

Summerfield Veterans Memorial Facing Financial Troubles - WGHP (video link)

This clip ran on Monday, July 5. While the post was appreciative of the attention, we feel it necessary to correct two very important pieces of (mis)information that were given.

First, the Town of Summerfield did not "force" the post off the original memorial site. The Guilford County School System sent Andrew LaRowe to inform the post's monument committee that the system wanted to dig a test well on the site. Ultimately, for the sake of the kids who attend and will attend Summerfield Elementary School, the decision was made to give up the site for testing and relocate. This move added $10,000 to the monument's expense.

Second, we were identified as the Summerfield VFW Post 7999. (We get this a lot. We meet in Summerfield, but honest we're Northwest Guilford Memorial VFW Post 7999.)

An e-mail sent to the reporter who conducted the interview and the station asking for the correct information to be made public ASAP received no response. In all fairness, the reporter was pregnant and days away from her due date, so she may well be on maternity leave. If a correction was aired, we haven't seen it.

Tomorrow's issue of The Northwest Observer will have a full article on the monument.

Please bear in mind that tax-deductible donations can be mailed to the address on the right, or made at any Bank of Oak Ridge branch.

What's it going to look like?

We would like to extend our deep thanks to Tom Garcia and Southern Evergreen for this beautiful artist's rendering of our planned monument.

This kid cracks us up

Behold Noah, age 9, singing the Chicken Song he re-wrote to encourage people to buy our VFW hot dogs:



Noah's grandfather, Danny Nelson, is a member of our post, and the king of organizing car shows & hot dog sales.