Project Hometown Heros - American Legion Post #40

Lanesboro American Legion Post #40/Auxiliary/Sons

HOMETOWN HEROES

This is a new joint project of the entire Lanesboro Legion family, and to be successful, it needs your help!

Objectives:      

1.  Hear personal veterans' stories about local veterans

2.  Celebrate local veterans

3.  Provide Veterans Day topic and speaker

4.  Provide positive image and values of serving in the military to students:  Duty, Honor, Country

5.  Increase and enhance "the face" of the Legion in the community and school

Almost everyone agrees that the military in general has not gotten “good press” for quite a while. The same is true for recruiting, which is also suffering.  The Lanesboro Legion has one great opportunity every year to directly create and/or enhance its image—both the Legion’s and our country’s military—with local youth.  That occurs on Veterans’ Day, when it provides the program and speaker during a general school assembly.  Finding an effective speaker every year is not easy, and often the speaker has no direct connection with the school. This project proposes to both make better use of that opportunity, and connect more personally with students.

Don’t worry:  we’re not asking you to speak at the program.  Instead, responses from this questionnaire will be woven as a narrative into the Legion’s story, in order of era of service, and will be presented by a Legion family member, at the Veterans Day school program in November.

One important thing that we learned from being involved in Honor Flights was first the joy of working with our veterans.  Another important thing was that everyone has a story to tell; they just need someone to listen!  Auxiliary members would like to listen.  We think the public, and especially students in our local school, would also.

We are interviewing as many Legion members as are willing to participate to answer a few questions about their own military experiences, and most important, what they learned and what impact it has on their lives.  We will also ask for stories from individuals, such as members of the Auxiliary and Sons, who might remember the experiences they heard from veterans who are no longer with us.  If you are willing to participate, either call one of us (listed below), or fill in the following form and return it to us by email or by dropping it off at or sending it to the American Legion Post #40, PO Box 285, Lanesboro MN 55949.

Many thanks!

Legion    american@acegroup.cc

Mindy Albrecht-Benson     612-889-7740    mindy_albrecht@msn.com

Glee Claussen  507-259-1968    gclaussen77@gmail.com

Jan Meyer  507-951-9759    drjanmeyer@yahoo.com

Welcome to the Project Hometown Heroes!  Your participation will be greatly appreciated!  Results accumulated from all of the responders into the story of Lanesboro’s true heroes and presented by the speaker at the annual Veterans’ Day program in November.

Thanks for being willing to share your story and memories in this way!

Name_________________________________________________________________

Phone number______________________________

Branch of service:___________________________

Dates Served_______________________________

(Use other side if you need more space!)

1.  What was the most challenging about your own military service?

2.  What was most rewarding about your military service, i.e., what has made you feel good about serving?

3.  What were the funny, or comical, or light moments along the way—tell us a story about it!

4.  What was the biggest, or most important, or most valuable thing you learned from your service?

5.  Any advice for today’s young people about serving their country?