Newsletter published by the Grande Voiture du Texas which is part of a national veteran's service organization known as "The Society of Forty Men and Eight Horses" or "The Forty & Eight".
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La Societe des Quarante Hommes et Huit Chevaux Grand Voiture du Texas VISIT THE GRANDE DU TEXAS WEBSITE AT WWW.TEXASBOXCAR.ORG 1 OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE GRAND du TEXAS Winner of the Arthur McDowell Award 1991 – 1992 – 1993 – 1994 – 1995 – 1996 for the Best Grand Voiture Publication in the Nation without Advertising January 2015 From the Grand Chef… I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and extend wishes for a great New Year to come. Please keep those who are dealing with hardships through the holidays in your prayers. In early December I made a trip to the Rio Grande Valley to commend Hidalgo County Voiture 1077 for an unprecedented donation of $10,000 to a dozen nursing students at the University of Texas Pan American as part of their Nurses Training program and to address membership issues as the locale voted to surrender their charter. As we are all very well aware – membership is a difficult challenge to overcome. There are letters from various Directeurs from Voiture Nationale added to this edition. They have suggestions that have proved successful in other Voitures so keep an open mind as they may contain some information you can use at your locale. Working programs is crucial if you want to be successful. You do not have to work all the programs – very few locales do work all of them, but find a few you can support and that is a very good place to start. The other important part of working programs is to report your activities! Report your events not only to Grand, but to the local media or through the TVN. I welcome anyone to write about their locale events and submit it for publication. There has been some discussion about a Grand Recruiting Team who would travel to different areas and help the locales host a special event so you can draw in more new members. Without new members we cannot survive. Everyone should be working to recruit new members, but again this is not always an easy task – it takes work and many of our folks have worked hard for many years. We have to work hard to pass our legacy on to the next generation. We must - or nearly 100 years of accomplishments will be forgotten. I believe we have worked too hard to let it all go away! We should not only do it for the future generations, but for our departed who dedicated their lives to La Societe. David Knutson Grand Chef de Gare UPCOMING SPRING CHEMINOT FEBRUARY 6-8, 2015 Have you registered, made your hotel reservation or sent in your ad!!! We hope to see a good showing for the Spring Cheminot. Guest Speaker will be American Legion Department Commander Lynn Sparks – who is also a member of Harris County Voiture Locale 163 (Houston). Camp Mabry is opening the museum an hour early so we may have our memorial service on Sunday morning. If you have not made arrangements then make sure you do before the end of the month. Information enclosed. I have invited workers from the boxcar move to dinner with us so we may recognize them along with other VIPs who made significant contributions to the project and helped make it happen. Without their help we would have expended significantly more money that we did so please look for them at the banquet on February 7 th .
Transcript
La Societe des Quarante Hommes et Huit Chevaux
Grand Voiture du Texas
VISIT THE GRANDE DU TEXAS WEBSITE AT WWW.TEXASBOXCAR.ORG 1
OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE GRAND du TEXAS
Winner of the Arthur McDowell Award 1991 – 1992 – 1993 – 1994 – 1995 – 1996 for the Best Grand Voiture Publication in the Nation without Advertising
January 2015
From the
Grand Chef… I hope everyone
had a nice Christmas
and extend wishes for a
great New Year to come. Please keep those who
are dealing with
hardships through the
holidays in your prayers.
In early December I made a trip to the Rio
Grande Valley to commend Hidalgo County Voiture 1077 for an unprecedented donation of
$10,000 to a dozen nursing students at the
University of Texas Pan American as part of their
Nurses Training program and to address
membership issues as the locale voted to surrender their charter.
As we are all very well aware –
membership is a difficult challenge to overcome.
There are letters from various Directeurs from
Voiture Nationale added to this edition. They
have suggestions that have proved successful in other Voitures so keep an open mind as they may
contain some information you can use at your
locale.
Working programs is crucial if you want
to be successful. You do not have to work all the programs – very few locales do work all of them,
but find a few you can support and that is a very
good place to start. The other important part of
working programs is to report your activities!
Report your events not only to Grand, but to the
local media or through the TVN. I welcome anyone to write about their locale events and
submit it for publication.
There has been some discussion about a
Grand Recruiting Team who would travel to
different areas and help the locales host a special
event so you can draw in more new members. Without new members we cannot survive.
Everyone should be working to recruit new members, but again this is not always an easy task – it takes work and many of our folks have worked hard for many years. We have to work hard to pass our legacy on to the next generation. We must - or nearly 100 years of accomplishments will be forgotten. I believe we have worked too hard to let it all go away! We should not only do it for the future generations, but for our departed who dedicated their lives to La Societe.
David Knutson Grand Chef de Gare
UPCOMING SPRING CHEMINOT FEBRUARY 6-8, 2015
Have you registered, made your hotel
reservation or sent in your ad!!! We hope to see a good showing for the Spring Cheminot. Guest Speaker will be American Legion Department Commander Lynn Sparks – who is also a member of Harris County Voiture Locale 163 (Houston). Camp Mabry is opening the museum an hour early so we may have our memorial service on Sunday morning. If you have not made arrangements then make sure you do before
the end of the month. Information enclosed. I have invited workers from the boxcar
move to dinner with us so we may recognize them along with other VIPs who made significant contributions to the project and helped make it happen. Without their help we would have expended significantly more money that we did so please look for them at the banquet on February 7th.
VISIT THE GRANDE DU TEXAS WEBSITE AT WWW.TEXASBOXCAR.ORG 3
VOYAGEUR BRIEFS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
FROM VOITURE NATIONALE
Check out this excellent source of information
on La Societe and our programs. Voyageur Briefs are
published monthly by Voiture Nationale by email. If
you do not receive it you can ask to be put onto the
mailing list or find the latest and past editions posted
on the website for Voiture Nationale.
There is a link to Voiture Nationale on the
front page of the Grand du Texas website:
www.texasboxcar.org or you can go to it directly at
www.fortyandeight.org/ and look under the
“Programs” tab and “News and Notes” tab.
What Are Voiture Activities
The Sous Directeur of Voiture Activities Nationale recently sent out a letter explaining about the Voiture Activities Report which can be difficult to complete. Sous Directeur Reynolds stated in her letter:
“Voiture Activities program has changed several times over the years. It has always been intended to be a measure of a Voiture Locale’s activities and membership involvement. At a point, the program was intended to measure a Voiture’s comparative activities in terms of dollars for a particular activity, the man hours converted into cash as a means of success of the program. In more recent years, the Voiture Activities Program is intended to measure the percentage of participation on each individual Voiture. The larger the percentage, the better the program.”
The letter continued and explained what is reportable by saying: “….if two or more of you are gathered as 40 & 8ers, it
is a Voiture Activity and it is reportable!”
Debra D. Reynolds
Sous Directeur of Voiture Activities Nationale
POW/MIA PROGRAM & PINS
The purpose of the National POW/MIA Program is to
raise funds in Honor of the Servicemen & Women who
were Prisoners of War, or are considered Missing in
Action while serving in the defense of the United
States of America, or its allies during times of armed
conflict. The funds are raised to facilitate the
formation and continuance of a Scholarship Trust Fund
for the direct descendants of verifiable POW/MIA
Servicemen and Women. Scholarships are limited to
the Veteran, the Spouse of the veterans, children,
grandchildren and great grandchildren of the veteran.
PINS, PINS, PINS
I have a limited supply of the 2015
POW/MIA pins and they look very nice. I will
have them at the Spring Cheminot or contact me
directly to order your pins. Pins are $3 each.
Thank you,
TOM ORLANDO, VOITURE 175 GRAND DIRECTEUR POW/MIA E-MAIL: [email protected]
GRAND HISTORIEN Thank you to those who have sent
some photos of their recent activities. It will
help make the Grand du Texas History Book better next year. The 2014 History Book will be on display at the Spring Cheminot so please check it out if you have not had a chance.
Keep sending more photos along with a description of the event including date, event, and names of people in the photo to me via email: [email protected]
VISIT THE GRANDE DU TEXAS WEBSITE AT WWW.TEXASBOXCAR.ORG 4
Left to Right: Chef de Gare Ronnie L. Wheeler, Eric Pedroza Fire Fighter and EMS, Damon Sprouse Fire Fighter and
EMS, Dame Marry McAnally, Rocky Zapata Fire Fighter and EMS
Voiture 1031 Chef de Gare Ronnie L.
Wheeler and Dame Marry McAnally had the pleasure of presenting the Harker Height Fire Department with toys for Kids donated by the Voiture and Dames of V-1031.
Instead of exchanging gifts with each other the Voiture and Dames brought a toy for a needed boy or girl. This is what we are about helping in our community and making it better.
Next year we hope to make this event even bigger, and we are going to start earlier.
VISIT THE GRANDE DU TEXAS WEBSITE AT WWW.TEXASBOXCAR.ORG 7
GRAND DU TEXAS PRESS RELEASE Date: December 5, 2014
Time: 2:00 pm
Location: University of Texas Pan American (UTPA), ITT Lobby,
Edinburg, Texas
$10,000 in Grants Awarded to Area Nursing Students The remaining members of Hidalgo County Voiture 1077, part of a little known national veteran’s honor organization known as “The Society of 40 Men and 8 Horses” or the “40 & 8” for short, are
making good the organizations commitment to assist deserving individuals willing to undergo formal nursing training and make a career of that very noble profession. Eight students will receive $1,000 each and the remaining $2,000 will be divided between four more students. David Knutson, the Grand Chef de Gare (State Commander) of this small but dedicated group of veterans travelled from Austin to commend the members of Voiture 1077 for this unprecedented donation. “This generous donation by Voiture 1077 to help nursing students in the area is far more than any other locale in at least 20 years. The Grand Voiture du Texas has given an average of $3,000 to $5,000 per year statewide to nursing students, but with the numbers of military veterans involved in veteran organizations like the 40 & 8 dwindling down this may soon be a thing of the past!” “Many of the younger veterans do not have time or interest to dedicate to our veteran organizations
like the veterans of previous conflicts. What these veterans fail to realize is how important these organizations are to all veterans and to the communities they serve. The American Legion, VFW, DAV and many other veteran groups have done great things for veterans and their communities since they were created.” Walter Greene, Locale Correspondant and Directeur of Nurses Training for Voiture 1077, coordinated with the Scholarship Committee of the University of Texas Pan Am to help identify students who submitted applications to the locale for final review. The few remaining members of Voiture 1077 decided to make the contribution as a final gesture of good will as their membership is too low to continue any longer and they are planning on surrendering their Charter.
In 1946 an acute shortage of nurses came to the attention of our Voyageurs and a Nurses Training Program was initiated at the Voiture Locale level. In 1955 Voiture Nationale formally established our current Nurses Training Program.
In many cases our scholarships are the critical difference that allows recipients to pursue their studies and go on to receive a nursing degree. We have the satisfaction of knowing that La Société has done a great deal to curb the shortage of nurses in this country. Since our National Program's inception in 1955 La Société as of September 2014, has expended over $31,936,972 and assisted 52,276 nurses in obtaining their nursing degrees. In 2014, $646,972 was donated with 754 nurses in training and 376 nurses graduating. Along with Nurses Training, the Forty & Eight supports several other charities including: The Ardery Child Welfare Trust, POW/MIA scholarships, Youth Sports, Veteran Affairs Voluntary Services, Flags for 1st Graders and Americanism.
« HAPPY NEW YEAR » Well the Season is over and time to sit back and relax but we have a lot of work to do. Your winter Cheminot should be coming up and this is when you should be working on your Voitures to get the programs going. Once you get it going it is a lot easier to keep it going.
Have you sold all your pins, if so send the money into Milt, if not please get them sold so we can close the books out.
Have you been looking for someone for the Americanism Award? Remember this is anyone that goes above and beyond for Veterans.
Have you been working on your Flags for First Graders program? I borrowed this from Dixie Hotaling Area A, we know that flags for first graders can be expensive so here are some ideas that she had. (Are you still looking for funding? Try your community bank, many of them offer community-giving programs. You can usually find them on-line. Wal-Mart has a donation program, pick up an application. Again, partnering with other service organizations enables you to produce a pristine package. Put together a presentation and take it out into the community. You may be pleasantly surprised at the results. Voiture 99 Americanism Committee raised $10,000.00 for their program. They held fund raisers and applied for grants. So, what is stopping you?)
Start handing out the Americanism Consolidated report, at the winter Cheminote. The 2015 is on the web site. Get it out and have them start keeping track of their time and miles. Remember that almost everything you do for can be considered Americanism.
VISIT THE GRANDE DU TEXAS WEBSITE AT WWW.TEXASBOXCAR.ORG 16
Special Thanks to Voyageur John Curry of Midland – Odessa who helped arrange
the transfer of their Locomotive to Voiture 1055 / Kerrville. She has already been
used in several events including the 4th
of July parade and on Veteran’s Day!
La Grande Voiture du Texas
La Societe des Quarante Hommes et Huit Chevaux
P.O. Box 170074
Austin, Texas 78717
ADDRESSEE: Please notify sender of name/address correction Chef de Gare – David Knutson Correspondant – Milton Chatham Commissire Intendant – James Baca L’Editeur – Dave Knutson
