NEW HARTFORD POST 1376 THE AMERICAN LEGION
The AH1 Cobra Gunship
“The Snake” 8616 Clinton St.
New Hartford, NY 13413-3400 (315) 736-7041
JUNE NEWSLETTER 2019
“THE FRIENDLY POST”
Hours of Operation:
Monday-Thursday
11:00 AM-11:00 PM
Friday-Saturday
11:00 AM-12:00 AM
Sunday
12:00 PM-11:00 PM
DATES 1st-Installation Dinner-5:00 PM
5th-Executive Board Meeting-6:30 PM
8th-Oneida County American Legion Convention
@ New Hartford Post 1376-New Hartford-9:00 AM
Registration 8:00-9:00 AM
11th—Tuesday Night Dinner
Serving 4:30-8:00 PM or Until Sold Out 12th-Merchant Marine Birthday-1775
14th-U.S. Army Birthday-1775
14th-Flag Day
16th-Fathers Day
20th-Post Color Guard Meeting-6:00 PM
21st-First Day of Summer
23rd-Legion Riders Meeting12:15 PM
NO SUNDAY BREAKFAST UNTIL SEPTEMBER
NO FRIDAY FISH FRY DINNER UNTIL
SEPTEMBER 6th
NO SAL MEETING UNTIL SEPTEMBER
NO AUXILIARY MEETING UNTIL SEPTEMBER
NO MEMBERSHIP MEETING UNTIL SEPTEMBER
Lunches Served Daily
Monday-Friday
11:00 AM-2:00 PM
******* PROUDLY SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS *******
Friday Night Fish Fry
Served Weekly
4:00 PM-8:00 PM
COMMANDER’S MESSAGE I would like to take this opportunity to thank all
the members of the New Hartford American Legion
Post 1376 for all their support and confidence they
gave me as your Commander. It has truly been an
honor and I am very proud to have served as your
Commander for the past three years. I especially like
to thank the other officers and Executive Board for
working so closely with me on all our endeavors. We
worked together through some hard times and we
shared the success of the good moments. I could have
never done this without their help and I am grateful
to all of them. I would also like to thank the SAL and
Auxiliary for all their help and support. I do believe
that together all of us made some great strides for-
ward these past years.
I want to congratulate our newly elected Com-
mander Ermelindo ( Junior ) Laracuente and all the
rest of the newly elected officers and Board Mem-
bers. I have complete confidence that they will con-
tinue to do a great job and keep us moving forward.
And I will continue to offer all my support and help
wherever needed. I will continue to work as your Bar
Manager and to keep the Commander and Board
abreast of the business end of our Post as long as
they want me to.
Again, my complete heartfelt thanks to everyone.
God Bless all of you
God Bless our troops and veterans
God Bless America
For the Good of the Legion,
Rand Kennedy, Post Commander
I would like to give a personal note of thanks to out
going Post Commander Rand for the very commend-
able three years he has served as our commander.
Back in March of 2018 Rand took on additional
duties as Bar Manager as well as his duties as com-
mander. He put in a lot of time every week and has
been very successful with the business end of our
Post as well as the American Legion. Thank you for
all you have done.
Fred Williams Past Post Commander
AUXILIARY NEWS The next meeting of the Auxiliary will be on Tues-
day, September 3rd starting at 6:30 PM. We wel-
come all new members to attend.
The 2019 membership cards are in. Dues remain @
$25.00 and can be sent to Janice Hurley, 1904 Red-
field Ave, Utica 13501 or left in the Auxiliary mail-
box in the Lounge area (right off the kitchen door).
We are always looking for new members so please
talk to your relatives and friends and have them join.
We have activities throughout the year and always
welcome new faces.
UPCOMING EVENTS
On June 2nd from 11am – 2pm we will sponsor a
Children’s Safety Day at our American Legion Post
for children 10 years and under, again details are
found later in this newsletter.
Ladies please let us know if any Auxiliary mem-
bers are sick or in nursing homes. Please contact
Mary Rogalski @ 315-797-9250 with any informa-
tion.
Please pray for our service men and women and
continue to support our veterans.
Yours in Service,
Monica Lawendowski, President
SAL NEWS The next meeting of the Son’s of Post 1376 will be held Wednesday, September 4th starting at 7:00 PM.
Dues remain $25.00 and can be mailed to: Bob
Byrd, 4 Foxcroft Rd., New Hartford, NY 13413 or
put them in the SAL mailbox at the Post. Checks for
dues can be made payable to SAL Post 1376.
The Sons will be helping with the Children’s Safety
Day on June 2nd.
PLEASE NOTE; If you pay by cash, ask for a re-
ceipt and make sure your name is on the envelope.
Also, if your address has changed please let me know
so we can be sure you will receive your newsletter.
We thank all our members for their support of our
Post, State and our Veterans.
Respectfully Submitted,
Don Wisnowski, Commander
LEGION RIDERS REPORT The next meeting of the Riders will be held on
June 23rd starting @ 12:15 PM.
The Post 1376 American Legion Riders are look-
ing forward to a very active season with parades
and Veterans and Community Rides.
Nominations and elections were held and the re-
sults are published later in this Newsletter.
The American Legion Riders will continue our
long standing history of service to America’s Veter-
ans and their sons and daughters.
On May 4th we had the Blessing of the Bikes.
On May 27th @ 10:30 AM we rode in the parade
in New York Mills and at 7:30 PM we rode in the
New Hartford Parade.
On June 1st we will have the DAV Ride @ Taberg
starting @ 10:00 AM. On June 15th we will be at
the Vietnam Memorial in Mexico, NY.
The Riders would like to thank everyone, for their
continued support.
A special shout out to the SAL for their contribu-
tions to our Veteran’s and community causes that
we support with our rides throughout the season.
Riders/Supporters: The 2019 membership dues
are now due; please make your check out to the
American Legion Riders Post #1376 or drop off
your dues of $12.00 in an envelope in our mailbox
with your name on it and address it to Tom Liesch.
Your 2019 ALR ID cards and receipt will be re-
turned to you.
Please visit our face-book site or browse the web-
site: www.AmericanLegionRiders.net, or National
@ www.legion.org/riders. or get in touch with us
at… [email protected].
Ride to Live - Live to Ride!
For the Good of the Legion,
Tim Converse, Director
POST LOTTERY REPORT
APRIL 2019
LOTTERY NUMBERS
DATE/NUMBER
1/444 2/976 3/252 4/872 5/071 6/436 7/791 8/276
9/549 10/712 11/832 12/078 13/148 14-821 15/125
16/613 17/810 18/416 19/558 20/164 21/Post
Closed (Easter) 22/625 23/928 24/029 25/315
26/850 27/415 28/844 29/150 30/161
Disclaimer: Every effort is made to accurately re-
port these numbers. The official numbers are those
recorded on the Post Lottery Payment Log Book by
the Fund Raiser Chairman. The Post will not be re-
sponsible for typos in the newsletter.
Respectfully Submitted,
Terry Johnson PC, Lottery Chairman
Happy 244th Birthday
United States Merchant Marine June 12, 1775
Happy 244th Birthday United States Army
June 14, 1775
JUNE’S **TUESDAY NIGHT DINNER**
“Polish Night”
Pierogies, Kielbasa, Sauerkraut & Fried Cabbage
Salad, Rye Bread, Coffee & Tea TUESDAY JUNE 11, 2019
Serving from 4:30-8:00 PM or Until Sold Out Donation—$11.00
Inside Dining & Take Out Available Call (315) 736-7041 or Visit us @
www.newhartfordamericanlegionpost 1376.com
Please call the Post at the above number to see if we will have a dinner for July & August. Thank You
Please be aware that we will NOT be serving Fri-
day Night Fish Fry Dinners in June, July & August.
The Friday Night Fish Fry Dinners will start back
up on September 6th. Thank You.
New Hartford American Legion Post 1376
Oneida County American Legion Convention
New Hartford American Legion Post 1376 will host
the Oneida County Convention on June 9th at our
Post.
Registration for delegates and alternates will be
from 8:00 to 9:00 AM with the business meeting
starting at 9:00 AM.
Breakfast will be served from 7:00 to 9:00 AM.
Oneida County American Legion will install the
new officers of New Hartford American Legion for
2019-2020 at our annual Installation Dinner to be
held on Thursday, June 1, 2019 starting at 5:00 PM
at the Post.
BOY SCOUT REPORT 2019; Prior to Memorial Day the "Flags-In" cere-mony was carried out at Green Lawn cemetery with
over 200 American Flags being placed at veteran
grave sites on May 22nd. The flags are donated every
year by the Town of New Hartford at no cost to our
Legion.
The Troop also participated in the Memorial Day
wreath laying at the New Hartford Veterans Memo-
rial.
At the May 15th membership meeting Troop 4
Scoutmaster Paul Obernesser presented the new
Charter to our Post Commander and in turn the
Post presented him with it's very generous annual
donation for the Scouts which was very much appre-
ciated. Many thanks are extended to both the Post
and its membership for a wonderful Scouting year
and always keeping Scouting as one of their top pri-
orities.
Lastly; I attended the Troop 4 year-end picnic on
June 12 held at St. Thomas Church pavilion.
Yours in Scouting,
Rick Watkajtys, Post Scout Chairman
Happy 229th Birthday United States Coast Guard
August 4, 1790
Helen Raiano Back in December of 2018 we published, in our
newsletter a poem about “Its in the Cards” which was
written by Helen Raiano the wife of Luke Raiano who
was our Post Caterer for many years.
It had to do with the weekly poker games that
mostly World War II Vets played on Tuesday’s at our
Post.
I had visited with Helen and she showed me a book
of poems she had written. I told her I would publish
two of the poems, one which was “Its in the Cards”
and the other is titled “The Fourth of July” enjoy.
Fred Williams PC
The Fourth of July Do you know why on the 4th of July
We parade, celebrate and sing?
Betsy’s flag was unfurled and said to the world:
We will not be ruled by a king
Let freedom ring
Listen my friend and you shall hear
Not of the ride of Paul Revere
But of guns that made the message clear
Of men who hold freedom dear
High on their perch, in the old North Church
They watched for the enemy
The church bells were rung, lanterns were hung
One lantern if by land, two if by sea
They came on the run
With their sons and their guns
And fired the shot that around the world was heard
And when it was done, the war was begun
Because guns speak louder than words
And these men were going to be heard
They fought the good fight
With all of their might
They battled on land and on sea
Betsy’s flag was unfurled and said to the world
We will not pay a tax on our tea
And they dumped it into the sea
King George they did rattle
When they beat him in battle
His army retreated, he was defeated
By farmers with no military skill
Just a strong will
Their fortunes they would pool
To show men did not rule
But governed with consent of the governed
Was the way to be free
It was a new concept its true
It took Betsy’s red white and blue
To secure the new idea of human dignity
And so win or lose, we still plan to choose
Those who govern us today
In the American tradition
Not without our permission
Can any government have its own way
Betsy’s flag is still unfurled
In most of the world
By men who long to be free
They still fight and sing
Let freedom ring
In search of liberty freely given to you and me
That is why on the 4th of July, we parade,
celebrate and sing
To show the world, our message unfurled
Let freedom ring and God is our King
God Bless America!
By Helen Raiano
QUEEN OF HEARTS UPDATE The “Queen of Hearts” has a winner. New Auxil-iary member, Teresa Sloan is the winner of
“Queen” and the Pot of $15,112 which was drawn
on Wednesday, May 1st. Teresa will receive 60% of
the Pot or $9067 before taxes. Congratulations
Teresa. Many Thanks to all for your support.
The next “Queen of Hearts” will start back up on
August 7, 2019.
The drawing for the “Queen” is held every
Wednesday at 8:15 PM. You can purchase tickets
any day at the Bar and at the SAL table Wednes-
days in the Lounge.
All Post 1376 members and bona fide guests over
the age of 18 may play The Queen of Hearts.
One ticket will be drawn each week; except the
first and twenty-sixth week, when three will be
drawn, until the Queen of Hearts is found. Tickets
will be a series of two part-sequentially numbered
raffle tickets. TICKETS WILL COST $1.00 EACH,
and you may purchase as many tickets as you wish.
Each player shall write their name and phone
number and card number you would like selected if
you are not present at the drawing on the Posts part
of the ticket, which shall be deposited into the raffle
box. The purchasing player shall retain the other
portion of the ticket as a receipt for verification
purposes. The player holding the winning ticket
stub shall be declared the winner of the drawing
and shall be entitled to “Search for the Queen of
Hearts”.
Each winner shall select one of the facedown play-
ing cards, which shall be turned over by the mem-
ber in charge. If the card turned over is the Queen
of Hearts, the holder of the winning ticket selecting
that card shall be awarded 60% of the grand prize
pool. If the card selected is not the Queen of Hearts,
the card shall be defaced and be returned to the
game board face up.
The player drawing a card other than the Queen
of Hearts shall be awarded a cash prize valued ac-
cording to the following schedule:
CARD DRAWN PAYOUT
ANY 2,3,4, OR 5 $5.00
ANY 6,7,8, OR 9 $10.00
ANY 10, Jack or King $20.00
ANY Ace $30.00
ANY Joker $40.00
ANY Queen other than Hearts $50.00
The winning player need not be present to win.
Should the owner of the ticket drawn not be present
a volunteer will select the card.
Respectfully Submitted,
Bill Brucato, Manager
The Department of New York American Legion Convention
The Department of New York American Legion
will hold their annual convention in Buffalo, New
York from July 18th to July 20th.
New Hartford Post 1376 will send a delegation to
attend the convention.
COLOR GUARD REPORT The next meeting of the Color Guard will be held on Thursday, June 20th starting at 6:00 PM.
If there are any changes you will be notified by
Chris Voce.
As always we would welcome any new members
interested in joining our Color Guard. Membership
is open to any member in good standing in the Le-
gion, Auxiliary or the Sons. If interested, please see
any member of our Guard or call the Post @ (315)
736-7041 and leave a message.
Our events are under the direction of Capt. Dick
Fountain, Rd.Cdr. Larry Winfield, Lt. Duane
Clark.
Respectfully Submitted,
Larry Winfield, Rd. Commander
American Legion Auxiliary Unit 1376 Election Results
The newly elected officers of the American Legion
Auxiliary Unit 1376 for the 2019-2020 Legion year
are:
President – Monica Lawendowski
1st Vice President– Krystal Hodge
2nd Vice President – Phyllis Raymond
3rd Vice President – Janice Keesler
Secretary – JoAnn Koberstein
Treasurer – Joanne Fountain
Historian – Theresa Sloan
Chaplain – Joyce Mancini
Sgt-at- Arms – Sheila Ryan
Children’s Safety Day On June 2nd from 11am – 2pm New Hartford American will sponsor a Children’s Safety Day at our
American Legion Post for children 10 years and un-
der.
This is a joint venture of our American Legion
Family. Area law enforcement will be at the Legion to
do safety checks on bike helmets and car seats. Also,
we will have a bike course set up for children to ride.
The New Hartford Fire Department will be there
also. Complimentary hot dogs, popcorn and cotton
candy will be available.
Bring the whole family and enjoy the day out.
Should we have inclement weather this event will
have to be canceled. To be sure, call the Legion @ 315
-736-7041. Thank You.
New Hartford American Legion Post 1376
New Hartford American Legion Post 1376
Post elections took place on May 15th and the fol-lowing Legion members were elected as officers for
the 2019-2020 Legion year:
Commander-Junior Laracuente
1st Vice Commander- Dick Fountain
2nd Vice Commander-Gary Fountain
3rd Vice Commander-Vic Gazzilli
Adjutant- Vic Gazzilli
Finance Officer- Aaron Starczewski
Chaplin- Don Gossin
Historian- Larry Winfield
Sgt-at-Arms-Mickey Nackley
Service Officer- To be appointed
Disaster Preparedness Officer-To be appointed
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Bob Hobin— Harry Hertline
Glenn Keesler —Bob Rothdiener
Rand Kennedy PC
American Legion Riders Post 1376 Election Results
The newly elected officers of American Legion Riders of Post 1376 for the 2019-2020 Legion year
are:
Director-Tim Converse
Vice Director-Bob Hobin
Secretary-JoAnn Koberstein
Treasurer-Tom Liesch
Sergeant At Arms-Bill Curtis
Historian-Don Kiefer
Chaplain-Bill Brucato
Post Library
Once again we would like to remind all of our
members that we have a book case full of interesting
books to read that is located in the downstairs back
meeting room.
Any member is welcomed to take a book and bring
it back when they are finished with it. Thank You.
New Hartford American Legion Post 1376
JULY DATES 4th-Independence Day
3rd-Executive Board Meeting-6:30 PM
18th-Post Color Guard Meeting-6:00 PM
18th-20th-Department Convention
Buffalo, NY
21st-Legion Riders Meeting-12:15 PM
AUGUST DATES 7th-Executive Board Meeting-6:30 PM
4th-U.S. Coast Guard Birthday-1790
18th-Legion Riders Meeting-12:15 PM
15th-Post Color Guard Meeting-6:00 PM
MEMBERSHIP REPORT Our next membership meetings will take place on Wednesday, September 18th starting at 6:30
PM. There are NO meetings for June, July and Au-
gust.
We currently have 678 members paid so far,
which includes 34 new members. This gives us 97%
of our quota of 695.
NOTICE PLEASE READ!! "If you pay your Legion membership online, you
will have to send the Post membership person
proof that you paid your dues. There is a receipt at
the bottom of your online confirmation to send to
the Post. I cannot send your membership card until
I receive this confirmation. Please send this in as
soon as possible."
This is a reminder that the 2018 Membership
Cards have expired. The new 2019 cards are now
out. You can renew your dues anytime. Our dues
will remain at $40.00. Please note that if you re-
ceive a renewal notice from National and you have
paid your 2019 dues, just disregard the notice and
throw it away. If you are not sure you have paid
your dues, just check your membership card, if it
says 2019 on it, you are paid. Thank You.
Please remember that dues will increase to $45.00
with the new 2020 Membership Cards which will
be out in June.
New Hartford American Legion Post 1376 would
like to welcome the following new members to our
Post. Please welcome: Cory C. White, Robert A.
Morris, James Kiser and Kristina C. Mancini.
As always we truly appreciate your continued
support of our Post and we look forward to your
continued support in the future.
Respectfully Submitted,
Janet Keesler & Dick Fountain Post Membership Chairpersons
NEW HARTFORD AMERICAN LEGION POST 1376
TAPS New Hartford American Legion Post 1376
regrets to report that the following members have left us:
FREDERICK W. DUTCHER
EARL A. LEACH
EDWARD S. BROWN
GRANT THEM ETERNAL REST O’LORD
LEGION COMMANDER
Ermelindo “Junior” Laracuente AUXILIARY PRESIDENT
Monica Lawendowski
SAL COMMANDER
Don Wisnowski RIDERS DIRECTOR
Tim Converse