By Tom Taylor and Brenda Pierce

The American Legion Post 359 has always had a strong focus on helping our veterans. As part of our ongoing effort, the entire Post 359 Legion family, including the Legionnaires, Auxiliary, Sons of the American Legion (S.A.L.) and the Legion Riders set their focus on helping PROJECT: Vet Relief, whose mission is to “provide a legion of support for our service men and women as they transition into civilian lives.” Additional information on Project Vet Relief and their activities is available at https://www.projectvetrelief.org.

Post 359 members worked for the month of January, holding fundraising events and donating 100% of the proceeds to PROJECT: Vet Relief. Events were kicked off with a brunch buffet on New Year’s Day and continued throughout the month with the Legion Rider’s January Bike Day, Auxiliary Steak Shoot and spaghetti dinner, and a poker run and rib dinner sponsored by S.A.L. as well as daily lunch specials, drink specials ,raffle baskets and 200 specially designed challenge coins to commemorate the effort.

We ended the fundraising month with a catered dinner for the American Legion National Commander Bill Oxford and other dignitaries on January 31st. Astronaut High School R.O.T.C. provided an outstanding program and tribute to our fallen veterans as part of the event, which concluded with presentation of a check in the amount of $21,000 for PROJECT: Vet Relief to our Dept. of Florida American Legion Commander Rick Johnson.

Many thanks to every volunteer and to those who helped plan, coordinate and carry out these many events. Because of the success of this event, we are dedicated to choosing a charity on a quarterly basis to continue this assistance to our community.