President's Message - October 2023
Semi-annual activities report for Chapter 392
- Membership decreased from 170 to 166 members for the period. While we did pick up some new members, deaths and transfers were the main reason for this change.
- We held an Agent Orange Town Hall on September 23 at the Portland VA Medical Center. This is the first in-person town hall since October of 2019 due to the COVID outbreak. We had excellent speakers, but the turnout was less than we hoped.
- We received new brochures and pamphlets from VVA National about toxic exposure. This include a revised Self-Help Guide for Agent Orange updated to reflect the new diseases and presumed exposure locations that were established by the PACT Act. There are also toxic exposure tri-fold brochures for Vietnam, Gulf War and post-911 veterans.
- We have changed our chapter meeting starting time from the evening to mid-afternoon. Many members have eyesight issues that make it difficult to drive at night. So far this is working well.
- We awarded three scholarships this year to area schools. We were able to get local businesses to partner with us on these scholarships with donations. That allowed us to double the amount of the scholarships. In addition, a local church awarded a scholarship to a student in memory of our late Vice President, Larry Cranford.
- We continued to grow our JROTC program this year. We awarded 6 VVA medals and are working with two JROTC high schools in the Portland area (Oregon City and Reynolds).
- Our Vet Center continues to reach and assist veterans of all conflicts with a variety of programs. These include Fort Kennedy (homeless veterans), a food pantry, clothes closet, free laundry service and showers, VSO/claim assistance and legal counseling services.
- We continue to provide VA claim assistance to all veterans at our vet center.
- We continue to update our website at www.vva392.org and our chapter Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/vva392/.
Steve Carr
USAF 1966-1970
VVA Chapter 392 President
