Pat Little-Upah AVHOFS President Class of 2014

I hope everyone had a great Veterans Day and a blessed Thanksgiving.  As we move forward with the holidays, I wish for each of you a sense of joy and hope for the New Year. 

In the newsletter you will find pictures of numerous Veterans Day events around Arizona in which our members were involved.   A notice for the upcoming Pearl Harbor Day celebration at which the Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame Society will be honored to lay a wreath again this year.  The Society also purchased wreaths through the Wreaths Across America program and we hope that some of our members will sign up to participate as wreath layers. 

We are planning for our annual membership meeting tentatively on Saturday morning January 27th.  We are still securing a venue and will send out a notice to everyone when things have been finalized.  These annual meetings are a time for our membership to hear in greater detail about the programs we participate in and to spend time getting to know fellow members. 

The Patriotic Awards Luncheon planning is moving forward, and we are excited to announce that our speaker is R.J. Mitchell.  R.J., a U.S. Marine, was deployed twice to Iraq.  He was awarded the Navy Cross for his heroic actions during the second battle of Fallujah.  The award is the second highest military decoration for valor that may be awarded to a member of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps or U.S. Coast Guard.  R.J.’s story and journey extend beyond his military service.  We are proud and humbled to have him as our speaker this year.   Our M.C. this year will be Christina Carilla the co-anchor for the Fox 10 news team weeknights at 4, 5, and 9 P.M.  Christina recently married a veteran and is very active in getting the word out about veteran causes.    We have completed the Copper Awards process, and I am very pleased to announce that our Copper Sword awardee is Kelly Mills and our Copper Eagle Award will go to the Military Assistance Mission (MAM). The UAV Copper Star award will be presented to Abe McCann and the Copper Shield to Representative Stacey Travers.

Please see Christine Mahon’s report on our Scholarships and help to get this information out.  
We are looking forward to another outstanding Patriotic Awards Luncheon thanks to the hard work and dedication of those on the PAL committee. 

Thanks to Karen Craig, Jerry Wojtas, Pam Wojtas, Clyde Meade, Gerry Berger and myself for volunteering to work at the entrances in support of the Veterans Heritage Project at the Thunderbird Fine Arts and Wine Festival.  The Society received $547.50 for the Copper Lamp Scholarships.  It was a fun time, and we will have the opportunity on January 19-21 to volunteer again.  See the attached sign up flyer and link.  The more volunteers we have, the more money we get for our Scholarships.  If you are one of the members who is asking what can I do for the Society, this is your opportunity.  Be sure to indicate that you are doing this for AVHOFS when you sign up.  See you there. 

The other way we raise money for many of our Scholarships is through your generous donations to the Century Club.  We are running behind in donations so please get yours in to Jerry Wojtas.  Go to the AVHOFS website to learn more.  I send out donation letters to donors to use for tax purposes.  If you donated since July and have not received a letter, please let me know so I can get you one. 

I hope that each of you had a wonderful holiday and please don’t forget to reach out to other Veterans who may not be as fortunate as you are.  A call, visit or card could make their holiday season.  Remember our members and others who have lost loved ones as this can be a difficult time of year for them also. 

Patricia Little-Upah
patupah@gmail.com
(480)226-4454. 

Download Sponsorship Flyer

SOCIETY SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

A new school year is well underway and its time to widely advertise our Scholarship Program.  The deadline for this year’s applications is February 15, 2024. Thanks to the generosity of our Century Club and the McDowell Fund we are able to increase the number and amounts of our awards.  The Board has also unanimously approved expanding the program to trade and associate degree program students. Applications are available on our website and can be submitted electronically.  Please distribute the flyer widely and consider your contribution to the Century Club.

Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame Society

LUNCHEON EVENT

The State Home Outreach Initiative will sponsor its next Event:

When: Wednesday, January 17th, 2024

Time: Noon-2pm

Where: The Outback on 4715 E Cactus Rd. Paradise Valley

What: Come and mingle with State Home residents and enjoy a sense of community and comradery. We ask that members pay for their own lunch.  The Society will be paying for the State Home residents and staff that accompany them.  

RSVP by: Wednesday, January 10th, 2024
Christeen Verchot (315) 272-9221

On Saturday, 9 DEC 2023, starting at noon, Honoring America’s Veterans will hold their Commemoration of Pearl Harbor Day Ceremony.  There will be a World War II biplane flyover, wreath layings, and more.  To learn more about this event, go to the following Honoring America’s Veterans HAV-LINK.  This year Jim Monroe and Karen Clark will be doing the honor of laying the wreath for the Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame Society.  The event this year will be held in the large bowl area at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza.  Please carpool if possible as a large number of attendees are expected.  

All the info about Pearl Harbor is on the website at www.honoringamericasveterans.org/pearl – Harbor – day. 

THANK YOU FOR VOLUNTEERING AT THE CAREFREE FINE ARTS & WINE FESTIVAL

Hello, Patricia Little-Upah!

Thank you so much for volunteering at the festival earlier this month! Because of your help, Veterans Heritage Project received $5,796 to support our mission!

The town will be making adjustments for the next festival based on feedback about the logistics. We appreciate your flexibility with the last minute changes. 

Here is the link to sign up for the upcoming festival taking place January 19-21, 2024, if you would like to join us again. 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/805084DA8A628A2FF2-46309413-volunteer

Thank you for your support!

A new school year is well underway and its time to widely advertise our Scholarship Program.  The deadline for this year’s applications is February 15, 2024. Thanks to the generosity of our Century Club and the McDowell Fund we are able to increase the number and amounts of our awards.  The Board has also unanimously approved expanding the program to trade and associate degree program students. Applications are available on our website and can be submitted electronically.  Please distribute the flyer widely and consider your contribution to the Century Club.

Dennis Tillmans (Class of 2018) shown with hand salute

Retired Marine Major Stewart Fraiser (Class of 2016) was presented the prestigious Chapel of the Four Chaplains Legion of Honor Award.  This award is given in recognition of a lifetime commitment of selfless service and societal advancement that has demonstrably affected the quality of life in the individual’s community, state and nation.  Congratulating Stewart from left to right are Bob Wallace (Class 2014), Dick Jonas (Class of 2018) Kathleen Laurier (Class of 2012), Stewart Fraiser (Class of 2018), Noama Fraiser, and Clyde Meade (Class 2020).

Dick Jonas (Class of 2018) and Clyde Meade (Class of 2020) with members of the Prescott High School JROTC.  They rode together in the parade.

Kathleen Laurier (Class of 2012) at the VA Clinic in Cottonwood  giving an Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame Veterans Day celebrations speech via zoom out to Verde Valley and Flagstaff clinic reaching over 1,000.  Participating in the Veterans Day Parade with Scottish American Military Society post 1314.

Jerry Wojtas AVHOFS Treasurer Class of 2011

Thank goodness that a number of our members read my message and responded to our call for Century Club contributors.  In November we received $1,700 from members.  We have made some nice inroads into our deficit, but we are still lagging behind our goal of $1,000 a month or $12,000 for our fiscal year.

Remember that your Society supports a variety of other programs that are paid for through funds other than members.  The Century Club is the only program where we ask our members to accept the costs of the scholarships we award.  With Christmas approaching, let’s open our purse strings and help those veterans with their school expenses.

I’ve talked to a number of you on the phone and many were surprised to learn that your Society didn’t have a Headquarters Building or even an office to call our own.  Before Covid hit, we were meeting monthly in the conference room at ADVS Headquarters in Phoenix.  When Covid hit us, we switched to Zoom meetings and have continued every since.

ARIZONA VETERANS HALL OF FAME SOCIETY
4980 S. ALMA SCHOOL ROAD
STE. A2-619
CHANDLER, AZ 85248-5545

Above is the COMPLETE mailing address that should be used whenever you mail anything to our Society.  If you don’t use the STE. A2-619, which is our P.O. Box, we won’t get your mailing!  Below are the names of those who have contributed to the Century Club by our December press time.

BLACK- up to $100  GREEN - $101-$199   BLUE - $200-$299   RED - $300 and above GOLD - $400 and above

Roy McClymonds AVHOFS Quartermaster Class of 2017

The Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame Society (AVHOFS) Country Store is presently closed.  It will reopen prior to the Patriotic Awards Luncheon, which will be held on 19 April ’24.

Request you let us know as soon as you know of an inductee’s passing.  If available, we would like to know the inductee’s name, date of passing, funeral and memorial service details, and a copy of the obituary.  Send notices to Pat Little-Upah at patupah@gmail.com.

Known members that have passed in the past twelve months.