The Veterans Sound Off Podcast
On each episode of the show we will travel across the State of Mississippi and visit each American Legion Post and discover how the members there are still serving America in their communities.
The Veterans Sound Off Podcast
American Legion Auxiliary Unit 28 Clarksdale
What motivates someone to dedicate their life to supporting veterans and their families? Meet Mary Eunice Cole, Alice Barberi, and Mary Jo Abraham as they open up about their heartfelt journeys with the American Legion Auxiliary in Mississippi. Their stories are intertwined with personal connections to military service, from Mary Jo's late husband Frank's Army service to Alice's experiences with her husband Victor during the Korean conflict. These powerful narratives reveal the deep sense of duty and passion driving their commitment to the Auxiliary's mission.
The episode also celebrates the boundless energy of youth engagement as we journey through initiatives like Girls State. Imagine the excitement of introducing young minds to the concept of the Space Force and watching their curiosity ignite. Mary Eunice and I share our experiences working with local schools to promote Girls State, an initiative that not only educates high school juniors about government but also transforms them into tomorrow's leaders. With collaboration from school counselors and anecdotes from past participants, we explore the profound impact these programs have on nurturing leadership and building lasting community bonds.
Experience the warmth and compassion of Clarksdale's Unit 28 as they bring joy to the local community. From hosting lively bingo games at Flowers Manor Retirement Community to signing Christmas cards for veterans at the Oxford VA, their acts of kindness echo through the community. We reflect on the personal connections formed through initiatives like the poppy fund collection and Veterans Day programs, emphasizing the American Legion Auxiliary's unwavering dedication to honoring veterans. Join us in celebrating these heartfelt efforts and uncover the vibrant community spirit that defines the Auxiliary.
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This is the Veterans Sound Off Podcast. I'm your host, jerry Allhands, a veteran of the US Air Force and Army and a Mississippi Pass Department Commander of the American Legion. You're invited to join me as we travel across the state of Mississippi, visiting the American Legion posts in each community. Together, we'll get to know the American Legion family, including the American Legion Auxiliary, the Sons of the American Legion and the Legion Riders. As we travel the state we'll visit with other groups and organizations that are serving America's veterans and their families.
Jerry Allhands:Today, we travel down Highway 61 through the North Mississippi Delta to 700 Spruce Street in Clarksdale, where you'll find an M-60 tank parked in the front yard of Cooper-Yerger Post 28, a post that was chartered 105 years ago and is home to two past Department Commanders William A Schmidt, who served as Department Commander for 1929-1930, and Jerry D Allhands, who served for 2021-2022. Today we are meeting with the Unit 28 American Legion Auxiliary. It is a beautiful day for this time of the year and I'm very pleased with that. Going from my left to my right, I'm here with Ms Mary Eunice Cole.
Mary Eunice Cole:Hello there, jerry, good to see you.
Jerry Allhands:Good to see you. Thank you for being here. Next to that is Ms Alice Barberi.
Alice Barberi:Hello, it's nice to be with you.
Jerry Allhands:And Mary Jo Abraham on my far right. Good to be with you and Mary Jo Abraham on my far right. Good to be here. I know that some of y'all may have heard the podcast where the National President was here a few weeks back. She opened with a prayer. Would one of y'all like to open with prayer?
Mary Jo Abraham:for us.
Mary Eunice Cole:Mary Eunice is our chaplain All right Lord, here we are together as members of the American Legion Auxiliary and with Jerry Allhands, who is conducting this podcast and who is a friend for many years of standing. We ask that you give us the right words to share with people, to let them know that the American Legion and the Auxiliary both are still standing and are still doing their job. So please give us the grace to be able to do some good for our members and for our service members. So thank you for the day, thank you for the company, thank you for the chance to share.
Alice Barberi:Amen Amen.
Jerry Allhands:Thank you. Let's start today, if we could, with why, Mary Jo, did you join the American Legion Auxiliary, and when?
Mary Jo Abraham:I became a member back in November of 2008. Alice has been a member much longer than Mary Eunice and I have, but Mary Eunice and I went. Marge Hudson at that time was the president of the auxiliary and she invited both of us to go to the Oxford VA because they were doing bingo there, and Mary Eunice and I talked about it after we went and we liked it. The next day was a Veterans Day program that you yourself had put together at the Civic Center, and we went to that, and it was then that Mary Eunice and I decided, hey, if this is the way the organization works, we want to be a part of it. So we signed up that day.
Jerry Allhands:That's awesome. What makes you eligible to be in the auxiliary?
Mary Jo Abraham:I am eligible through my late husband, Frank Abraham. He served and that is how I qualify for my membership.
Jerry Allhands:What branch of service was he in?
Mary Jo Abraham:He was in the Army, in the Army.
Jerry Allhands:And you said late, he passed away.
Mary Jo Abraham:Yes, 2017.
Jerry Allhands:Well, we appreciate you and we appreciate him very much. Alice, when did you join the auxiliary and why? What makes you eligible?
Alice Barberi:Well, actually, because my husband, Victor, has joined the American Legion, joined the American Legion, and so next thing I know I'm sure it was the president of the auxiliary was contacting me, and so she invited me to come to the meeting. So next thing, you know, I'm a member.
Jerry Allhands:Do you remember in what year you joined?
Alice Barberi:No, probably in the 1990s, somewhere in there.
Jerry Allhands:And your husband Vic, was in.
Alice Barberi:Yes, and he, my husband is. Of course he's. Some folks know he's a lot older than I am, but nevertheless he was drafted when he was a senior in high school for Korea and so he did his time with the army. He did not go to Korea, he they put him on a ship and he was out in the ocean, he said, when a truce was declared and I've since read about that and you, you can go and read the history of the Korean conflict or whatever you want to call it, police action or something and so there was a point when the president said, okay, this is it, you know, and they drew the parallel and and that was it.
Alice Barberi:So evidently he was on the ship and they turned it around and sent it back to California. So, anyway, he went back to Texas, to his base, and he served there until he'd done his active duty time. Then he came home and of course you have to be reservist or something. You probably know more about this than I, but nevertheless. So he got reactivated during the Cuban crisis when, I think, meredith went to Ole Miss.
Jerry Allhands:Got all the fun stuff in the 50s and 60s.
Alice Barberi:Yeah, yeah, it was like in 1961, maybe was that the Cuban crisis thing or whatever, anyway. So he was attached to the National Guard unit here and so he and a bunch of these folks here ended up down at Fort Polk, louisiana I guess they went down there for I don't know about a year or something like that. So that was, and people don't really realize it's what a strain that put on people because suddenly people had jobs and were supporting their families and the next thing, you know, you're in the army and your income is greatly diminished and but your bills still have to be paid and you have your family at home. And I know one of our old members, former members, ray Keith, american Legion member, his wife talking about how hard that was on them. You know when that particular incident happened, but anyway. So my husband, like I said, he didn't serve overseas, but he he did, uh, serve and so consequently he's a member and so I'm a member, so and I've, I've enjoyed it that part.
Alice Barberi:I like to hear you've enjoyed it yeah, I mean I, I enjoy when we get to do events and meet with children, go to the nursing home. You actually get more than you give. Of course, that's true most times when you give something to somebody you know. Just a generous act actually gets you more back, wouldn't you agree? Yes, I do.
Jerry Allhands:Mary Eunice. When did you become an auxiliary member, and by whom?
Mary Eunice Cole:Actually, Mary Jo and I joined the same day.
Jerry Allhands:The same day.
Mary Eunice Cole:Yeah, and what's funny is Frankie and Raymond were friends for a lifetime school and all that much stuff, and Victor was a little ahead of them but he was still in school with all the rest of them too. So the three musketeers here have got the three husbands who were involved in the service and then we who ended up involved in the auxiliary.
Jerry Allhands:Keeping it in the family more or less.
Mary Eunice Cole:Yeah, we made a family out of the whole thing, okay.
Jerry Allhands:So for you it was 2008 as well.
Mary Eunice Cole:I never looked at the date, but I've been there ever since.
Jerry Allhands:And we're glad you're here.
Mary Eunice Cole:About the time I was wondering if I really wanted to keep on doing it. Mary Jo got elected president and I said, so long as she's president, for sure I'm in here. But as she and Alice got going on the thing, things started happening again. On the thing, Things started happening again. They ended up doing different things that we were not doing before and being active in the community and in other local communities close by at hand, and so we felt good about belonging to the auxiliary that's something I'd like to ask you.
Jerry Allhands:What is the, what would you say is the one biggest accomplishment that Unit 28 has done in this membership year, this 24-25 year?
Mary Eunice Cole:The one biggest thing.
Mary Jo Abraham:Well, we've done quite a few things this past year. We had a really in November. We had a really great veteran Day program that people are still talking about. That they really enjoyed and it really ministered to them with our wonderful speaker that we had Working with the Oxford VA for the department I'm the representative and Alice is the deputy for the state of Mississippi. I'm the representative and Alice is the deputy for the state of Mississippi and we had a really successful Veterans Christmas gift shop that we did. So those are the two things that come to mind. What else, alice?
Alice Barberi:Well, of course, one of the other members, susan, and I did a Veterans Day program with one of the local parochial schools, st Elizabeth's, and had a real good time doing that. Of course, you know elementary-aged children, and they came in and I introduced them to the latest branch of the service.
Jerry Allhands:The Space Force.
Alice Barberi:Yeah, I know they kind of laughed about that too. You know various ones, but it was like, you know, they knew, you know the Army, the Navy, they knew all those branches. I said, but there's one more, and they were going like huh, you know, and I said Space Force. I said y'all probably want to join that one, you know, because it's going to be full of tech, you know, for techie kids that's the one to be. So anyway, that was a lot of fun. Of course, like I said, you get more than you give, because just being in a room full of children like that was it was, it was great and what grade levels was that?
Alice Barberi:uh, I guess these were probably like maybe the fourth, fifth to sixth grade or something like that. Yeah, say that they were the older children at the school. School goes from kindergarten to sixth.
Jerry Allhands:On the subject of school juniors, high school juniors got an event coming up between their junior and senior year girls state yes. What are your plans for girls state in the Clarksdale, Oklahoma County community?
Mary Jo Abraham:Mary Eunice and I have been working for probably 10 years or so with some of the schools here in our Delta area and we're really looking forward to it. I have been asked to serve on the department committee in reorganizing Girls State in the state of Mississippi and our former director, angela Kilcrease, is coming back this year to help get things organized and just make some changes that needed to be made with the program. But Mary Eunice and I have been working with the schools. We attend the Awards Day events and acknowledge the juniors that have attended and acknowledge the juniors that have attended and give them their cords that are awarded to them to wear with their graduation robes and one thing and the other. So we've been involved with it and we've gotten a really good response from local schools with that.
Jerry Allhands:What are you looking for in a student to have them go to Girls State? Is there a requirement? Is there something that you're looking for in character, or what makes a girl stand out that you want to send her to Girls State or promote her to Girls State?
Mary Jo Abraham:Well, you know you really depend upon the counselors that you work with at the schools and they really screen the girls for us and tell us that you know this is a really great student, she's interested in government and one thing and the other, so she will be a really good candidate Basically. You know, if the counselor recommends somebody, because now the forms had changed for the last several years that the counselor had to sign off on the on the students. That went, so pretty much we go based upon their recommendation to us and we rely on the children, the students.
Alice Barberi:I mean going back to their schools and sharing that they've had a good experience with their. You know the other students that are coming up, and so sometimes you'll get people like sometimes I'll be out in the community or something, and they'll go oh yes, ma'am, I know about it. Or I'll say, well, you need to make sure your daughter does this, or whatever. Oh yes, ma'am, we're going to do that Because, well, for one thing, it's good for their resume. So they're already starting a resume, even when they're in high school. So you know, I mean, we didn't start a resume until later, alice and I had gone out of town.
Mary Jo Abraham:We were in Alabama. Where were we? Birmingham, birmingham, and we walked into Buc-ee's. We had our shirts on that said Girl State and the young cashier that was helping us she said oh, I see you're from Mississippi and you're in Girl State. She says I went in. Whatever, she was Tennessee, some other state.
Jerry Allhands:She was another state.
Mary Jo Abraham:And she acknowledged that she was one of the junior counselor and went on to be a senior counselor. So you never know where somebody's going to pop up and you're going to have that connection that you're going to be together.
Alice Barberi:And you can't assume that somebody working at Buc-ee's is just a minimum wage, because that's not the case. Buc-ee's is a career these days.
Mary Eunice Cole:Our daughter, mary E, ended up at Girl State the year she was a junior and she brought down her her unicycle, so she campaigned using her unicycle and a red, white and blue dress I had made her and she ended up, I think, a representative for it and she met a lot of people down there and one of them actually was somebody that called her in later years to say that there was an opening in the career line that she had chosen and that they needed a good person down there to do that work and she should go down to the Gulf Coast, and she's been there ever since.
Jerry Allhands:Wow, I see I get to say that I married a girls state attendee, so I'm very happy about that.
Mary Eunice Cole:Yeah, so I did good Looking forward to hopefully my granddaughter going.
Jerry Allhands:This year Got my fingers crossed, but it's a great event. I've been able to attend probably eight or ten or more events at Girls State over the years as a past department commander and as a district commander, department whatever, but it was an event that I enjoyed. I've always enjoyed Girls state and what goes on there, the fact that that, just like boys state, the girls are learning government civic involvement, and it's a lot of fun they learn teamwork, they learn to get along with one another.
Alice Barberi:I mean, when you go there they are, you know they have their each little individual areas, but they are so together and working together. So I mean they learn a lot about government, but they just I think they learn a lot about how to work together, which government should do.
Mary Jo Abraham:And one of the main things that we hear about that from girls that have attended is the lasting friendships that they that they have, just like Mary Eunice, told about her daughter Mary Elizabeth.
Jerry Allhands:You, you just make forever friends, I hear that a lot between girl state and boy state is the connections you can make, and the one thing I tell the boy state is take out a pad well, now it's your phone and put all of your classmates names and phone numbers in there and keep them, because you're going to, you know, maybe 10, 20 years down the road somebody's going to remember you Right. Whether you were the quiet guy in the corner or the loud cheerleader up front, you're going to be remembered by somebody.
Alice Barberi:I don't think there are any quiet ones there. No, it is a loud occasion.
Jerry Allhands:What was Hattiesburg several years back? I think I don't think there was a quiet day there, I mean between the cheers and the constant talking. But hey, everybody was happy. Yeah, and we enjoyed that, enjoyed it. When is Girl State this year for the department? Does anyone know?
Mary Jo Abraham:It'll be the. I think it's the second week in June.
Jerry Allhands:Okay, all right.
Mary Jo Abraham:And they're changing the timeline this year. Oh, it was going to be Sunday all the way to Saturday, but they've shortened it. So graduation will be on Friday this time instead of and they'll check in on Sunday. Is it the 9th through the 13th or something I don't know? Is it on here? Yes, june, the 8th through the 13th, and then we are returning to the Ole Miss campus.
Jerry Allhands:What's the? Do you have a limit of how many girls that your unit can send?
Mary Jo Abraham:Mary Eunice and I have worked very diligently to make sure that any girl that wanted to go was not left behind, that we would have the funds, because Mary Eunice sends the letters to different organizations in our community and we ask them to sponsor and to help us.
Jerry Allhands:And get lots of support that way, do you?
Mary Jo Abraham:We do.
Jerry Allhands:yes, we have our list of people that have been very faithful in helping us to accomplish that let's pause for a moment to hear from some of the people who've helped to make this episode possible with their financial support. We want to thank three people who have invested in this podcast and have made it possible. A very special thank you to Dean and Judy Graves of Mount Vernon, missouri, for your support and belief and, without a doubt, this podcast would not have happened without the constant encouragement of Laura Allhands from Clarksdale, mississippi. If you are enjoying this podcast, please consider becoming a sponsor, just as these folks did. Simply call us today at 662-902-6658, and we'll give you all the details. And now back to this episode of the Veterans Sound Off Podcast, moving on from Girl State to the local events that you have going on here. What's coming up in the spring for you?
Mary Jo Abraham:Well, we haven't really gotten that far in our discussions. The meeting that we had today was very minimal discussions on everything. But we know that we're working with Girls State. We know that that's coming up.
Alice Barberi:One of the things that she did mention is something that we're doing throughout the year. The senior living facility here does weekly or I think they do weekly bingo or something, and so they you know there would be veterans out there or widows of veterans and things like that so we agreed to provide them with bingo items for their bingo prizes, and so each of us has chosen a month to take the stuff out there, go out and buy a bunch of stuff from whatever you know, just little small things, because of course they don't want to clutter. You know their space with stuff anymore, but anyway, but we do that. You know their space with stuff anymore, but anyway, but we do that. And then in the month of may isn't it may that we uh, we actually each of us takes a week and we actually go out there and call the bingo and take the prizes.
Mary Jo Abraham:So yeah, so that's a lot of fun too we figured that this was our way to um to help flowers manor Retirement Community by doing this, because they had a cut in budget and this was our way of giving back to them. We have some of our meetings, our monthly meetings. We go out there because we have some of our members that are residents there and so we all get together and they helped us in November to sign Christmas cards for the veterans at the Oxford VA. So we really appreciated their help and they were really enthusiastic about being able to help us do that Small thing. But it was a lot of blessings that we could see with that. So this is our way of giving back.
Mary Jo Abraham:Their activities director is really great. The administrator there, monica. She said anytime y'all want to come, you want to come every month, you're welcome to come. So we really appreciate their hospitality and the chef is wonderful. He does a great job with the foods. So we eat out there and then we have our meeting afterwards I like the sound of that the christmas cards are placed on the breakfast trays for each person out at the VA.
Jerry Allhands:Okay, tell me about the Christmas cards.
Mary Eunice Cole:Oh, just buy. You know, people buy Christmas cards and bring them in for us and we sit down there and sign it. You know, from your friend at the VA, I mean at the American Legion Auxiliary here in Clarksdale, unit 28. Va, I mean at the American Legion Auxiliary here in Clarksdale, unit 28. And then we bring them as a clump of cards to the lady over there. And that's what she's talking about, about delivering them. Also, there's something else we do with cards and that is and somebody just gave us this idea last year and that is all of these cards that you get sent. You know, in the mail you get five of this and such kind of cards in there.
Mary Eunice Cole:Well, some of them are going to be Christmas cards, some of them are going to be get well things or birthday things and stuff like that, and her idea was to collect all of those cards and bring them to the VA so that if anybody's got a family member with a birthday or something like that, that they can go and pick out one of those cards and they'll help them sign them and mail them.
Jerry Allhands:I like that. You got some great events coming up. I appreciate that. What Mary, eunice and I'm going to throw you all on the spot here. So just think about this what is your favorite memory of your time in the auxiliary?
Mary Eunice Cole:I've got to tell you a funny story. Okay, last year when we had our national chaplain come and visit here, we were kind of frantic thinking about what we wanted to give her. Well, her dad was a member of the of the uh of the post here had Past commander Past, commander right, and he had donated the uniform he had worn when he was at the yeah, the uniform.
Jerry Allhands:The Virginia Military Institute, the Virginia.
Mary Eunice Cole:Military Institute and it hung around over here for a few years and they didn't know what to do with it and so inspiration struck. So I said okay, we presented it to her when she was here and she was thrilled to death about it and I said we'll get it cleaned and mail it to you. Well, get it cleaned was not too bad. It just took me a while to figure out what to do with it and I took it out to the cleaners out here at the Westgate and the man was thrilled to be able to do something for one of our soldiers and stuff, and so he cleaned it. But he said there's a little problem with it. And I said what's that?
Mary Eunice Cole:He said the top looks great. But he said something has gotten in and gotten the seat of the pants. So I didn't look to find out whether that was still left, I just left it folded up, just the way he sent it, and I put it in a box and we mailed it to her. She's never said anything about it since then, so I don't know really how much it had looked, but the top looked good.
Jerry Allhands:Might still be in the box, maybe there you go.
Mary Eunice Cole:So I thought let her figure out what to do with it from here. You know it's her dad so we did. We got that thing that checked one off of the list of what we needed to have over here for them to just let mess up, you know, when it was something that somebody had treasured and that she herself treasured, and that was Brister. Brister's dad.
Jerry Allhands:Okay, yeah, and it had his name in it in the uniform. Oh, when I got it down so and I know she's married now, so I'm trying to remember her.
Mary Eunice Cole:He was a SEAL.
Jerry Allhands:Brister Thomas. There was a joke I was going to make there but being a SEAL, I'm really terrified to make that joke.
Mary Eunice Cole:I just don't want to go.
Jerry Allhands:Alice, what was your, your favorite memory of your time with the auxiliary?
Alice Barberi:Oh well, I don't know, but I guess I would have to say I was. In fact I was thinking about it last night. Um, but so the chamber graciously allows us to collect for the poppies on the last friday of may, for we collect money for our poppy fund, which is money that goes straight to the vet. So I have to. We either use it for something at the VA, a nursing home or whatever comes up. So anyway, they allow me to go down there and collect. It's a community event and so they have musicians that are on the stage entertaining. That's the purpose of the event anyway. So a couple, couple of years ago, this local musician, who was a wonderful violinist, anyway, so she was one of the entertainers and we needed somebody to play the national anthem and she did. It was absolutely gorgeous, beautiful, I think. The whole crowd. You know normally when you're in a public setting and there are musicians on the stage, there are people milling around and talking and you know everything. People stopped to listen. It was a beautiful thing.
Jerry Allhands:I would have liked to have heard that one Interesting Mary Jo.
Mary Jo Abraham:Well, there's so many wonderful things that we've done over the years I mean, like you know, Alice and I participated in Christmas parades and all the things we've told you about with the Oxford VA that we've done but I think one of the most interesting things and interesting occasions that we've had Over the years we've done many Veterans Day programs, not only here at the Post but also at Flowers Manor, and probably one of the most memorable of those programs programs was when emily bailey, who is now a resident there at flowers manor. She was our chaplain for umpteen years and emily was on the program to tell us about rosie the riveter, because that was what she had done herself. She experienced that and she would go on and start talking about. You know how she? Um showed us what her wedding dress looked like when she got married. She showed us a picture, her shoes that she wore. She brought all this memorabilia with her to make her point of her presentation.
Mary Jo Abraham:I want you to know that people are still asking where she is and they would still like to listen to some of the stories that she told. Real quickly. She worked at um airplane factory during the war and she talked about that because she was so little that she would get in the nose of the airplane as they were riveting and, you know, doing what they had to do on the outside and she would talk about that. She would go to lunch and come back and go find her a spot to go take an afternoon nap because she fit in there and nobody would ever know that she was there. So she was one of our best speakers that we have had, other than actual military that have told us about some of the things that they've gone through or tell us their opinions about different things. But that probably is on the top ten, probably the top five.
Jerry Allhands:All the things that you do here, with the many programs that you do the Veterans Day, memorial Day programs, all those sort of things how do you get the word out to the public that this is going to happen?
Mary Jo Abraham:We send flyers, I email the churches in the community so that they can put us in their church bulletin and Wednesday night services or whatever. And we've gone through the newspaper, write letters to the editor and one thing and the other that we've just the best way that we can Now with the, you know, social media, social media, the way that that it is you've got so many more alternatives other than just getting on the phone and calling somebody or telling alice to spread the word at work or something like that.
Jerry Allhands:You know so speaking of social media with with the group that you've got here, do you have a facebook page or website or anything for this, this unit?
Mary Jo Abraham:we do most of our communication internally through Messenger, but we do put a lot of things on Facebook, Either my personal account or the American Legion Auxiliary for the state of Mississippi also has as well as the American Legion for the state of Mississippi.
Jerry Allhands:Is the state page? Is it open to the public or do you just have to be a member?
Mary Jo Abraham:state page. Is it open to the public or do you just have to be a member and be? I think it's. I think it's private. I don't think it's um for everybody to um to have access to it if somebody wanted to join this unit, how would they go about doing that?
Jerry Allhands:who?
Mary Jo Abraham:where would I tell you about that?
Alice Barberi:she's our membership chairman, all right well, I'll be happy to give them an application and they have to. You have to if you're a spouse or whatever, then you're the veteran has to be a member of the post or a post somewhere, and or else, if they're alive, right if they're alive. If they're deceased, of course, you just have to have proof that they are a veteran. They're by you are eligible, okay, and then I think it can be Mary Jo, help me with this, please, your grandfather or somebody like that a close family member.
Jerry Allhands:Grandfather father, stepfather, you can get a connection somewhere there.
Mary Eunice Cole:But right, we don't.
Mary Jo Abraham:We want you to or it can be your brother, it can be yourself it could be yourself as a veteran, yeah well, yeah, you can be dual members of both the legion and the auxiliary.
Alice Barberi:Let it. Let me say this too, when I said spouse, uh, this is something that's kind of new over the last couple of years I guess I'm not sure how long it's been in effect, we can have men in the American Legion Auxiliary. Historically it was a ladies' auxiliary program, but now, since you can have women who are in the Legion and they can have a male spouse, and they can join our unit too, and we would welcome them.
Jerry Allhands:I know that for a lot of organizations people get us confused. To give you an example, I'll say I'm with the American Legion and say, oh, you're with the VFW or you're with the DAV, well, yeah, I'm in those organizations. But today I'm representing the American Legion, in your case, the American Legion Auxiliary. Do you find that you get confused with other organizations and what are you doing to change that persona? I mean to make it clear you're the American Legion Auxiliary.
Mary Jo Abraham:That happens all the time.
Jerry Allhands:Right.
Mary Jo Abraham:And that's kind of one of my pet peeves. To give you a little bit of background, we are a nonprofit organization. We were established by the US Congress in 1919. So, in other words, any changes that we make has to go back through Congress.
Mary Jo Abraham:Alice was talking a few minutes ago about men being able to be members. Well, the criteria for that is your wife has to be your legal spouse, your legal female spouse has to be a member of the American Legion in order for you to be a member of the auxiliary. So we're independent of the legion. In our individual units, in our memberships, our officers, we have to, you know, we have to file with the irs that we are 503b, that we're, you know, a non-profit organization. We have our own bylaws, everything. We are an umbrella of the American Legion because it's the auxiliary, it's the sons of the American Legion, american Legion riders, all of us. You have to have an existing American Legion post before you can be established. So we are 105 years strong and our main objective, of course, is to serve and assist the American Legion. Being the auxiliary and we are, the Legion has its own guidelines that it goes by and the auxiliary has their own as well.
Jerry Allhands:So again you get somebody that confuses you with another service organization. I guess you just smile and you know, nod and remind them that we are the American Legion auxiliary Exactly. All right, all right. So again we get somebody coming to Clockstone Mississippi. Y'all meet on what day and what time.
Mary Jo Abraham:The third Wednesday of the month, september through June and at 12 o'clock noon here at the american legion hut, unless we go somewhere off-site and go to another location and the location here is 700 spruce street, clockstone mississippi correct all right anything outside that would let somebody know this is an american legion post.
Jerry Allhands:Is there I something obvious outside, Something very large?
Mary Jo Abraham:Yeah, a tank. Yep, we usually tell them that there's a Sherman tank in the front yard. If you miss it, you miss where we are located. The name is on the front of the building, so that identifies us.
Jerry Allhands:And a very large flagpole out front. Yeah we're happy about that. For anybody that does come to Post 28, unit 28 in Clarksville, mississippi, most of the time we pull around to the back, the gates open. You come inside and we'll be happy to see you there, and you're always welcome here at this post.
Mary Eunice Cole:Exactly.
Mary Jo Abraham:Well, Jerry, thank you so much for having us today and for the interview. Jerry has interviewed us this week, but there will be others that will also have the opportunity to tell their story and you can learn a little bit more about our different units or organizations that are perhaps working with us to achieve our goal of taking care of our veterans.
Mary Eunice Cole:Jerry you've always been full of heart and appreciation for all of the veterans and you're one of them and it's so great that you're doing this podcast and that you're putting out the effort to reach everybody. We would like to invite everybody to come back over here to Clarksdale and to be with us at unit 28 on our Monday meeting I mean our Wednesday meetings and again, they're the third Wednesday of each month at 12 o'clock noon, and if you bring your lunch, you can come at 1130 and eat with us first. But come and be with us, come and join us and give us the support that we need to help the veterans too for us. So y'all have a good day and be with Jerry next week.
Jerry Allhands:And that was our visit with the Unit 28 American Legion Auxiliary in Clarksdale. Be sure to join us next Monday morning as we visit with another member of the American Legion family. A very special thank you to Jonathan Michael Fleming for his musical talents. You can find his CDs and videos on Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube. We hope you've enjoyed this episode and look forward to your feedback and ask that you subscribe too and share the Veterans Sound Off podcast with your friends and family. If you have a comment, suggestion or questions, or you would like to become a supporter of this podcast, please send an email to jdallhands at outlookcom that's J-D-A-L-L-H-A-N-D-S at outlook. com, or by calling 662-902-6658, and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. This has been a production of All Hands Media LLC, with offices in Rena Lara, Mississippi. All rights reserved. Hard work, we do it for play. Hard work, hard work.
Mary Jo Abraham:It's what they say Hard work, hard work. I earn my pay. Hard work work, hard work work, hard work work.
