Hot Springs Village - Arkansas

On January 29, Council 10208 hosted another 1st Degree Exemplification conducted by its own Ceremonial Team.  Six candidates became knights, including one from Mena, two from Hot Springs, and three from Hot Springs Village.

Pictured (l-r) are the new knights from the Village - James Cone, Walter Mitchell, and Earnest Cooper - who join the other 298 members of Council 10208.  Welcome! 

Three successful product sales efforts and a New Year's Eve party conclude the fundraising activities for the 2011 calendar year.

Ham Sales - completing its sixth year, this activity promotes the sale of Petit Jean meat products for the holiday season, Thanksgiving through Christmas.  A $2,000 profit in 2009 was followed by $2,300 in 2010, and $2,750 in 2011.  Having co-chaired the activity with Mike Welsh in 2010, Bill Roe chaired it in 2011.  There were 23 "hamsters" involved, and they sold 272 individual products.  Those knights selling in double digits include: Ed Cudworth - 32; Ray Ambrozich - 31; Bill Welch - 24; Milt Spaniel and Mike Welsh - 23 each; Bill Roe - 19; Bill Hartnett - 16; Roger Bresnahan - 12; and, Larry Stein - 10.  

Needy families of the Alternate Learning Education (ALE) students and the Mountain Pine students were recipients of the gift cards.  Since the number of awards is projected before the sales were concluded, ALE was given $1,200 and Mountain Pine $800 with the remaining $750 given to Sacred Heart's participation in the Village Christmas project. 

Five candidates from Council 10208 and one from Hot Springs Council 6419 were awarded 1st Degree status with their exemplification at 2:00PM on Sunday, December 11, at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church. 

The five local knights are Dan Alyward, Don Caple, Mike Garstecki, Mark Kurowski, and Diego Miceli.  Vance Arlotta is the new knight from Hot Springs.  

The Council's Exemplification Team did another excellent job in performaning the ceremonials.  The Team included Bill Patterson, Tom Yerina, Gerald Krawczynski, Bill Janser, Mike Frantz, Mike Kerwin, and Jack Widlowski.

There was an excellent turnout by brother knights to support their team and to welcome the new members.

Congratulations to Membership Director Ed Cudworth and his Recruitment Committee for meeting  the 2011-2012 membership goal so early in the fraternal year with 25 new members.

At the December 6 Council's membership meeting, Brother Ed Voss, a Vietnam era veteran, introduced two representatives from the Central Arkansas Veterans Health System (CAVHS) in Little Rock - Leotis Nichols and Nakia Williams.  Both individuals are members of a Care Management Team involved with Operation Endurance Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). 

The Team can assist vets with: 1) completing a onetime post-deployment health risk assessment; 2) helping with issues related to deployment injuries or illnesses; 3) helping navigate the VA system; 4) performing courtesy visits with OEF-OIF veterans who are hospitalized; and, 5) providing outreach activities to military units throughout Arkansas.

Leotis spoke about the many differences between the typical veteran from previous wars and the veterans from the current wars.  The VA's basic structure was designed for the older veterans, and it must adjust to meet the needs of the younger vets.  The older vets typically served during a time of the draft, no women in combat roles, and, for the most part, a single one-year tour assignment with few National Guard and reservists involved,  The younger vets want more responsive health services, have probably served multiple tours, have difficulty retaining a job because of those tours, and want evening and weekend hours for service due to jobs and families.

Nakia referenced the desire of the VA to use a more holistic approach to the needs of vets, including caregivers, spouses, and families.  There are attempts to aid the families in making connections with other agencies outside of the VA to help meet their needs.  Returning woman veterans also provide new challenges to the VA which has been used to providing services to men.  Nakia said that there now more Vietnam veterans seeking assistance, as they become more aware of their own needs, especially post-traumatic stress disorders.  She also emphasized that technology is being used to meet some of the vets' more common queries, including copies of a DD214 form, checking the status of a service request, verifying an appointment time, and ordering medications.

Leotis and Nakia can be reached at 501-257-5414 and 501-257-6706 respectively.