MONTHLY CHAPTER MEETINGS:

The monthly membership business meeting for Chapter 20 is held on the second Saturday of every month at 10:00 am.  Previously, these meetings have been held in the community room of the Gernet Tower building in Nashville, Tennessee.  Effective immediately, this location is no longer available to us, and we are not yet able to move into our new regular meeting location.  Until that time, details will be posted here for each month’s meeting location.  Please check back!!

***LOCATION CHANGE***

AUGUST CHAPTER MEETING:

We had to relocate our August membership meeting from the previously published location.  Our August meeting will be held at Operation Stand-Down’s new Veterans Service Center, 1125 12^th Avenue South in Nashville, Tennessee.  This facility is located at the corner of 12^th Avenue South and Edgehill.  The meeting will be held on Saturday, August 8^th.  We invite all our sister veterans to join us at 9:30 am for 30 minutes of strictly social time prior to the meeting.  We will have coffee and assorted goodies to munch on.  This is a great opportunity to get to know each other outside of “official business”.  We welcome visitors that are interested in joining our organization.  The business meeting will start promptly at 10:00 am.  

For directions or more information please send an email to:  wvachapter20@gmail.com.   

SEPTEMBER CHAPTER MEETING & PANCAKE BREAKFAST:

WVA Chapter 20 will be holding a Pancake & SOS Breakfast on Saturday, September 12^th at VFW Post 4895, located at 1701 Haynes Avenue (behind the old Gateway Hospital), in Clarksville, Tennessee.  Breakfast will begin at 8:00am and run until 11:00am.  The September membership meeting will be held at the Post immediately following the breakfast.     

Breakfast will consist of pancakes, sausage, SOS (sausage gravy on toast), coffee, milk, and OJ, all you care to eat for $5.  What a deal!!  If you are in the area, please plan to support our organization by having a good meal for a great price. 

Workers are also needed to make the breakfast a successful fund-raiser.  We will need cooks in the kitchen for pancakes and sausage, folks to make coffee, wait tables, clear tables, empty the trash, and all things in between.

Funds raised at this breakfast will be used to cover Chapter expenses at the annual Operation Stand-Down event, where we will sponsor and serve a meal and treat the homeless women veterans to a shopping trip for new clothes (see below for more information on this event).   

This is also a great opportunity for all women veterans in the Clarksville / Stewart County / Fort Campbell / Hopkinsville area to attend a meeting as our guest, in order to see what Women Veterans of America has to offer.  We welcome visitors and there will be no pressure to join WVA.

For directions or more information, or to volunteer to work at the breakfast, please send an email to:  wvachapter20@gmail.com.   

OPERATION STAND DOWN EVENT – OCTOBER 16, 17, 18

The 17th Annual Operation Stand-Down Event has been scheduled for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, October 16, 17, and 18 at the Tennessee State Guard Facility, 1160 Menzler Road, Nashville, TN  37210.  Set up will begin on Monday October 12.

This annual, community-supported three-day event provides outreach, information, and intensive social services to the area veterans who are homeless.  Services provided at the event include access to legal advice, medical care and screenings, education on VA benefits with claims specialists on hand to file claims onsite, and employment assistance.  The veterans also receive hot showers, haircuts, hygiene items, clothing, and winter coats. 

This is an extremely rewarding experience for the volunteers, and we highly encourage each of you to get involved in some way.  These veterans are not looking for a hand out, only a hand up.  Even if you can only sit and talk or play cards, there is a place for you. 

Women Veterans of America and our sister organization, the Women Veterans Network of the VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, have volunteered at this event for many years.  Once again, we will be sponsoring and serving the lunch meal on Friday, October 16.  This is the first official meal of the event.  We will be providing the desserts for this meal, and welcome all donations of home baked (or store bought) desserts.  Volunteers are needed to help serve lunch, and we ask that you arrive around 10:00am so that we know how many hands we have to work with.  There will be some prep work as well.

Additionally, our Chapter will be sponsoring the shopping trip for the homeless women veterans at the event, to ensure that they have proper fitting personal items.  We expect a larger number of women veterans to be in need of assistance this year, and need volunteers that can accompany each woman veteran.  This will take place in the afternoon on Saturday, October 17.

If you are interested in volunteering with our organization, please contact us directly at wvachapter20@gmail.com.  

For more information on the event itself, or to volunteer as an individual, please call the Operation Stand Down Nashville, Inc. offices at 615-321-3919, visit the web site at http://osdnashville.org/annual_event.htm, or email Jean Daugherty at jean@osdnashville.org.