Vero Beach Elks #1774

This Fall our Lodge distributed 990 dictionaries to the following 12 schools located in Indian River County.

• Beachland Elementary School
• Citrus Elementary School
• Dodgertown Elementary School
• Glendale Elementary School
• Imagine School at South Vero
• Indian River Academy
• North County Charter
• Osceola Magnet School
• Rosewood Magnet School
• St. Helen School
• St Peter’s Academy
• Vero Beach Elementary School

At virtually all the schools we delivered the dictionaries (A Student’s Dictionary and Gazetteer) at an assembly of third graders.  During the first part of the assembly our Lodge members ask the students why we’re giving them a dictionary today. After receiving a number of good answers, we distribute the dictionaries and then conduct a brief overview of the dictionary starting with the Table of Contents and review some of the additional features in the Gazetteer such as the longest word in the English language, the Fifty United States, Sign Language and Braille.

We include in each dictionary a bookmark with a drug awareness message put there by our mascot, Elroy the Elk.  We asked that the students read the message about drug awareness and think about what it means to them every time they use the bookmark. After asking the students if they would like to meet our mascot, we then bring out Elroy the Elk to meet the students and to take pictures with them and faculty, creating a memorable impression and excitement about using the dictionary.  These photos usually find their way to the school’s Facebook page.

In all, 13 Lodge members were involved in the highly successful dictionary deliveries. A special thanks to Ken Roberts, Lynn Bergeron and Jack Houlihan, PDDGER who alternated playing Elroy the Elk at the assemblies.

Pictured below is Elroy the Elk with students and teacher at Osceola Magnet School.

Submitted by Jim Rannazzisi, PER

Dictionary Project Chairman

Rose Tufano, project leader for our Cookies for Soldiers program, received following email from Lt Col Robert B. Fore. He is the Commander of the United States Air Force’s 817th Expeditionary Air Support Operations Squadron (EASOS) – a combat support unit located in Afghanistan.

Rose and Vero Beach Elks Lodge friends

We received your box sent to the 9th Air Expeditionary Task Force located at Headquarters Resolute Support in Kabul and we thank you from the bottom of our heart. I would say keep sending them here because the mail room distributes them to different sections.

The country (USA) is focused on many strategic threats, and Afghanistan has been going on for so long that it just seems mundane. However, just to give you some insight on the progress here, the Afghan Army and Air Force are taking more and more ownership of their country. There are some real Afghan heroes and patriots fighting as hard for their country as we do — and often puts them and their family at great risk. Its been a long road, and there’s still a long ways to go — but there are exciting signs that progress, though glacial, is being made.

We thank you for your thoughts and prayers. There is a direct tie to the great work the men and women are doing here to securing your safety back home. But you also have a direct tie to their resilience day-in and day-out, helping them stay focused and motivated.

A little bit about the 817th EASOS. We are the most diverse Air Support Operations Squadron (ASOS) in the world. We have Staff Weather Officers (SWO) scattered across Afghanistan which own/maintain 80% of the weather sensors in the country. Afghanistan, due to topography, has 6 very different weather systems which they have to interpret and provide weather forecasts to the many Attack and Airlift Helicopters and the Unmanned Intelligence assets in the country. This allows our Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Liaisons (ISRLO) to help the Army gather and develop target information. That information is passed to the pilots which are command and controlled by our Air Support Operations Center (ASOC). With all the different Fighter aircraft provided by the USAF, USN, and USMC, the ASOC makes sure the right aircraft gets to the right mission at the right time. Then finally, we have Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACS) who are on the ground observing the target area. They work directly with the pilots overhead to make sure the right bomb gets to the right target at the right time. As you can imagine, they have a very important job making sure that fast moving jets and the bombs they drop are deconflicted from helicopters flying around and the friendly troops on the ground.

The 817th EASOS is involved in every level of Tactical Operations in Afghanistan. I’m a proud papa, and wanted to give you a better idea of who we are, and where your care package ended up.

Have a good one, and we love all our supporters. Little things make such a big difference here and we are eternally grateful.

Vr,

LOVE

ROBERT B. FORE, Lt Col, USAF