Honoring Doris Connors

Sometimes it seems we do not appreciate or realize the good many volunteers do in our communities. They do not have huge headlines or even a little thank you in many instances.

Doris Connors is one of these individuals. She is being honored with an open house to celebrate her 90th birthday, Friday, July 20, at the Birch Grove Community Center. Hours are between 4 and 8 p.m. with refreshments and birthday cake at 479 Birch Grove Drive.

Doris and I always had fun working together in the VFW Auxiliary for years. She was always active, generous, and her sewing talents provided many gifts for Montana Veterans Home members and others. She was treasurer of the VFW Auxiliary and was state president of the M.O.C. Auxiliary.

It was Doris' creativity which resulted in our Auxiliary float winning first place in a Heritage Days parade for two years. One year she made a life size paper mache donkey - jackass - on a float which also contained a Post member scrubbing in a washtub.

Another first place prize winner was the huge rotating globe of the world fastened to the top of the Connors pickup.

Doris was a charter member of the Auxiliary to North Valley Eagles Aerie No. 4081, and served tirelessly as their treasurer for years.

Stan and Doris Connors moved to the Flathead in 1946. He had served in the Navy on the Aleutians. Family members expected to join them for the birthday observance are daughters, Doris Marie Palicz, Oklahoma City, and Floris Dye, Great Falls; sons, Don, Kalispell; Ken, Jamesburg, N.J., and Keith, Henderson, Nev., and their families.

Heritage Day committee members make up another group of active volunteers. Matt and Janet McConville, Shirley Reynolds and Gerry Ryan are core members of the committee meeting every Tuesday.

Plans for the Family Fun Festival, Sunday, July 29, at Marantette Park are forging ahead. A community church service starts at 9:30 p.m. at the Don Lawrence Amphitheater. The Rev. David Merkel, United Methodist Church minister, will conduct the worship.

Rick King is lining up several orchestras to play throughout the day.

There will be games for children, arts, crafts and food vendors.

Businesses and individuals assist veterans annually when they purchase the Buddy Poppy sold by VFW Auxiliary members. These tiny red symbolic poppies are made in VA facilities in five locations by disabled and hospitalized veterans. They receive payment for making the poppies.

Proceeds are placed in a relief fund which is used for the aid, relief and comfort of needy veterans and members of the Armed Forces and their dependents.

Lavern Johnson, Sherry Wendlick and Irene Barnhart contacted area businesses selling poppies. The ladies, members of the Auxiliary to William Murphy Post 5650, received $ 1,163 for this project. The Auxiliary also purchases poppies, which are given to students during the Nov. 11 patriotic program at Columbia Falls High School.

Another probably unknown memorial is to the library at Columbia Falls High School. Ruth Chapman told me members of CFHS classes from 1946 to 1956 contribute to this fund to buy books. There were five certificates given in memorial of deceased classmates this year.

We also learned a little about good friends of Mikala Tamika Woodworth, member of the Class of 2007 at Columbia Falls High School. It was reported her parents had been killed in a motorcycle accident and she moved to Columbia Falls. Biker friends came to be with her for the graduation. They were elated and so was the graduate.

It was interesting to learn of the American Legion Post in Columbia Falls.

I enjoyed meeting Marlyn Damson, Havre, here to attend the American Legion and Auxiliary conventions in Kalispell. Marlyn is granddaughter of the late Maybelle Kelley, longtime mail carrier in Columbia Falls rural routes.

Marlyn was elected second vice president for the Department of Montana at the convention and is on the Girls State committee and head of community service. Marlyn is president of the Havre Auxiliary.

Marlyn brought me neck coolers made by American Legion Auxiliary Unit No. 11 members in Havre. They are made of heavy duty cotton fabric and have a small amount of a nontoxic granules in each. Granules, available from florists, are used to hold water for plants.

The neck coolers are soaked in water for three to five hours. They are in demand by servicemen in Iraq and are used to help prevent heat stroke. Project is to be one of the projects of the Department Auxiliary.

Marlyn brought in a neck cooler which had been in her car for two days. It was still cool.

I hope some of our residents can adopt this project. They don't take much material and look simple enough for even me to sew.

Gladys Shay is a longtime resident and columnist for the Hungry Horse News.