I trust you have had your fill of Thanksgiving fare and those who traveled to be with family and friends are home safely. For those of you who risked life and limb shopping on black Friday, small business Saturday, and cyber Monday, etc., I express my admiration!

A number of Chapter members have expressed an interest in participating in “Wreaths Across America”, which will be held on Saturday, December 14th. The locations and other details will be posted on our website, and there is an attachment below to a spreadsheet showing details and start times for all of the ceremonies in the Triangle region. More information about specific locations can be found by searching at this link: Wreaths Across America locations (I recommend using the map at the link to "drill down" to your location). I do have two asks: please record your participation for our records and send me a picture for posting on our website (just reply to this email)…and if there are a sufficient number of participants at any one site, use the time to get better acquainted and perhaps have lunch together.

The election has come and gone and now the heavy lifting for us begins. We have a new Federal Executive and Cabinet nominees advocating significant changes, not the least of which are in the area of national defense policy. We have one new House member and an almost entirely new State administration. Our plan going forward is to have one Chapter member serve as the liaison to each of the four Congress members in our catchment area, encourage all Chapter members to communicate with our two Senators and empower our State Council of Chapters to take the lead on North Carolina issues. That said, advocacy is every member's responsibility, and I encourage you to sign up on the MOAA website to receive materials from the Legislative Action Center. If you have contact with an elected official or staff on a particular issue, please share that information with Chapter leadership. For example, I was fortunate to be part of a group who met with Senator Carper from Delaware (pictured) and I took the opportunity to alert him to our concerns about the future of Seymour Johnson Airbase and other pressing issues affecting North Carolina.

Next year is promising to be equally challenging for us. First, we are determined to enlarge our pool of scholarship applicants and have agreed to increase the amount of each award to $1,500, even if that means awarding fewer scholarships. I hope that will not be necessary; the availability of funds and the quality of the applicants will dictate our decision. That said, we can plan on a spring awards dinner with a speaker in the education area. There is another spring activity that has been suggested…” Park Day”, which will be held in 2025 on April 7th. This is an opportunity to help with cleanup and maintenance of the (mostly) Civil War battlefields and monuments in the State. Summer will likely find us back at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, although other suggestions are welcome! And…a late breaker…our fall meeting will be moved to November so that we can host a joint meeting with the leaders of other chapters in the North Carolina Council of Chapters.

Another initiative I want you to be aware of is the exploration of the feasibility of having a satellite chapter in the Fuquay Varina/Lillington area. Our own Jeri Graham is spearheading this effort. If you have interest or know of individuals for whom our current meeting venue is a stretch, I will put you in touch with her.

All of this takes people power! If you would like to participate as a Chapter officer, legislative liaison, or just work on a specific project or program, please raise your hand high enough so that I can see it from north Raleigh! Email me at herbsegal1941@gmail.com.

I must close on a sad note. We have been informed that LTC Ken Tigges, a former Chapter President and long-time newsletter editor, passed away in the Seattle area. Our condolences go out to his family.

Have a happy and safe holiday season!

Herb