A Message from the 10th Mountain Descendants President and a Note from the VP of Education

President's Letter

Fall 2020

Greetings Fellow Descendants and Friends,

I hope this letter finds you and yours doing well. Although our chapters remain quiet, we just had our annual 10^th Mountain Division Descendants’ board meeting (in a virtual format) a few weeks ago. Our Chapter Directors and the board are hard at work coming up with ideas to keep us connected during these difficult times. We had a great meeting, with a lot of participation and enthusiasm by Directors and board members alike.

One of the results of the board meeting was the need to create a new Action Plan. We are in need of help from the membership to work on this committee. Please read the letter below from Val Rios. We would love to have your involvement.

In a continued effort to serve our members, we have just completed a chapter realignment. Complete details will be made available in your 2021 Membership Renewal Packet, arriving in your mailboxes in the coming weeks. Refer to the new Chapter Map to help you determine the chapter that best fits your needs. We are hopeful this will allow for better participation for our members.

We continue to look for photos that are meaningful to you for our website. It could be of your Veteran or you at reunions, Italy trips or any other 10^th event or project you would like to share. Please send them to Ron Sawdey at [email protected].

A reminder about the Finn-Thornton Scholarship: If you have a family member who is in high school, please take a look at our web site: https://10thMountainDivisionDescendants.org to see what criteria is required to apply for the scholarship. It is important that folks plan ahead as there are steps that need time to complete prior to applying.

I’m sure many of you are wondering if there is any news regarding the Italy trip for 2021. It’s not looking promising for June. Given the current uncertainty as to when a vaccine will be available, we don’t see how June will be possible. More info will be forthcoming.

Please keep our 10th Mountain soldiers currently deployed to Afghanistan in your thoughts.

I would love to hear from you. Let me know of any thoughts or ideas you might have for our organization. Your voice matters!

Respectfully,

Denise Taylor

President

A Note from

Val Rios

Vice President, Education

Fall 2020

Dear Membership:

One of the outcomes of our annual board meeting was to review and/or develop action plans to help drive the future of 10^th Mountain Division Descendants. Two areas that I have volunteered to help address are scholarships and education. But we need your help and so I am asking for a few volunteers to join the committee.

Scholarship Committee

Presently, there are two members on this committee. We are looking for one or two more members. We will review and evaluate our current scholarship program and present any modifications to the board. Then, in April/May we will review scholarship applications and submit our selection to the board for approval.

Education Committee

In order to help our younger generation become engaged with our organization, I would like to develop a K-12 project based curriculum. I am hoping that we will be able to develop at least one project/lesson plan for every grade and, upon completion, the student will receive some type of acknowledgement (maybe a certificate or a patch or something 10th related). For example, maybe for kindergarten, the student colors and/or draws the 10th patch. Then, as their acknowledgement they receive a 10th patch and/or their artwork is included in The Blizzard. I am looking for four teachers: one for Primary grades (1-3), one for Middle grades (4-6), one for Jr. High (7-9) and one for High School (10-12).

If you are interested in joining either committee or would like more information on the scope of the work, please contact me at [email protected] or call me at (559) 269-7788.

Thank you,

Val Rios

Vice President, Education