February 2026 Membership goals 85%!

Department President

Wow! What a whirlwind 5 days. Wednesday, the 11th, I headed to Springfield, IL for Lincoln’s Pilgrimage. It was incredibly humbling being there. I was very honored to represent the Department of Iowa by laying a wreath at his tomb. It was a great time with friends from all over the nation joining together as one big family. Immediately after laying the wreath and returning to the hotel, Steve and I headed back to Des Moines so that I could prepare for Mid-Winter. The Mid-Winter Conference was all that I had hoped for. I hope that you all had a good time. It was my intent that you would all learn something you didn’t know from the Kahoot Triva game we played. If nothing else I hope you had fun competing with the other tables! The Final Salute presentation gives me goose bumps every time. It is such a humbling and special service. If you have never been you should go at least once! In other news....The Penny War is now over and Iowa no longer has a shortage! Congratulations to Veronica Daniel of 3rd District who won the Penny War having the least negative percentage. No one had more pennies than they had silver or bills. Congratulations to Kristi Bridges from the 5th District who collected the most money! Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of the District Presidents. You guys really rocked this challenge and the real winner is the Department of Iowa with you collectively raising almost $5,000.Thank you to everyone who purchased raffle tickets from me. I also drew for that on Saturday and the winners are: Gun–Kevin Ernst

Red, White, and Blue Afghan–Rhonda Russell

Teal and Purple Afghan–Kathy Harding

Flag Stone–Bob Wuagh

Soldier Stone–Kurt Kollasch

Crown Royal–Rex Croson

Thank you all for an awesome weekend!!! See you soon at Spring Conferences!

Kim Dixon

Department Vice President

Hello Auxiliary

Mid-Winter is over and what a great conference. Good Job President Kim!!

As I write this it is snowing! Quite heavily at times, boy do we need the moisture!

Things are getting busy again. I have been to Meetings for the volunteers at Omaha VA,

participated in cookie day at Omaha, had a tour of the Des Moines VA, went to the

capital for Veteran’s Day on the hill and I have even been to a Blue Star Mother’s event.

Spring conferences are getting ready to start up., and I am looking forward to seeing

you all at your conference. Brian and I will attend as many as we can, as we have been

doing for the past several years.

If you have not yet filled out an interest form, please do so. This is a valuable tool, even

if you do not want to chair a committee, we can use it to match a mentor to a new

chairman, see who is interested in learning more on a particular program. It is a good

way to get the feeling for the whole department, not just those who are chairman. I

appreciate your help in this matter. If you do have an interest in a committee, please

also let me know.

Don’t forget your unit member of the year!!!

See you all soon.

Please stay warm, dry and safe.

Judy Ring

Department Junior President

Hello, I hope you all are having a great February. Mid-Winter was a success. First, the juniors had a movie night on Friday. Then, on Saturday, we learned about flag etiquette and did a flag craft. We also made Chex mix and got donations for camp from people around the hotel. Finally, I got a lot of pop tabs, and a gentleman donated $80 to anything that I wanted it to go towards, except for myself. I decided for it to go towards Junior Camp. Don't forget to get those Juniors signed up for Camp, it will be a week full of fun, learning new things, and of course making new friends.

Lea Campbell

National Executive Committee Member

On March 8, the ALA Foundation will host the 4th annual Celebrating Women of ServiceDay, a special giving day held in conjunction with International Women’s Day. This day is dedicated to honoring the women of the American Legion Auxiliary whose service strengthens communities, supports veterans and military families, and makes a lasting difference, often in quiet but powerful ways. This year’s theme celebrates the women who show up. The ones who check in. The ones who make things feel a little lighter simply by being there. You know her. And you are her, too. We are asking for your help in spreading the word at the unit level by posting the enclosed Celebrating Women of Service Day flyer in your meeting space and sharing it with your Legion family. By displaying the flyer where members of your unit, your Legion post, and other Legion Family partners will see it, you help ensure everyone has the opportunity to take part in this meaningful day. All donations raised through Celebrating Women of Service Day benefit the ALA Mission Endowment Fund, which provides long-term support for ALA Girls Nation and the Spirit of Youth Scholarship Fund, programs that empower young women through leadership development, civic education, and educational opportunities. Your support at the local level is essential. A flyer on a bulletin board, a shared moment of conversation, or a reminder at a meeting can spark participation and help honor the women whose service shapes lives every day. Thank you for all you do to lead your unit and for helping us celebrate women of service across the American Legion Auxiliary.

Kelly Elliott

Department Executive Director

The Department of Iowa membership goal is 85% by March 15. Final renewal notices were sent on February 1.

If a member received a renewal notice, it means their unit has not submitted the member’s dues to the state level. We are seeing several instances where units have collected dues from members but have not forwarded payment to the Department. This practice—often referred to as holding membership—is not acceptable.

Until dues are paid at the state level, the member is not considered paid. If an incident were to occur and the member needed to apply for AEF (Americanism, Education, or other applicable funds), they would not be eligible.

Please ensure all collected dues are promptly submitted so members remain protected and in good standing.

Crystal Wright

Department Chaplain

What a great month we have had with over 200 of our Iowa National Guard soldiers returning home early from their deployment. Imagine the homecomings for their families and friends. Let us continue to pray and lift the remaining soldiers and their families in our daily prayers. We are getting closer to our Annual Reports and while there isn’t a report for Chaplains I do need to have your list of deceased members, as I want to remember as many as possible in July. Feel free to send them over as they occur or even monthly and I will add them to the list I have started. Be sure to tell me what you have done as a unit county or district chaplain. Every bit of information helps to mentor the next group of chaplains.

Dawn Aberle

Department Historian

We have hit the mid-point of our year! This is the time of year that we are starting to wind down; we are starting to think about our year end reports and summarizing all that we have accomplished this year. This is a great time to reflect on what worked and what did not and to compile your Unit History for the year. This can be a combination of photos, news clippings, minutes, and narratives from the year. Be sure to dedicate a portion of your history to your unit officers, members who held positions at the County, District, Department, or National level, and the activities of your Junior members. As I work to compile the history of the Department of Iowa please forward me information on special events that took place in your units, counties, and districts. President Kim has requested a digital history so digital files would be preferred. I love my junior photographer however as she is still learning her photos are not always of the highest quality. I am especially looking for photos of Installation, fall conferences(with narratives), and Mid-Winter Conference. I look forward to hearing all about your year! Please reach out with questions, stories, and history. As always my contact information can be found in the Blue Book.

Alida Kolthoff, Historian

1st District President

The sessions began Friday night with the joint session. First District was awarded the Unity award, which is presented to the district with the highest combined membership percentage between the Legion, Auxiliary, and the SAL, by November 22nd. There were many great speakers, such as the National Commander and the National ALA president, just to name a few. Saturday was full of information. The morning started off with a program fair where you could get information one-on-one from the department chairs. Then, presentations were given throughout the rest of the morning, including a very informative and interesting presentation from The Final Salute. Reconvening after lunch, we were encouraged to sit with some new people, for what we would soon discover to be a game of group trivia. A Kahoot game, where questions were chosen from questions fellow ALA members have sent President Kim throughout the year. Many things were learned (and many things were debated). We finished the session with a few more presentations. That evening held the Silent Auction for Girls ’State, and last-minute point gaining and losing in the Department Penny War. The following morning at the reconvened joint session, we found out the results for the Penny War; unfortunately, the First District came in last (we’ll get them next time).We also had the opportunity to listen to last year's Girls and Boys state senators, as well as the Governor for Girls’ State. And the winners of the American Legion high school Oratorical contest were announced. Overall, this Mid-Winter Conference was once again an enlightening experience and definitely one for the books. Written by Liberty Smith, Vice President Reminder for Spring Conference on March 28th in Victor, please make plans to attend

Julianne Jensen

2nd District President

Hello from 2ndDistrict! I want to thank everyone who supported the Penny War. If you still have money, please send the money directly to department by check and make sure you identify 2ndDistrict in the mailing so our district gets credit. We might not have had the most pennies, but we still did our part in supporting our American Legion Auxiliary Department of Iowa. If you didn’t make it to Mid-winter, you missed out on some wonderful fun, fellowship and learning experience. Some chairman reports were given, we learned more about “The Final Salute” (Dept Pres Kim’s Project) along with National President Pam addressing members. She even joined in while playing “Kahoot!” on Saturday afternoon. Department President Kim, took questions turned into her, into a quiz game where teams tried to decipher the correct answer from the multiply answers given the fastest thru the app. Kim then gave us the facts to support the correct answer. Some were easy; others were a play on word or dates listed in the answers. It was great learning some fact, and interacting with team members from across the state. The game kept us cheering on each other. Congrats goes out to the team who managed to score/respond with the most correct answers in the shortest amount of time. Has your unit reached goal? Congratulations to several in the district that are at 100% or better. Let’s try to get each and every unit to goal. Stay healthy and hope to seeyouat2ndDistrictSpringConferenceon April17th&18th. You will be seeing Call to Conference in the near future. The Marion Post will host the hospitality on Friday night, along with The American Legion Conference and joint banquet at their hall on Saturday. The American Legion Auxiliary conference will be at the Springville Legion Hall just a few miles east on Hwy 151.God Bless America and all our veterans!

Helen Hildebrand

3rd District President

If you didn’t make it to Mid Winter Conference, you missed out on a lot of good information. Lanae Stovers spoke about President Kim’s project, “The Final Salute”, which was amazing and informative. After lunch, we broke into teams of six and played Trivia, not just any trivia. It was questions that were called into the office in the past few months. There were a couple that everyone missed, but most were answered correctly. This was one of the best Winter Conferences I’ve attended; thank you Kim for putting this together. Third District took first place for Membership. Thank you Units for getting membership turned in on time. Then there was the Penny War - we took first place with the most pennies turned in and third place for total amount of money raised among the Districts. Jr. Camp registration has been extended to March 31st, we have the most Juniors of all the Districts. We should be able to get four to attend. Lets see if we can get them there. Our Spring Conference will be at Parkersburg March 14th, 2026, at the Veterans Memorial Building, 102 Colfax St. Registration with meal $15, without meal $5.00 with $2 going to Auxiliary Emergency Fund. Meal is $10.00; Pork Lion, Cheesy potatoes with a variety of sides and desert. Place your reservations for your meal by March 6th. Call or Text 641-750-4285 or email tohonhi1953@yahoo.comFor those wishing to to spend Friday night at Legends in Parkersburg I need a count of rooms to be set aside and receive Military discount. Let me know by February 27th, cost $113.1401 Hwy-57, 319-346-9788.Registration and Executive Board Meeting starts at 8am, call to Order 9am.

Veronica Daniel

4th District President

Seems like Spring is/was here! I hope everyone is doing well and Units are keeping busy with projects and planning. The 250thAnniversary of our Country is being celebrated in many ways. Many Units are being very creative in their plans to participate in this great event. Is your Unit getting involved?Memberships continue to be sent in. It is not too late! Every member’s support is needed. If you need help with it, please reach out to others. You do not have to do it alone. We appreciate the time and effort that goes into contacting and collecting membership. Our District is in 6thplace. Let’s do our best to improve that. Juniors are invited and encouraged to attend Junior Conference, Sunday, March 8 in Spillville at the Library, doors open at 11:30, Lunch at 12:00. Please encourage Juniors/Parents/Members to attend for an informative and entertaining afternoon. If you have questions, please contact me. Junior Camp Registrations are due April 1. There is time to encourage Juniors to participate this summer. There is information at iowaala.org under Events. Will your unit be sponsoring a candidate for Girls State? If you do not have one and would like to sponsor, there are those who want to attend and do not have a sponsor. Please consider making this happen for those students. This program really helps to shape the future for these individuals. Mid-Winter is past and always filled with so much information and ideas for our units. We will have reports at the Spring Conference in April on Saturday, the 11th. Save the date and plan to attend! It will be in Waucoma that the Event Center. More details to follow! Iowa Guard Soldiers have just returned to their loved ones. We thank them for their sacrifice, bravery and commitment to safeguard our Nation and we honor the memory of their brothers lost. May God Bless them and their families.

Susan Franzen

5th District President

Sounds like I missed out on some great information, lots of the new faces, and most importantly lots of fundraising at Mid-Winter! I was definitely there in spirit but I honored a commitment I made over a year ago. Please keep getting in touch with your unpaid members. I have visited a lot with ladies from my unit and I am finding that making contact with them has gotten us several renewals. I have also verified their addresses and found that several have moved or their address was wrong when the renewal was sent out. Which in turn our member didn't get the renewal notice. It is the little things and the personal contact that helps us retain our members. Keep working on membership. We can do this! The 5th District Junior Conference will be held March 8th at the Deep River Post. Registration at 1:30meeting at 2:00. I would love to see lots of the Juniors from the 5th District in attendance. A reminder that the 5th District Conference will be held April 18th in Hedrick. WOW! What can I say about all the Legionnaires, Auxiliary, Son's. and Rider's we have in the District!!!!THANK YOU! When the Penny War was brought to all District Presidents last Fall I made a goal for myself and the District. I wanted all the pennies I could get but the most important part to me is I wanted to be the district President with the most money. We didn't have the most pennies but with your generosity bringing pennies, dimes, nickels, dollars, and checks we raised the most money! I didn't do it alone so thank you from the bottom of my heart! A special thanks to the Legionnaires in the District who started me out with $300.00 in pennies and Commander Sam Blumer for the 20 dollar bill. I would like to remind everyone to keep doing the Buddy Checks. Those can be a phone call, a visit to the house, having coffee time with someone, or sending a card.

For God and Country

Kristi Bridges

6th District President

Hello Sixth District. I hope many of you were able to attend and enjoy the Mid-Winter conference held last weekend in Des Moines. I regret to say that health issues forced me to leave the conference early, and I know I missed a great deal of useful information and a whole lot of fun! I am happy to report that Sixth District earned 2nd place honors in the total amount of funds collected during the Penny War. That money will be added to the Department coffers and used to help headquarters keep operating smoothly for all of our benefit. Attention now turns to Spring and all that entails...collecting past due memberships to wrap up our membership year, celebrating successes and learning from challenges of the past, and preparing for the upcoming year by electing new district leadership. Our Sixth District Spring Conference will be held at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Grimes, Iowa on March 21, 2026. I am excited to tell you that we will be offering free Be the One training sessions at the conference this year. Lunch will be available on site following the business meeting, and the Be the One training will begin immediately after lunch. Please encourage interested individuals to come and take advantage of this unique training opportunity. Attendance at the Spring Conference is not required in order to attend the Be the One training, but all members are always invited and encouraged to participate in the business meetings! I look forward to seeing you in March!

Sharon Luellen

7th District President

Hello, Midwinter was fantastic. There were so many exciting things happening, so much information presented, it was an incredible experience. Now, we are coming to thedistrict7 Spring Conference on March 7thin Stanton, Iowa at the Viking Center. The hospitality will be in Red Oak at the Red Coach Inn on the 6th. In my invitations I mistakenly had put the Red Roof Inn, sorry about that. I am excited to be able to see everyone there and explore new ideas. I encourage everyone to attend. This is also the time when elections are held. Last year we didn’t have a full set of officers, so if you are interested in a district office, please attend. We are still collecting pop tabs for our Junior Department President, Lea Campbell, so if you have them, bring them. Spring is on the way, and with that we feel renewed and refreshed. The summer is an active time for many, and I am excited to hear about all the Legion, Son’s, and Auxiliary events planned. It’s going to be a great year.

Penny Clair

8th District President

Hello from the 8th District. Valentine’s Day and Mid-winter Conference are behind us. I hope you were remembered by your Sweetheart with a beautiful card, roses, chocolates or your favorite gift. Did you share some love? Mid-winter was very informative and fun. Being my very first time attending it was exciting and a bit frighting. Thanks to an 8thDistrict sister I got to where I needed to be and on time. On Friday evening the conference was opened with a Joint Legion Family Session. Guests from National and Department were introduced. On Saturday Department President Kim presided over the Auxiliary General Session. There were reports from the committee chairman and National President Pam Ray. President Ray encourages us to “BE the ONE” and be good listeners to our veterans. To just ask the hard questions as we never know when that is just what a veteran may need. The winners of the adult Poppy wreath and poster contest were announced. There were 4wreath and 4 poster entries. The posters were colorful and informative and the wreaths were beautiful. The Auxiliary Trivia was challenging and informative. There were things I didn’t know about the auxiliary. On Sunday at the Joint Legion Family Session the Penny Wars winners were announced. The 8thdistrict was 2nd in the Penny War. But didn’t do so well in the total money raised.8thdistrictwas 9th.I truly had an interesting weekend along with a lot of fun. Meeting new auxiliary sisters sharing ideas and what is happening in other districts. The hospitality was awesome, as was the delicious food each district prepared and shared. Is your unit, Legion are town doing something to celebrate America’s 250thbirthday? If so, I would love to hear about what you are doing and when. It seems to me that everyone should be proud of the freedom we have to be ourselves. I enjoy hearing from all of you and would love to visit one of your meetings or special events. Remember to be kind. To shake a veteran’s hand and thank him or her for serving this Awesome America.

Donna Jensen

9th District President

Anyo who didn’t attend the Midwinter Convention this last weekend missed a very informative event. In addition, the weather for travel could not have been better. It was

great to meet our National President, Pam Ray. She was able to spend the entire weekend with us. The placements in the penny war were also announced. Our district placed third in the total number of pennies collected and sixth in total dollar amount collected. Thanks to all who contributed to our bucket and to those who helped “sabotage” other district buckets. It was a fun competition as well as a good fund raiser for the department. Thank you to all the units who have kept up to date remitting their memberships. A special thank you to the units who have reached 100 percent or above of their membership goal. Keep inviting eligible persons to join our organization to honor and support veterans. With the beautiful weather it certainly makes you think of spring. That is exactly what we are doing in the ninth district. Our ninth district spring conference has been scheduled for April 11. It will be held at the Paullina legion hall at 9 AM. There will be a social gathering the night before also at the Paullina legion hall. There will be a social hour at 6:00 PM with dinner served from 6:30 to 7:30. This will be such treat. Please come and join us for any or all of these events. It is at this conference that the leadership for the upcoming year is elected. Come and have a voice in this election.

Marilyn Berke

Mid-Winter Recap is found on the iowaala.org homepage

Membership Position Opening

If you are interested in becoming the membership person, please reach out to Crystal Wright.

Job Description: CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Job Types: Part-time Flexible Hours

Pay: $15.00 - $18.00 per hour

Expected hours: 20 – 40 per week

Role Description

This is a full-time on-site Membership Services role located in Des Moines, IA at the American Legion Auxiliary. The Membership Services representative will be responsible for providing customer service to members, managing membership sales and finances, and utilizing analytical skills to improve membership engagement and retention.

Qualifications

Analytical Skills and Finance knowledge
Strong Communication and Customer Service skills
Experience in Marketing a plus
Ability to handle financial transactions and membership data
Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
Knowledge of membership management systems is a plus
Experience working with veterans or military personnel is beneficial
Bachelor's degree in Business Administration or related field preferred

Current Membership Totals

Scholarship Applications

Friendly Reminder: Scholarship applications found HERE are due on or before Friday, March 1, 2026, 11:59pm Eastern. Please be sure to spread the word amongst your units and members. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Shelley Conover