Page 34 - South Mississippi Living - June, 2017

PEOPLE star and stripes
SERVING
VETERANS
OTHERS
139 auxiliary. “Our primary goal is to work with the military and their families, but we also work with youth and have multiple programs. We raise money to support those programs,” she said.
With eight posts from Waveland
to Moss Point, the American Legion
Auxiliary has an o“utreach that national goals. For example, one
they’ll want to come back,” Laws said.
story by Susan Ruddiman photos courtesy of Anita McAllister
encompasses the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast. The members work side by side with veterans who belong to the American Legion.
of the programs is the American Legion Auxiliary Magnolia Girls State held each June for high school juniors at the University of
“We were always “People Southern Mississippi.
told that all we Founded in 1919, the were supposed think of us as American Legion Auxiliary to do was feed backwards, but is the largest women’s
the men. Of I want them to patriotic organization in course that’s not the world, Dalton said.
the case,” said see how special The auxiliary members in
Anita McAllister, we are so when
Mississippi are thrilled
to have one of their own, Kathy Dungan of Wesson, become the national auxiliary president in 2018.
“This will be the first time in 99 years a Mississippian will be national president.
ANITA MCALLISTER, past state auxiliary president, shows the rolling library cart that the American Legion Auxiliary Post 42 of Ocean Springs sponsors at the Veterans Affairs Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System in Biloxi.
AMERICAN LEGION AUXILIARY CHAPTERS ON THE COAST:
• Waveland Post 77
• Bay St. Louis Post 139
• Gulfport Post 119
• Biloxi Post 33
• Ocean Springs Post 42
• Gautier/Vancleave Post 1992
• Pascagoula Post 160
• Moss Point Post 243
unit president of Post 42 in Ocean Springs. She was the department president for Mississippi in 2016.
they leave the Coast, they’ll want to come back,”
She became
involved in the American Legion Auxiliary in 2009 when her husband came home from an American Legion Post 42 meeting — where he was commander — and said he wanted
to start an auxiliary. “My husband got on the phone. It takes 10 ladies
to start a new unit. Today we have 47 members,” McAllister said.
Agnes Dalton of Poplarville is a member of the Bay St. Louis Post
She will be elected in Minneapolis in August 2018,” said June Laws with Bay St. Louis Post 139. She is serving on the national president committee. In October 2018, Legion guests from all over the country will come to the Coast for Dungan’s homecoming event.
“People think of us as backwards, but I want them to see how special we are so when they leave the Coast,
Each unit establishes its own projects as well as supports state and
34 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • June 2017
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