This, as you can see from the Muster Call, is a very busy time for the Culpeper Minutemen Chapter. Overarching everything is our effort to convince the Virginia General Assembly to authorize a license plate honoring the Culpeper Minutemen. This is a very steep uphill struggle to reach the 450 pre-orders necessary before the General Assembly can authorize our plate. We do have help, Delegate Webert, 18th District, recently emailed over 5,000 of his constituents, with information about and a request to purchase our license plate. A member donation has purchased a color ad in the Culpeper Local Guide, which will also be a newspaper insert in November, and as a bonus, will include an article about our chapter. Unfortunately, so far, the return on our efforts has been weak and slow. This will be hard work and I need your help.
One way you can help is to take our applications to work and sign up interested co-workers, with proper deference to your employer. The same will work for other organizations such as the VFW, Masons, etc. I am working with Walmart and other retailers to set up our booth at their front doors on weekends. We have at least three canopies and should be able to cover more than one location on good days – but we need more than one person to man each booth. Let me know when you are available and I will manage the schedule.
First Friday in Warrenton tomorrow appears to be cancelled for weather, but I plan to be at Molly’s Irish Pub pitching the license plates from inside. Partnership for Warrenton is scheduling an extended make-up for the weekend of 23-25 October and I have signed us up for Friday evening, all-day Saturday, and Sunday afternoon – I’ll be there, but need help.
This month is our Community Awards Meeting and we will have a number of worthy honorees: teachers, police, fire fighters, and emergency medical personnel. We will also be inducting new members – more to follow next month too. We will be presenting two Silver Good Citizenship Medals to honorees of similar caliber to Roger Depue, who we honored in 2014 - you’ll want to be there. We also will be soon presenting a Bronze Good Citizenship Medal to a local teacher at another venue, probably at a school assembly – more to follow.
Preparations are well underway for the Genealogy Workshop on Saturday, 7 November. Genealogist General John Sinks will be the lunch-time speaker, and Virginia SAR Registrar Mike Taimi will talk about the SAR application process. We are co-hosting this with the Fauquier Court House Chapter, DAR, and could use some help, especially in the morning with sign-in. The workshop is free, including breakfast and lunch, but you must register in advance. Watch the Muster Call for registration information.
This is also a busy time for commemorations of Revolutionary War events. This weekend some of us will be at Point Pleasant, WV, and the following Wednesday at Kings Mountain, SC, then on the 19th at Yorktown. These are great events and a great time for fellowship with SAR members from around Virginia and other states.
Thanks again for all that you do to honor our patriot ancestors and keep alive their spirit in the Culpeper Minutemen Chapter
Your Servant,
Bill Schwetke, President