Installation of Officers 2022

Swearing in of new Grand Strand MOAA Chapter Officers for 2022 at chapter dinner meeting, Pine Lakes Country Club, January 11, 2022.  From left to right:  Officer installation coordinator, Greg Youngman at podium;   "New" Chapter President and program chair, Stephen (Tony) Prince, CAPT, USN (ret) ,  1^st Vice-President Kelly Sharbel, Jr., Cpt, USA (fmr);    Secretary, Tracey Miller, LCDR, MSC, USN (ret); Treasurer, Gale Fellowes LCDR, USN (fmr), and 2nd VP/Outreach Chairman, Truman Parmele, Col, USAF (ret.)  

                               

[Left Photo] Incoming Grand Strand MOAA Chapter President, Tony Prince, CAPT, USN (ret) provides acceptance remarks as new President;  Tony Prince (right photo) then presents outgoing Chapter President,  James Albert, LTC, USAF (retired) with a Certificate of Appreciation for outstanding leadership of the chapter for two consecutive years (2020-2021).  In spite of a very restrictive world-wide pandemic, under President Albert's leadership:  the Grand Strand Chapter continued to expand its outreach support of ROTC and Jr ROTC student programs. He also expanded support for needy veterans and their families through direct financial support, food card distribution, and local job training initiatives across our region, .  Because of his leadership, and all of our collective efforts we again received awards for Chapter Communications and 5-star Excellence by national MOAA.

Service Dog Demo:

              

Pictured on the left ...   Freedom Fidos, co-founded by a Canine, (Brinks Burgess) who showed the other co-founder, (Matt Burgess, a disabled Veteran), his life's Purpose.  Freedom Fidos rescues the majority of its dogs from shelters, trains them to be service dogs and provides them for free to disabled Veterans and First Responders.  Their non-profit organization has created 50 service dog teams in 6 years, at no charge, with over 200 more on the waiting list.  It takes upwards of $20,000 and 2-3 years to train a dog that may serve for 6-9 years. 

Pictured on the right ...  Matt, is joined by Ms. Yvonne Thornton who is the wife of one of his Board of Directors, Ron Thornton of the Myrtle Beach Vietnam Veterans of America.   They provided a demonstration and detailed discussion about what it takes to train a service dog and how they are used.