April Presidents Corner

It was great seeing everyone at last month’s luncheon. I believe it was the first time we’ve had the Kitsap County Sheriff as our speaker. In the interest of continuing to mix it up a bit in April, we have invited Nancy McDaniel, author of “A Sound Defense, Military and Historical Sites of Puget Sound,” as our April speaker. We have been giving a copy of her book as a gift to all of our speakers for years. It will nice have her as our speaker. 

The 2024 Annual Meeting of the Members of the Navy League of the United States will be held on Saturday, June 8th in San Diego, California at the National Convention. You probably got an email or saw a card in your copy of Seapower regarding your vote in the national elections. If you are not planning on attending the National Convention in person, please complete and submit your proxy card or vote online by May 30th in order for Navy League to establish a quorum. 

Our council’s board voted to nominate Larry Salter as the National President Elect and Steve Westover as the Northwest Region President. At the Region President’s meeting later this month I will formally nominate them. Both Steve and Larry are well-qualified individuals, and we wish them luck. 

In order to continue to carry out our programs every year we need financial support from those that believe in what we do. One way to help is to donate to our council. In order to make it easy to donate we will be participating in the Kitsap Great Give on April 16th this year. The giving website opens on April 1st. One of the benefits of the Kitsap Great Give is there are bonus funds which are distributed amongst all the non-profits. Last year we gained an additional 3.5% on top of any amount donated. 

Some examples of what we do with the donations we receive include: support our 11 adopted units, six NJROTC units and the Sea Cadets. Over the past year we provided awards, provided holiday meals to service member families, helped with the unit’s Christmas Parties, supported events for the unit’s families, provided coffee and donuts to the families on the pier following deployment, sent items for the crews to open on halfway night. 

We also provided $1,500 in scholarships to students at the Washington State Science and Engineering Fair and also $3,000 in scholarships to Sea Cadets and NJROTC students to attend the Northwest Youth Leadership Conference. Please consider helping us fund this year’s program. We will be posting the Great Give link on our website and Facebook page. 

I know we all believe in the Navy League Missions of: 

 Enhancing the morale of sea service personnel and their families through council-level programs. 

 Educating the public and Congress of importance to our nation’s defense, well-being and economic prosperity. 

 Supporting youth through programs that expose young people to the values of our sea services. 

Thank you for your consideration to donate to a cause you believe in, the Bremerton Olympic Peninsula Council of the Navy League. 

As always, I’d also like to welcome aboard any new members and invite them to join us in our many activities and programs. 

Thank you everyone for your support of our Council and our Sea Services. I look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events. 

Tom Zwolfer, President