Happy New Year 2025
Greetings
from the Town of Veteran Historical Society.
Oh
my goodness, what a year it has been again! 2024 was our best year yet for accomplishments, our great core group of volunteers
and members made it through another successful year!
Fund raising has been our only source of income for some time
and now we can add Grants to the list! We thank our Fundraising Chairman, Anita Hesser as we continue to thrive because of
her efforts. Our bake sale, and Craft Fair in November 2024 was a great success even though it started out a little rocky.
We earned even more money than ever before! As we get more adept at hosting such an event, we get better at it and continue
to make money to keep our Town of Veteran Historical Society thriving. The Horseheads American Legion on Old Ithaca Rd Horseheads
N.Y. is a great venue for our Craft & Vendor Fair so we have booked our 2025 date there also. Start watching around April
for more information. If you know anyone who is a crafter or vendor, be sure to have them watch for our flyers and email ash10@cornell.edu to reserve a space as soon as you see flyers. It was a great Saturday, with lots of baked goods, our quilt raffle with a
beautiful Americana quilt made and donated by our member Anita Hesser and Christmas gifts from our crafters and vendors. Our
volunteer bakers and volunteer helpers came through with flying colors again.
Our second ongoing major fund raiser
is the Returnable Can and Bottle deposits. Our returnable Can and Bottle container is in
place for your convenience at Veteran Grange 1108 777 Ridge Road Horseheads. We will
return them for you, just drop your empty, bagged bottles in the container and all the moneys will be used to better the Town
of Veteran Historical Society. Help us to continue our goals and help the environment at the same time!
Our Grant
writing endeavors have paid off this year. We received a grant from The Community Foundation (Cassella Grant)
to add a secure front door and lock system to our front entry. The door has been purchased, now we have the labor to do! Not
a grant but a Chemung County Community Program FLX Gives happened in November of this year.
FLX gives us the opportunity to accept donations through credit cards and we had a generous donor that matched the first $300
of donations. With donations, donor match and an additional prize won by us from the Chemung Supply Corporation
we made out great, giving us the opportunity to add this much needed money to our building fund for our future maintenance.
Our biggest grant that we submitted this year was to the Tioga Downs Community Foundation.
We submitted the grant to help us with expenses to our front entry, making it handicapped accessible, with new concrete, ramp
and pillars that have seen over 100 years of weathering. We were a recipient of one of these grants along with 100 other organizations
on 12/3/2024 which was also know as Giving Tuesday. These generous community program opportunities are what help keep the
small 501C3 organizations alive. We so appreciate these companies and donors that keep us working towards our goals. Thank
You!
We have made great progress in our goals to better The Town of Veteran Historical Society. As most of you know
we are a 501C tax exempt organization. We always need your help. Your old pictures, artifacts or stories
pertaining to our area and you moneyed items are tax deductible for you the donor. Now that we have monies to defray costs
of fixing our grand old building, we need your help. Please reach out to us as members to see how you can help. What expertise
you may have that can help us, whether its manual labor, expertise in building or engineering and you can answer questions
or you would just like to get involved, we always have something for you to do! Tell your local friends and neighbors about
us, we are always looking for new members and its only $10 per year!
We continue to work on the historic Veteran Grange
#1108 building. We have an established Building Committee to diligently work towards getting this building in shape so we
can have the first museum dedicated to the residents of the Town of Veteran. Our new 2022 roof is in place and working great!
The leaks have been fixed and we were able to have the back stairwell fixed and a new steel door put on the back entrance.
A new hot water tank was donated and was placed in the building in 2023. We have renovated our bathrooms from two very dingy
small bathrooms to one large bright handicapped bathroom. Our motto of "Keeping the Past Present" means more
to us now than ever! Our goal is to be open to the public by 2026. Hopefully with your help we can accomplish this goal!
We welcome all members to join us and help us with ideas for the Society, with grant writing, or ideas for fund raising,
please let us know about them. We always have ongoing projects we are working on since we now have a building and are
trying to make it into a public building. Please share your expertise so we can continue to "Keep the Past Present".
We will have old fashioned work bees, more fund raisers and many opportunities to get the Town of Veteran community involved.
We hope you will join us! A huge thank you goes out to the Veteran Grange #1108, whose members will still use the building
to hold Grange meetings and Grange fund raisers.
Our ongoing Cemetery Projects are doing great. Our cemeteries,
not recognized by the town look fantastic as we have hired a new young man to mow and weed eat Parsons, Crandall, Turner and
Greene Bentley so we can continue to honor our past residents and honor our military. Keeping the abandoned cemeteries looking
their best is an expense that we feel is necessary. Watch for fund raisers throughout the year to help defray the cost
of this expense. There are many cemeteries in the Town of Veteran, many are private and on private property. We have had to
pick and chose which we can maintain due to money constraints but we take care of what we can to honor our Community.
You may now be a life member or a family life member for a fee of $100 for an individual or $150 per couple/family under
one roof. You may still be a regular member for just $10 per year. Also available now are Gift Memberships, if you would like
to give a gift of membership to a friend or loved one please contact the Society. This new Life Member policy will help to
eliminate mailing and will save the TOVHS money in reminder mailings. Please be sure to update your information with us, so
we can keep you informed as to our activities. We would love to have new members or our regular members become life partners
in our Society. Dues are due by December of each year. Our May, July and September meetings are held on the 3rd
Wednesday at the Veteran Grange 777 Ridge Rd Horseheads, N.Y. The January, March and November meetings are held on the
3rd Wednesday at the Veteran Town Hall on Route 14 in Millport, N.Y. All meetings are at 10AM. Remember
we depend on members to help with our fund raising, planning, brainstorming, and volunteering and to attend our meetings.
Please put the 3rd Wednesday of January, March, May, July, September and November on your calendars and join us
in helping to "Keep the Past Present" It is now more important than ever to volunteer, we will have many opportunities
now that we are the proud owners of the historic Veteran Grange 1108 building.
Please check our website for updated
meeting minutes and for upcoming events. www.townofveteranhistoricalsociety.com , and check out our Face Book page. Become a member today! It is only $10 per year due by December of each year or
now become a new life member. Just email us at veteranny@yahoo.com or if you have any questions please write us at Town of Veteran Historical Society 777 Ridge Rd Horseheads NY 14845 or feel
free to call me at 607-739-0753.
Have a great 2025!
Respectfully,
Gloria Campbell/President
