Page 3 - Desert Oracle March 2019

President’s Report by Leonard Smith

Happy March to all my Arizona Chapter Paralyzed Veterans of America Brothers and
Sisters! I want to tell you a quick story about seasons. One day, the seasons had an argument.
Each one of them said, “I am the best!” Spring said, “I am, when flowers bloom and it is green
and fresh everywhere. Birds fly and insects have fun with new flowers.” Summer said, “Yes,
but I am when the sun shines brightly and it feels too hot to do anything. People eat ice-cream,
enjoy cold drinks and eat yummy watermelon. Autumn said, “I am, when trees shed their leaves
and cover the earth in orange brilliance. The air feels cool.” Winter said, “I am, when people
wear woolen clothes, caps and gloves to keep their bodies warm. They get to drink hot
chocolate. Birds fly south for the winter because it’s too cold.”

I am telling you this story for 2 reasons. First off, as we go from February to March, the
temperatures will move from the 50s and 60s to the 80s soon followed by summer. I don’t need
to tell any of you how brutal our summers can be, but I can remind you to stay hydrated and be
safe. Secondly, as Peter Quinn said in his Executive Report, we are in the middle of a lot of
changes. National PVA borrowed 5 million dollars to make it through their fiscal year. As a
result, we should expect more cuts to Chapter funding starting in July. The possibility of more
funding cuts threatens the Chapter ability to grow. If these cut do occur, National will want us to
do more with less. The regional Vice President for our Chapter Robert Thomas is coming on
March 21, 2019. He has asked our Executive Director, Peter Quinn to provide him with a list of
12 items when he gets here. One of the items on that list is item #3. Complete list of Chapter
Programs and their respective Program Coordinators of each program and any reports from the
programs. We can provide him with a list of our programs, however, we do not have
Coordinators for those programs. There are seven programs all PVA Chapters are obligated to
run and are listed as follows: Communication, Hospital Liaison, Advocacy, Sports and
recreation, Membership, Fundraising and Research. Unfortunately, our office staff cannot fill
any of the Coordinating positions. If the cuts do come, we as a Chapter are going to go through
some difficult times. We are going to need everybody to do what they can.

The story I told you at the beginning of this article ended like this. “Since they couldn’t
decide who was best, they agreed that they were all important because one could not do without
the other”. As Arizona Chapter Paralyzed Veterans of America members and Board members
we are all very important. No one person is better than the other. We cannot do this without
each other. If you would like to become a board member or you are already a Board member
and you would like to coordinate one of the programs listed above please call Peter Quinn, our
Executive Director at 602-244-9168. Thank you to Sue Wudy who has volunteered to take on
the position of interim Secretary until June.

Our chapter office will be busy the next few months, preparing for two upcoming
important events. As I stated earlier, our regional Vice President will be attending our Board of
Directors meeting on March 21, 2019. Please mark your calendars and plan on attending our
th
board meeting as well. On April 6 , we will have our Southern Region annual picnic in
Marana, Arizona. Be sure to RSVP as soon as possible. We look forward to seeing as many of
our Southern Region members as possible.

“The harder the conflict; the more glorious the triumph”
Thomas Paine