Legion historian wins competition
The historian of the Evans American Legion post attracted statewide attention when he was recently awarded first place for post- and district-level history and scrapbooks.
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Arnold Stein, a 12-year member of American Legion Post 192, earned first place for creating four books in the Department of Georgia American Legion History Contest. The awards, which were announced at the June 23 state convention, were for Stein's post history book, post yearbook, which is a photo scrapbook, and the history and yearbooks for the state's 11th District. The 11th District covers Columbia, Richmond, Burke, Lincoln, McDuffie and Jefferson counties.
"They were all first places and that has never happened before, and (state leaders) said it'll never happen again," said Stein, the 2006-07 district historian and post historian. "They said normally people submit maybe a history book or maybe a scrapbook."
When he was announced as a winner, Stein pulled his wife in front of the crowd because he said she shared much of the work.
"It is a team effort," he said. "There is no way I could do it by myself."
The winning scrapbooks are a photo history of the post and district, from June 2006 through June 2007. The history books cover the same time frame but include more written information mixed with photos. The books chronicle the history of the post and district, including changes to the American Legion post property, activities and events the members are involved in, officers and awards for the year.
The Steins put each book together based on a list of stringent guidelines.
"These are all year," said Stein's wife, Miriam.
The books cannot be completed because the last event of the year for the active post doesn't occur until two weeks before the convention. "There's a lot of work involved."
The post is involved in many community service programs, including supporting local JROTC programs; supporting and visiting veterans hospitals; providing Christmas presents and meals for needy families; the Hug-A-Bear program, which provides stuffed animals to emergency responders for children in crisis; and offering food baskets and flags to returning soldiers. Post members are active in several holiday parades and Veterans Day and Memorial Day events such as the annual Red, White and Blue Veterans Celebration, where they properly retire flags.
The post books, which earned first place statewide, have moved on to the national competition against all other state winner district books. Winners will be announced at the fall conference at the end of October. The competition for district books ends at the state level.