National VFW Ladies Auxiliary President Visits Toccoa

By Charlie Bauder, WNEG Radio, Toccoa

Toccoa receives a visit from the National President of the VFW Ladies Auxiliary.

Veterans of Foreign Wars Ladies’ Auxiliary National President Ann Panteleakos visited the area this week.

Tuesday, she spoke to a group of veterans and ladies auxiliary members at the Mitchell Allen Meeting Room in downtown Toccoa.  Panteleakos said it is a honor for her to meet with veterans all over the nation.

“I love to meet with them,” said Panteleakos. “I love to hear their stories.”

She said she truly cherishes all the things the VFW Ladies’ Auxiliary does to help its members and veterans across the nation.

Panteleakos added that she is honored and humbled to serve veterans.  She leads a VFW Ladies Auxiliary that has over 500,000 members nationwide. This year, her theme is “Patriotism Begins At Home.”

Panteleakos said that message starts at a young age.

“I feel it is very important to bring the children in and to teach them,” said Panteleakos. “If you can teach the children, when they grow up, they will teach their children. There are so few people that serve in the military now. Only like one percent of the nation is actually serving in the military, so there are less and less families that are military related, so we want to make sure everyone else appreciates what our military does.”

Panteleakos visits each state during her year as President and Toccoa represents her stop in Georgia.

She was invited by Toccoa native and Department of Georgia VFW Ladies Auxiliary President Martha Gilbert.

Gilbert said she thought Toccoa would be a great place for Panteleakos to visit.

“I feel like we have a rich history and she loves history,” said Gilbert, referring to Camp Toccoa.

Meanwhile, Toccoa Post 4346 VFW Ladies Auxiliary President Patti Lester said they are excited to have Panteleakos visit.

“She does visit all 50 states as well as a number of foreign countries, so to have her here in Toccoa and to look our military history and to see what our Ladies Auxiliary does, we are very proud to have her here,” said Lester.

While here, Panteleakos also toured the Currahee Military Museum, visited Camp Toccoa and Toccoa Falls, and was scheduled to have a dinner in her honor at the VFW Post in Toccoa.