Sandhills MOAA

Greetings once again! I hope everyone had an enjoyable Summer. GA quick update on happenings at your Sandhills Chapter

Let me start by thanking our Chapter Board Members for their continued work and support. We continued our mission to “Never Stop Serving” by supporting Moore County Veterans and providing scholarships to local JROTC Cadets. In the past few months we’ve continued our support to local veterans attending Sandhills Community College and have recently agreed to sponsor veterans participating in the Guitars for Veterans Program, designed to help veterans cope with PTSD and to support suicide prevention. We continue to add members and our membership is up to 92 active members. Thirty one of our members met for our September luncheon at the Pinecrest Inn and heard from Ted Mataxis on his new book, Ride to the Sounds of the Guns. Ted described the amazing life of his father, Brig. Gen. (Ret) Theodore C. Mataxis, through a combination of video and oral presentations.

This Fall will be a busy time for our chapter. Once again we will be participating in the annual Holly Arts and Crafts Festival in Pinehurst Village on 18 October and the Festival d’Avion at Moore County Regional Airport on 25 October. We can always use help manning the booth at these events. Just let me or Mike Hutson of your interest in helping. refer to our chapter website ( www.sandhillsmoaa.org ) for the most current information regarding events and activities as well as items of interest to MOAA members.

We will be hosting the annual Veteran’s Day Service on 11 November. This year the event will be held at the Pinehurst Community Presbyterian Church in the Pinehurst Village. Our guest speaker will be Dr. Sandy Steward, President, Sandhills Community College. We hope you can join us as we pay tribute to all our Veterans. Thanks to Don Goss on his leadership in facilitating this event.

On 10 November, the chapter will be hosting the 4th Annual Ralph Jacobson Memorial Veterans Putting Challenge. We are accepting applications for the event, application form attached, which will include lunch at the Pinehurst Members Club followed by the putting competition on the famed Thistle Dhu putting course. The event will start at 1130 hours with registration. Please join us as we recognize our Veterans.

November will also include our Annual Membership Meeting to be held at the Pinecrest Inn. As is our practice we will be electing board members and officers for 2026 so I hope you will join us for this important meeting. We will begin at 1130 hours with registration followed by lunch at noon. As part of our election process Drew Croucher, Immediate Past President, will be soliciting nominations for board members and officers in advance of the meeting.

Please refer to our website, www.sandhillsmoaa.org for the latest event new and activities.

Walt Havenstein

President Sandhills MOAA president@sandhillsmoaa.org

Mike Hutson

Secretary Sandhills MOAA Bco229th@gmail.com