Subject: Fall Festival 2011
Importance: High

To all:

     Good afternoon! I hope you are well! The fall festival will be moved to October 29, 2011, due to a district meeting for a group that provides a majority of the booths and volunteers. We hope that this does not cause any inconvenience. Please feel free to contact myself or Nicky for any further comment or questions.

Thank you and have a great day.

Kim Bryan CTRS, CPRP
Supervisor Recreation Therapy
Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Service
NF/SG VHS, VISN 8, Lake City VA Medical Center
(386) 755-3016, ext. 2695

"Recreation's purpose is not to kill time, but to make life; not to keep a person occupied, but to keep them refreshed; not to offer an escape from life, but to provide a discovery of life."
-Author Unknown

HOW THE COOTIES GOT THEIR NAME


The name “Cootie” originated in World War 1 when the different armies were massed together on the battlefields of France. Each country represented in WW1 contributed to what is now known as the Cooties, by amalgamation of lice. The common American Greyback, the Black Algerian Schinnels, the great Blue Louse from India, the British Blue Bloods, the Belgian Gold-Striped Heneckers, the French Grey and the Gold Parisian Cooties were all thrown together in the trenches and at once begin to “increase and multiply” so that by the end of the war we had the most intelligent Cooties that could be produced. They were known to bite the soldiers at just the right time to save the soldier’s lives; for often when a shell left the German trenches the Cootie would bite the soldiers, causing them to stoop and “scratch” at just the right time that the shell would pass over the place where the soldier’s head had been.

Many soldiers, lying in their shell holes, were saved from death when the highly intelligent Cooties, knowing that a shell was coming in their direction, would bite the soldiers, causing such agony that they were forced to retreat to the trenches or other places of safety for “shirt reading” and seam running” while the shell burst harmlessly in the places they had just vacated.

The Cooties organization carries on in the same degree of usefulness. The Military order of the Cooties work for their parent organization, “the Veterans of Foreign Wars”, and continuing to do good for all whom they come in contact with. They are always ready to help their comrades, the comrades’ widows and orphans, and contribute generously to the maintenance of the orphanage at Eaton Rapids, Michigan. At this orphanage a swimming pool , a playground known as “Cootie Field” and a complete and modern fire department has been built and financed by the Cooties.

The spirit of comradeship and good will that exist in the Cooties is beyond comparison in other organizations, for in the Cooties, fun is king and willingness to help in any cause for the betterment of humanity is our goal.

That is why the Cootie slogans are, “Keep them smiling in beds of white”, “Busier than a bee”, and “closer than a brother”.




Yours in L.O.T.C.S.
Tony Hammerling
Dist 6 Commander