We set out with a vision to remain the premier voice for America’s soldiers here in Harford, Cecil, and surrounding counties located in the general area of Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), Md., and to remain a dedicated team committed to building the best professional and representative association for the world’s best Army.

We’ve done that. Here are just a few of the highlights from the last year.

We remained very active throughout the year, supporting programs ranging from our tradition of holding the Army Birthday celebration – we held one for the Army National Guard as well – to the annual golf outing, to our monthly professional development luncheons and general membership meetings, to those activities supporting the installation, to supporting Young Professionals, to being there for Army Families, to supporting Veteran’s organizations and activities, and to supporting local universities and their ROTC programs.

We continue to grow our relationship with the APG Sergeant Audie Murphy Club. We pay for the sabre that they receive, present each inductee with a two-year membership (if they don’t have one) a gift card, and great photo of an American Bald Eagle taken by one of our members, retired Lt. Col. Jake Jachens.

We worked with Loyola University and their ROTC program to ensure that the proper Cadet is recognized for their accomplishments during the year. We intend to work more closely with them this year, as well as the Valley Forge Military Academy.

Our Young Professionals program is in its early stages of growth but we have some very energetic individuals involved with it. They consistently reached out to their peers, inviting them to join AUSA, to attend our professional development sessions, and to assist us in running some of our programs.

Our first big event of the 2017-2018 year was our golf outing in August. The money raised enables us to do accomplish our goals throughout the year, such as supporting Wounded Warriors in the APG area, the Tragedy and Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), the Fisher House Foundation, and a specific program supporting soldiers and families dealing with drug and alcohol addiction.

We were proud to have the Gold Star Mothers Chapter of Maryland volunteer to help us greet and welcome players. They are a big part of our chapter and our hearts.

In April, we held our inaugural event supporting the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) (www.TAPS.org).

We called it “Dancing For TAPS” and held the event at Dancing With Friends, one of our community partners.

We had three goals that we wanted to achieve. One, provide local TAPS families a night out for fun. Second, raise awareness of the TAPS program for the local area. Third, raise money for TAPS. We hit home runs on all three.

We were hoping to raise $10,000 but wound up raising nearly $15,000!

Our last big event of the year was our celebration of the Army Birthday and Flag Day.

The celebration was attended by over 100 people from the entire surrounding community with soldiers, veterans, retirees, families, industry partners, civilians, civic leaders, and citizens from the surrounding counties in attendance. We even had the mascot from the Aberdeen Ironbirds minor league team there!

June 14 was also Flag Day so we had Staff Sgt. Vega from the APG Sergeant Audie Murphy Club come out with the American flag and the DJ played Johnny Cash’s “Ragged Old Flag.” You can see the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfzJ8UBr-c0.

We received numerous positive comments about what they did honoring our flag. A Vietnam veteran was especially moved and made it a point to tell me how much he appreciated them doing that for our nation’s colors.

As in years past, this has been a very active one for our chapter and we are incredibly proud of all that we have accomplished.

The leadership of this post know that this chapter can always be counted on to go above and beyond in helping soldiers, veterans, retirees and families of those that serve and have served.