American Legion Auxiliary
Department of Wisconsin
Serving Veterans, Their Families and Their Communities
Department President
JOAN CHWALA 2011-2012
Joan Chwala was elected as Wisconsin’s President at the 91st Department Convention in Appleton, Wisconsin, on July 15, 2011. She is a 30 year member of Walter Nelson Unit 326 in Boyd, Wisconsin. Her eligibility comes through her grandfather, Lorum Truax, in WWI, her father, Robert Morris, in WWII, and her husband (Earl) and brother, Lorum Morris, during the Vietnam Era.
The message Chwala hopes to get to the entire state is that we must “Honor our Veterans by Engaging the American Legion Family in Service Not Self for God and Country.” She plans to do this by following the lead of the National Auxiliary in promoting our mission outreach programs. Her special project will be in the VA&R committee realm and will be focused on improving library related needs for our veterans while continuing to put emphasis on the Homeless Woman Veteran Project and the job fairs.
After 35 years of employment in the Gilman Schools, having taught in grades K-8, she and Earl retired from farming in the Boyd area and moved to Gilman near the Miller Dam Flowage. She is an officer and the public relations chairman in the local lake association, a member of the Red Hat Society, the parish lady’s guild, the Rosary Society, the local historical society, and the scholarship chairman for the Tri-County Retired Educators Association. Leading the Americanism interest group at Badger Girls State is among her favorite volunteer activities, where she has been on staff for the past seven years. She also volunteered as a “Festival Angel” team member at the 2010 National Creative Arts Festival in La Crosse.
Auxiliary experience that qualifies Chwala for this high leadership position includes a number of chairmanships and officer positions on the unit, county, and district level. On the Department level she served on the Unit Development and Revitalization and Badger Girl State committees, as Home Service chairman, Membership Chairman, Historian, Americanism chairman, and Poppy chairman. In 2004 she won the National Award for the Most Outstanding Promotion of the Children’s Miracle Network and in 2008 her Department History received the Toomey Trophy.
The Chwalas just celebrated 30 years of marriage. Their “yours, mine, and ours” family has grown to include seven grandchildren and one great-grandson. Highlights of her travel experiences include cemetery tours while attending National Legion Conventions, a British based tour of Normandy, a family wedding in England, and trips to San Diego and Okinawa to welcome her youngest grandsons into the world and into the American Legion Family. She is proud to display the blue star banner on her door in honor of son-in-law Marc Aspiras who serves as a Navy Corpsman in Okinawa.
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