For the 47th year in a row, the Oklahoma chapter of the Ladies Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars has given a gift to support cancer research at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. This year’s gift of $3,874.15 brings the group’s total giving record to $140,694.
Ladies Auxiliary members raise funds through bake sales, garage sales, bingo games and individual donations, as well as the group’s annual Cancer Bazaar.
“Every year, the Auxiliary ladies devise more ways to raise money to help us learn more about cancer,” said OMRF Development Associate Allison Coleman. “They take a serious cause and find interesting ways for people to support it. That’s the mark of creative philanthropy, and for the Ladies Auxiliary, it has worked for 47 years.”
Since it was established in 1914, the Ladies Auxiliary has served veterans and communities nationwide. The Auxiliary has more than 767,000 members, including 7,200 in Oklahoma. It has chapters in more than 80 Oklahoma cities and towns, including:
- Bartlesville
- El Reno
- Enid
- Lawton
- McAlester
- Woodward
In addition to its fundraising activities, the Auxiliary, combined with the VFW, provides more than 11 million hours of service to the community, and its Voice of Democracy Program helps provide scholarships to students in grades 9-12 across the U.S.
