Department of Florida hosts a women veterans benefits and resource fair to educate and engage.
The American Legion Department of Florida’s Women Task Force held its first women veterans benefits and resource fair at Post 142 in Pompano Beach on Nov. 1. The event has been an idea of the task force for some time and after gaining support from Legion posts throughout the state, it came to fruition.
“We’ve been talking about doing something like this for a couple of years and we said, ‘Well, let's just go out there and beat the pavement and see what we could do to see how successful we could be,’ and we were successful,” said Joan Suelter, Women Veterans Chair and past Post 347 commander in Lady Lake, Fla. “It was a wonderful day. We have 169,000 women veterans in the state of Florida, and I want to find them, engage them, and have them become members of The American Legion. That's our goal at the end of the day.”
Nearly 100 women veterans came to the event to interact with vendors such as American Legion partner Wellcare, service officers from the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs, equine therapy services, service dogs and a blood donation mobile, and to hear from guest speaker Phyllis J. Wilson, president of the Military Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. Wilson, who received The American Legion Patriot Award during the 2025 National Convention in Tampa, spoke to the women veterans about the Military Women’s Memorial and encouraged them to share their stories of service in the memorial’s digital database.
The women also enjoyed music, food provided by Mission BBQ and gift baskets that were raffled off thanks to the support of posts throughout the state.
“We probably had close to 75 to 100 baskets,” Suelter said because of her and others calling posts asking for basket donations. “One day, several Mondays ago, I spent my entire day in the car driving around to the different posts in Orlando picking up baskets. It was so wonderful to see the creativity from some of the posts because they weren't all the same.”
Basket themes included spa, golf, date night with cheese and crackers, blankets, Clinique beauty products, and more.
Suelter said feedback from the event “has been wonderful. (Legionnaire) Diane Schmidt said she thought it was the best thing” and will take some of the information that she received that day back to her post. And two volunteers from the Sea Cadets “were just blown away with the camaraderie and the sisterhood that they saw.”
Another women veterans benefits and resource fair is being planned for next spring on the west coast of Florida. “Women veterans need to feel safe and comfortable in our posts and know that there are people here to support them, whatever needs they may have,” Suelter said.
- Women Veterans