vi DALE BRANSH
PUfrUC LIBRARY
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^ " ^ ^ S ^ S ^ B B M B K I C Public Library
I M & L S M Y. 1173s'
AN OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE INCORPORATED VILLAGE OF FARMINGDALE
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SERVING GREATER FARMINGDAL E. BETHPAGE 8t MELVILLE
VoL4 No. 30 Second Class Postage has been paid at Farmingdale, N. Y. 11735 Thursday, March 16, 1967
VAC GROUP INSPIRES
NATIONAL LEGISLATION
Legislation in Washington, D. C. was inspired last week by a
representative of the Vietnam Assistance Committee of Farmingdale,
Inc. Mrs. Caroline Bunting Klesh, of VAC, who was
attending the National Newspaper Association Annual Government
Relations Workshop in her capacity as co- publisher of the
Farmingdale Observer, was apparently in the right place at the
right time. ( The Farmingdale Observer is a member of the New
York Press Association and also a member of the National
Newspaper Association, an organization of weekly newspaper
publishers from every State in the Union.)
Mrs. Klesh visited with research assistants, Mr. A. Blans-ford,
Counsel, and Colonel Frank R. Burset and L. t. Colonel
William White, who were attached to the Armed Services Committee
of the House of Representatives in the new Rayburn
House Office Building.
She was interested in determining what kind of legislation
was needed to correct the present situation of having to spend
excessive amounts of postage monies in sending donated commodities
to a Commanding Officer of a specific military unit
in Vietnam for the servicemen's program of ' Operation Helping
Hand'. These donated commodities are given to the South
Vietnamese people as a part of the State Department's policy
of the winning of the war and the peace, as well as to the servicemen
themselves.
The research assistants were helpful in giving Mrs. Klesh
photostatic material of the regulations governing the present
situation and in making telephone calls back and forth to the
Pentagon etc. to ascertain the specific legislation that is needed.
As a result of her inquiry, it was determined that the most
helpful legislation would be a bill to fund the Military Air
Transport service so that more space and planes and pilots
and personnel could be made available to transport such donated
commodities as the group in Farmingdale has collected and
is still collecting.
On Thursday night, Mrs. Klesh had as her invited guest to
the National Newspaper Association's Congressional Reception
in the ballroom of the Hotel Washington, the Senior Senator
from New York, Senator Jacob Javits, a friend of Mrs. Klesh
for sixteen years, a friendship dating back to before her days
in weekly newspaper publishing. Mrs. Klesh presented the
problem to Senator Javits, namely, that the Farmingdale committee,
and in particular the Junior League members, had to
package aonated commodities in small packages that would
weigh just under five pounds in order to qualify for the lowest
postage rate - namely Vietnam airmail rate to the APO designation
in San Francisco, which is the same as normal parcel
post. However, each five pound package costs $ 1.34 and this
adds up into many hundreds of dollars. She expfsSned that at
the present time the Vietnam Assistance Committee of Farmingdale
Inc. had 800 family size tubes of toothpaste, which had
been generously donated by Bristol Myers through the auspices
of John T. Hallahan J r . , who is not only Public Relations Representative
of Bristol Myers, but Administrative Assistant of
Congressman James P. Grover J r . , and a trustee of the Incorporated
Village of Farmingdale. The Farmingdale group also
has 800 toothbrushes, donated by Fuller Brush Co., which had
been secured through the help of Dr. AdibMalouf, a member of
the VAC Committee. Mrs. Klesh explained that these donated
commodities represented weight of 425 pounds ( 400 pounds of
tooth paste and 25 pounds of tooth brushes), and that since the
only means of sending these donated commodities to Col. Rob-
( Continued on (> ogv 4)
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Stern of Farmingdale turnover one ol the first
shovels of dirt at the ground breaking ceremonies f01* tn e new facilities
of the Farmingdale . Jewish Center.
At Historic Kaynham Hall in Oyster Bay, Girl Scouts receive replica of Official Town lag from Supervisor
Michael N. Petito ( left). The girls, from the Mid- Island Council of ( lirl Si outs were on a
visit to the Historic landmark, which has stood on West Main Street m Oyster Bay since before the
Revolutionary War. The girls are ( left to right) Karen Appel, Ceraldine Keilly, Joanne Oliveri and
Rosanne Paino, all of Farmingdale.
yf
Farmingdale Public Library-The Observer 1967
