By Patricia A. Douglas
Post 911 Public Relations Coordinator

The 2022 holiday season was a busy one for members of the Ryan Winslow Post 911 family.
About 30 people attended the annual Christmas party at On Tap in Vestavia on Dec. 11. Music was provided by Aaron Branson and Tyler Diuguid.
Members and their guests visited with each other and feasted on chips, cheese dip, cheeseburger sliders and chicken wings.
The annual Christmas Caravan came back in 2022. On Dec. 13, nine members of the post and Auxiliary joined members of about 10 other area American Legion posts to visit in-patients of the Birmingham VA Medical Center, to include ICU and Blind Rehabilitation.
Gift bags were packed on Dec. 2 that included a handmade card made by art students from Shelby County High School.
A highlight of the Christmas season was Wreaths Across America at Jefferson Memorial Gardens in Hoover on Dec. 17.
For almost 10 years Post 911 has raised the funds to place about 750 wreaths on veteran graves throughout the cemetery.
Before placing the remembrance wreaths throughout the cemetery, there was a short ceremony. Hoover Air Force Junior ROTC members posted the colors. Heritage Girls Troop AL 1478 recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Wreaths were placed to honor all branches of service, as well as for POWs/MIAs.
This large event has many behind-the-scenes workers, including six employees of Hoover Public Library, who volunteered to spend a rainy Dec. 14 unloading the boxes with the wreaths from the truck, and McLeod Software employees, who unboxed and pre-positioned the remembrance wreaths across the cemetery prior to the ceremony.