Barbara Sawyer of Windham, a member of Deering Memorial Auxiliary #6859, attended the 94th National Convention of the Ladies Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States held Aug. 18-23 at the Bartle Hall Convention Center in Kansas City, Mo.

The convention marked the beginning of Sawyer’s two-year term on the council, which governs the auxiliary between national conventions.

Presiding over the convention, National President Linda K. Meader lauded the 3,500 attendees for achieving so much for veterans and their communities this year. Members spent 1.4 million volunteer hours in the nation’s hospitals, raised $2.9 million for the organization’s Cancer Aid & Research Fund, and donated $284,723 for Operation Uplink, which provides long-distance telephone cards to troops and hospitalized veterans.

To learn more about the 581,245-member organization, visit www.ladiesauxvfw.org.