Department Auxiliary President Judy Ackerman leads effort to deliver nearly 500 hygiene kits for Women’s Clinic being built at Minneapolis VAMC.
One of Department of Minnesota American Legion Auxiliary President Judy Ackerman’s projects this year was to provide 300 hygiene kits for those utilizing the Minneapolis VA Health Care System’s Women’s Clinic, which is under construction now and is set to open in the summer of 2026.
But thanks to an outpouring of support from the department’s American Legion Family – spearheaded by its Auxiliary units – Ackerman blew that goal out of the water. Between assembling kits during the department’s Junior Auxiliary Fun Weekend in August, and then receiving donated items and assembling even more kits during the department’s Fall Conference, around 500 or so hygiene packs were delivered to the Minneapolis VA this week.
“As a department president, you look for different projects, and one of the things that I had heard over the years is how female veterans don’t get the recognition that they need,” Ackerman said. “With the adding of the new female veterans clinic at the Minneapolis VA, I’d talked with (Department of Minnesota Assistant Service Officer) Janet Lorenzo, and she said this would be a need for there. It started out as a service project for our (Junior Auxiliary) Junior Fun Weekend. They packed 139 of the kits. And it kind of snowballed from there for our Fall Conference.
“I was overwhelmed and overjoyed. Our units absolutely came through with flying colors for this. And the Legion and the Sons helped pack the kits, and they helped pack the kits into cars. So, it was a team effort all the way around. It was a family thing.”
Each toiletry kit had a required list of items: shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, bar soap, body wash, toothbrush and toothpaste, lip balm, Chapstick, emery boards, a comb, hairbrush and lotion. Ackerman said optional items included Kleenex, a pen or pencil, a small journal or notepad, stress balls and slippers. Also part of the kits were handwritten notes of encouragement with labels from the Legion, Auxiliary, Sons and Legion Riders on each note.
The Minneapolis VAMC provides services to women veterans, but those services are scattered throughout its facility. The new Women’s Clinic will offer a wide range of health-care services designed specifically for women veterans, including primary care, whole health, mental health services, reproductive health and specialized care for conditions related to military service. The new space will allow for all women’s health care to be centrally located in one spot with its own exterior entrance.
The response toward this project caused Ackerman, a member of Schwieger-Kahler Unit 522 in Northrop, to get emotional.
“I was blown away. I had hoped to maybe do 300, tops. To have the kind of response that came from our units, I was just … I don’t know if I can explain it,” she said. “What we couldn’t pack into kits … we donated to our St. Cloud Stand Down. So there are going to be a whole lot more veterans helped out with products, too. I was just ecstatic. Actually, I was kind of brought to tears.”
- Women Veterans