TJ Installs New Board

Sunday June 5 dawned rainy, but the ladies of TJ kept the faith and sunny skies greeted us later in the afternoon.  We had a lovely luncheon at Celeste's house and the incoming Board of Directors was installed.  Here's a pic of us in our hats.  Don't we all look so Richmond?

This year's theme is again advice from the butterfly:  Show your true colors!  It promises to be a beautiful year. 

Abby

TJ Wins Again!

Our club won several awards at the annual meeting!  Thanks for getting "out of your cocoon" for these great causes.


Home Life: Best Single Project Collaboration: collected socks and monetary donation
for Freedom House.

GFWC Signature Project – Domestic Violence, Best Single Project: collected personal care items for local battered woman’s emergency shelter.

Membership, Best Single Project: held an interesting new member prospective with gold jewelry buying, facial make-over and door prizes. Discussed club and GFWC.

Communication and Identity, Best Single Project: club blog and facebook page.

GFWC Junior Special Project – Advocates for Children: "Clothes for Kids"
Web Design, Best Single Project: club blog that is easy to read and updated regularly.

Circle of Hearts, Silver Level. Awarded for club participation at the district and state level.

Finally, the club was surprised to receive the 2010 Lee District Junior Director’s Best Overall Award for best overall Lee District small club.

Congratulation to all who worked so hard this year!

A time to reflect

Dear Club Members,
January is nearly over.  And as can be expected, the bleakness of winter besets us.  However, it is REPORTS time and our devoted 1st VP is busy creating reports of all our activities of the past year.  How encouraging it is to see what we've accomplished.

I am most proud of our Clothes for Kids project!  This was a rousing success and so much fun at the laundrymat (yes...it truly was!).  I know some children are warmer for our efforts now that the cold cold weather has come.

Thank you for all your work during 2009-2010.  2011 promises to be an awesome year!

Your humble president,
Abby

Have I died and gone to Nordstrom?

As any parent knows, kids grow up so fast.  By this we usually are marking our own emotional milestone tied to their physical one...like kindergarten, middle school dance, prom, high school graduation or just the fact that you look up and you are...literally...looking up at them.  Or their shoe size is now bigger than yours.  They are emotional milestones that have a physical component.  We mark the seasons by looking at the trees and we mark our lives by looking at our kids.

Most of us are able to properly outfit our children as they grow.  But some kids are not so lucky.  They come to school with their toes bunched up in too small shoes, or wearing shorts when it's freezing outside.  Many don't have a coat or even a long sleeve hoodie. School nurses need clothes to distribute to children who are inappropriately dressed for school for whatever reason, be it bad judgement or simple lack.


In more affluent schools, the lost and found runneth over.  You'd be surprised the items that get tossed into lost and found and never picked up.  How does a child lose an entire pair of shoes?  Dozens of gloves (mates included!), knit caps, scarves, hoodies and jackets remain behind when the school year is over.   In the more affluent schools, these include designer brands such as Polo, Gap, and others.  It's a satellite branch of Nordstrom.

Last Saturday the ladies and I washed, dried, folded and sorted the lost and found items from one school alone.  There were 244 items, all of which were very nice.   Every kid in that school must have lost at least one item. 

I usually hate laundry, but watching the fluffy sweaters and clean coats come tumbling out of the dryer, I imagined a child standing there with outstretched hands. 

I wished I could hand it over warm from the dryer, with a hug.   They grow up so fast.

Abby