I’m A Clubwoman

Christie gives birth to twin girls.

Who would have thought we’d see another disaster in this century worse than Katrina? True Haiti is not on the soil of the Good Old USA, but it’s so close their refugees sail over here on makeshift boats and frequently drown trying to reach our soil. There are thousands and thousands of Haitians living here in the states.

My club makes about 80 quilts annually for Operation Smile. This worthwhile charity is partnered with GFWC, and I encourage your club to take up the cause. You can find more information at www.operationsmile.org.

Our club does a unique event to introduce prospective members to GFWC and our club. We hold a New Member High Tea.

I hope you all know about the GFWC campaign of Hats, Gloves, and Bags…usually we put on work hats, garden gloves, and carry big, big trash bags to clean up something or plant something.  So in the spirit of that, the crew running the Great Lakes Regional Conference had us all dress up in semi-formal [...]

Michigan State Night at the Great Lakes Conference has been spectacular!

Have you ever attended your county fair? Have you ever entered anything in the contests?

Do you write stories? When we were all in school, our teachers assigned essays, and we were all writers. After graduation, only a small handful of us continue to write. I love to write news stories, and editorial blog stories, but I never try fiction or to relate my experiences. Do you?

Today I rode in a 4th of July Parade. Happy Independence Day! I hope you watched fireworks and a parade somewhere and rejoiced in love for this wonderful country!

Our state convention was last weekend. I really want to tell you about one of the greatest centerpiece ideas I’ve ever seen.

My club sponsors an absolutely amazing project each year. It is a Student Art Festival held at one of the local high schools every spring. Hundreds of students from all the feeder junior highs and from the two high schools enter their art creations.

In GFWC Illinois District 10, we hold “Reciprocity” luncheons every other year. My club does a pot luck. We invite the club president and president-elect of each of the other clubs in our district and all our members. The members in our club brings a dish to pass. The attendance is very good for that meeting, and we have a huge club.

We had an opening thought at a recent meeting that was just great. It was a wonderful list of “Why I Love GFWC.”

I’d like to start off our list with this thought:

Illinois is very sad to have lost a young, vibrant District President. Jonie Sieghartner had a stroke (brain bleed) at her district convention March 10th. Jonie passed away a few days later.

Every year GFWC Illinois schedules Legislation Day. It’s a day in our state capital for our members. This year there were about 60 ladies that attended. Citizens need to take a little time to get to know their legislators. It was terrific experience for all of us. Not only did we get to bond with our sisters from all over the state, we got a real education on what the daily life of a law maker is all about. I can’t stress the importance of an educated electorate to you. I guess this is really my “Passion Project!”

Memorable quote: Nothing moves fast in a Democracy!