That’s the contest my picture of the Illinois Capitol through the Windows of the Hall of Flags was entered in.  Yes, it WON!  It will now be blown up to 16″ x 20″ and matted and framed and put under glass!  It will hang at Head Quarters in Washington D. C. along with the other 49 state photos!

Illinois had a wonderful convention!  Over 200 people voted on the changes to our By-laws and our resolutions.  The new officers are to be congratulated!  We are all looking forward to a wonderful two year term!

On a VERY sad note, our GFWC President Elect was with us when she learned Saturday that her mother had passed away.  We all extend to Carlene Garner our sincerest sympathy for her loss and will pray for her.

Here is a quote from an email I got from her good friend Karel Volpert:  “Good news!  Christy had twin baby girls last Thursday.  They weighed 5 lbs.14 1/2 oz. and 5 lbs.15 oz.  The babies are doing fine and look exactly alike.  I got to see a phone picture of them today”

Christie has spent the better part of the last several months hospitalized and on total bed rest.   Let’s all keep them in our prayers!

The disaster there has moved me to watch the news continuously for days now.  The horror is unspeakable.  I think we are all being moved to try to help in some way.  But which charity will make the best use of our cash?  At this early stage, all the media is begging us to keep our “stuff” and just send money.

I want to ask all of you to send some amount of money, no matter how much, to some charity that will primarily look after the children.  That’s one of the things that makes GFWC unique.  We are always thinking of helping children.

The first news show I listened to asked for contributions to UNICEF.  The lady being interviewed said that the first thing UNICEF does when they help in a disaster is to gather the children and try to reunite them with their parents.  Then they concentrate on the essentials:  water, food, blankets, shelter.  You can contribute by going to http://www.unicefusa.org/

When I posted this information on the GFWC FaceBook page, Janice Adler mentioned that Plan USA is also a partner of GFWC and can use your funds for Haiti.  Here is what I found on the Plan USA site about Haiti:  “Plan Haiti is accounting for staff in the capital and its 10 program units, including three units in the quake zone to the south of the capital. Plan is preparing to deploy staff for assessments and emergency response starting on Wednesday.

Roger Yates, Plan Director of disasters and humanitarian response, said: “Of all the countries in the region, Haiti is the most vulnerable . . . . Our priority is assisting children and their families and getting people at risk into safe accommodation wherever possible.”

Plan will also be working to help ease the psychological trauma caused by the disaster, as well as ensuring that children are protected throughout the recovery effort.

Plan has worked with children, families, and communities in Haiti since 1973. It currently implements child-centered community development programs featuring Health, Education for Girls and Boys, HIV and AIDS, and the Rights of the Child.”

I found this information and a link to donate to Plan USA at: http://www.planusa.org/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/1188742.

And I just heard on the radio that many phony charities are trying to capitalize on this tragedy.  Please be sure you know where your money is really going.  Both UNICEF and Plan USA take almost no money out of donations to run their organizations.

I urge you to donate SOMETHING today to aid the survivors in Haiti.  These two charities are our partners here at GFWC and would be excellent choices for your generosity!

We just completed our 1st quilting bee of the year and made about 30 quilts.  The process is very simple, and no one needs to know how to “quilt.”  At our 1st meeting of the year, our International Affairs Chairman distributes plastic baggies of the material for the quilt tops.  This consists of nine 13 inch squares and 4 strips of edging about 46 inches long.  We use cotton material in pretty printed patterns.  Usually the squares have some common color or pattern theme to work well together in geometric patterns. The ladies take home the baggies and sew the squares and edges to make a top about 45 inches square.

In the meantime the chairman buys the batting material in 45 in rolls and some plain colored solid cotton material to act as the bottom of the quilt.  She cuts those bottoms in 45 in squares too.  We get together one morning in late October for our quilting “bee.”  This process is usually repeated two more times throughout the club year.  When we have our quilting bee we choose a room with large banquet tables and good light.  Three ladies bring sewing machines, and the rest of us bring scissors, straight pins, thread, yarn, and needles.  Usually ten or more ladies show up.  There are probably fifty members who participate at one time or another.

To put the quilts together the roll of batting is pulled out on a table, a backing square is placed on top of it, and then a top square is put down face down.  That square is then cut from the batting roll and moved to the next group who keep it flat on a table and pin all the way around the edges.  The square is next moved to the sewing machines where the outside is sewn close to the edge.  A twelve inch gap is left on one side, so the quilt can be “turned.”

After the pins are removed by the next group of gals, the quilt is turned inside out…actually it’s outside out   The gap is sewn carefully shut, and the “tying” begins.  A piece of yarn is sewn all the way through the quilt at  each corner of the small squares that make up the pattern.  The piece of yarn is cut off about 3 inches long on each side and knotted.  All the corners are knotted, and yarn is also knotted in the center of each square and at intervals along the edges.  Sometimes we take the quilts home to finish the tying step.

Voila..a completed lap blanket for some lucky child who will have facial surgery in some far distant country.  The children get to keep the blankets when they go home.  Our love and good wishes are sewn right into the fabric of those blankets.  Your club can easily take up this project too.  The most expensive part of the process is the postage mailing them to Operation Smile.  We often get the fabric stores to donate the material or a part of the cost.

Making these blankets has become a real membership tool for our club.  There is nothing more rewarding than making a tangible item you know is going to be used with love.  Our members continue their participation in our club and this project because they feel so connected.

Int. Affairs Chrm. Carolyn Van Patten

Our club holds a unique event to introduce prospective members to GFWC and our club.  We hold a New Member High Tea.  The tables are set by the Department and Standing Chairmen with fine bone china and crystal, silver and decorations.  The Chairmen attend and all members are invited to bring new friends and to attend themselves.  Chairmen are asked during the proceedings to give a brief overview of their committee activities.  The structure of GFWC is explained, and the ladies are invited to join in our philanthropic work and community service.

This party always occurs during October, so that we can Act in Oct.  Today’s party was also a Halloween Costume party.  We had almost 60 ladies attend, with 6 prospective new members.  Little tea sandwiches were delicious as were all the desserts.  Coffee, tea, and cider rounded out our snacks.

Please take a few minutes to see our costumes and creative table decorations by clicking on the above pictures.  Prizes were given for the tables voted best.   (The purple table won.)

This conference was one of the very best I’ve ever attended.  The entertainment was superb…the meals were scrumptious and presented beautifully, the workshops were very worthwhile, with lots of new ideas brought forward.

Sunday’s inspirational speaker, Sister Susan Keller, had us all laughing and crying with her humor and touching stories of surviving Cancer four times.  She says the big C isn’t Cancer, it’s Christ in her life!  I found it interesting to hear how the Sisters of today are all ministers in some way…working hard to help people in need.  Sr. Susan is a humorist who performs for groups like ours, and yet also ministers to women in shelters and does other work.  One of her writings can be found in the book Chicken Soup for the Survivor’s Soul.

Sandra Pecha and Sr. Susan Keller

Our membership workshop on Saturday afternoon turned out to be a great brainstorming session.  Some good ideas I heard to build new membership were make a club brochure and make bookmarks with your club information that you place at the library.  My club has a book sale every summer, and we’re going to put those bookmarks in the books we sell.  We really stressed the need for every club to have an informative brochure.  The Board in Illinois has designed a template for Illinois clubs that we’ve placed on our website for our state to download.  Hopefully, it will spark the brochure creativity in our clubs!  We need to stress that every time we interact with the public, we need to tell them who we are.

I hope you are taking the opportunity to attend your district, state, and region conferences and conventions.  First of all they are really fun, you make new friends from all over your area, and you learn an awful lot that can apply in your job, your life, and your club.  We are a very professional group of women that are really good for each other!  As a matter of fact, we’re really good for our communities and our country.

Int. President Dr. Rose Ditto

Int. Pres. Elect Carlene Garner

Great Lakes Pres. Sandra Pecha

2010 Great Lakes Pres. Debbie Bach

Michigan National Guard Army Band

Michigan State Night at the Great Lakes Conference has been spectacular!  The dinner was just perfect, including a cream puff with CHOCOLATE for dessert.  To quote Sandra Pecha, our region president, the entertainment “took your breath away.”   We were treated to a performance by the 126th National Guard Army Band of Michigan.  They played a selection of patriotic music and everyone was moved to tears, especially during the featured portion of the performance when the brass quintet played “Going Home.”  They had played this at the funeral of President Gerald Ford, a Michigan native, whose home is there in Grand Rapids.

GFWC International President Rose Ditto and President Elect Carlene Garner addressed us, and Rose presented a rose to each of the attending state presidents:  Debra Strahanowski from Illinois, Sherry Wellman from Michigan, Rose Logston from Ohio, Marianne Potter from Wisconsin and Barbara Conaway from Indiana.

We’re all really looking forward to the meetings and workshops that the rest of the weekend will bring.  We’ll be electing our next president and the rest of the board tomorrow.

I hope you all get a chance to attend your regional conference this year.  It is a wonderful opportunity to tune up your enthusiasm for this great organization and the work that we all do.

I suggest every state consider asking your state National Guard Army Band to perform at your state convention.  According to the Michigan Band, every state has a band like this, and California has two!

Band Director

Now, of course I work the political party booth of my choice.  In fact I fill alllllll the shifts left open.

But the best part of going to the fair is entering stuff in the open class department contests.  Sure, I sew, knit, crochet, cook, but I don’t feel I can enter my meager attempts at those skills.  I DO enter my photos every year.  What a great contest…there are over 20 different categories for digital photos alone.  And there are hundreds of photos entered all together.

My county fair has a large building that we call the “Ladies Building” that is full of local handiwork.  I could spend hours and hours there.  In fact, I usually do!  This year one of my photos took a second place red ribbon!!! It’s a photo I took at  GFWC Illinois Legislation Day.  The photo category was “Windows and Doors.”  Who would think a picture of the Illinois State Capitol taken through the window of the Hall of Flags would win a photo contest in Wisconsin???

I enter my GFWC state photo contests too.  And I have won on the state level.  But there are not nearly as many entries as there should be in those contests.  The ladies don’t realize how easy it is to get involved in the Arts and Crafts competitions.  This blog entry is to encourage all of you to get your crafts to your state convention and get involved.  What if they threw a party and no one came?  It’s the same for these state conventions.  We need your handiwork.  Besides, it is such fun to admire the work the ladies create!

Good luck, Ladies.

This year, two of the ladies in my club won 1st places in the photo contests at the GFWC Illinois convention, and one lady won 1st place in both short story and poetry.  We’re not the most talented, we just participate A LOT!

You can do it too!

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 continued to write.  I love to write news stories, and editorial blog stories, but I never try fiction or to relate my experiences.  Do you?

My friend, Dorothy Volkert, is an amazing woman who still writes for fun.  She doesn’t watch much TV, and spends her evenings writing stories.  Dorothy has led an amazing life, being a nurse in the army back in World War II.  She told her some of her story of misery and reward at one of our club meetings, and I wish she’d write a book of her stories.

This year one of Dorothy’s stories and one of her poems both won first place in the literature contests in GFWC Illinois.  I have posted both of them on the GFWC Illinois website, and I invite you to take a few minutes to enjoy Dorothy’s work.

Dorothy told me she believes there is an author in all of us.  Most of us never give her a chance to escape and see daylight.  She has encouraged me to try my hand.  I think I’ll start by just relating some eventful day in my life.  I’ll keep my stories in a special folder.  I may never share my “essays” with others, but they will probably be a lot of fun for me to read in years to come.  I haven’t kept a diary in over 50 years.

Then again…maybe I’ll win a prize in the short story contest next year.

Going Forth

Today I rode my adult tricycle in a 4th of July Parade.  Tomorrow I will do it again in another town.  (Riding is easier than trying to march, and I don’t trust bicycles anymore.)   I did not ride as a member of the Woman’s Club (although that’s a good reason to be in a parade too), but I participated as a member of a political party.  All too often we look down at politicians, and think of corruption and graft.  But we need to be involved with the political parties if we want them to be honest and above corruption.  We all need to be very aware of public issues and to help elect good people.   We  should help make the changes we feel are necessary from within the system, not from standing outside and complaining.

I’ll never forget my high school civics teacher (Miss Shaw) who taught us that voting is a duty, not just a right.  It is everyone’s duty to read and be a well informed voter.  I’ve lived by that rule and haven’t missed voting in an election in almost 50 years.  I even voted absentee the day I had heart surgery.  (That’s a whole long story in itself.)  After I retired I decided to join a party and not just wish I could do something.  Now I’m the County Chairman.  So I have to go to all the parades and work all the affairs and fund raisers.  And I have to make those phone calls everyone hates.  Sometimes I even knock on strange doors.  I work in the office every two years when we have one, and I give away my money.

I love it!  I love my GFWC work too, but my first love is my political contribution.  I don’t know if I’m on the “right” side.  But at least I’m on SOME side and I care enough to get off my duff and DO something! I don’t intend to run for office, but I want to help get good people elected.

I totally reject the notion that we should never talk politics in polite society!  I think we  have rejected healthy debate and discussion for far too long.  We don’t have to get personal and insulting to have a knowledge of issues and have discussion.  Most of the time people are all too happy to hear the details of the issues and to hear my opinion WHEN I AM WELL INFORMED.  That’s my job.  The internet makes research of issues easy.

Happy Independence Day!  I hope you watched fireworks and a parade somewhere and rejoiced in love for this wonderful country!

Riding in Parade

Our state convention was last weekend.   I really want to tell you about one of the greatest centerpiece ideas I’ve ever seen.  Our state motto is “GFWC Greatest Jewels.”  It means the members are the grestest jewels, but we’ve been using rubies, diamonds, saphires, and pearls as themes all year.  One of our banquets used old jewelry boxes as centerpieces.  They were beautiful and filled with many pieces of old, sparkly jewelry.  Set on a mirror, the centerpieces lit up the room.

We had lots and lots of fun and learned a great deal.  Rose Ditto and Missy McCoy joined us for our GFWC Illinois convention in the Chicago suburbs.  Conventions are such a wonderful way to renew friendships and to make new friends!  My club won a LOT of awards…hooray Antioch Woman’s Club!

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.  Projects from almost every conceivable medium are presented.  Our club provides ribbons for first and second prize from each school, plus a $50 prize and ribbon for each of the Jr. and Sr. Visitor’s Choice and Best of Show awards.  We also donate $200 to each school for the teachers to buy materials of their choice.

The Festival is held on a Friday night from 6:00 to 8:00 at the high school.  Our club members bake cookies and brownies and we provide coffee.  There is no charge for any of the refreshments.  You can view over 100 photos of the student projects at http://picasaweb.google.com/gfwcillinois/2009AntiochStudentArtFestival# The young lady who won Best of Show this year is a senior and won last year too.  Thankfully, she’ll be majoring in art in college.

This activity is a perfect time to promote the club in our community.  We always get a lot of questions about who we are and what GFWC is all about.

In GFWC Illinois District 10, we hold “Reciprocity” luncheons every other year.  My club does a pot luck, and I love pot lucks!  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.  Naturally, the food is to die for.  Usually we have outstanding entertainment for that meeting too.

The ladies who entered art work in our district art show also brought their handiwork to display.

Our Reciprocity luncheon last month was very well attended, with most of the other clubs in the district sending representatives, and of course our district president too.  Our entertainment was a group of 14 women who do Madrigal singing.  It was a delighful afternoon.

If you only joined GFWC for the social interaction, this is a great way to have fun.  With all the wonderful projects we sponsor and all the fun and fellowship we find, how could anyone NOT want to be a part of GFWC?

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

I LOVE GFWC because I just won the Share the Pot at a state wide fundraiser!

Yipeeeeeeee!  I won over $500!

I also love GFWC because we support really important causes, like Prevent Child Abuse.  We had over 200 people at the Blue Ribbon Fashion Show today.  Lots of money was raised, and lots of happy people left with great raffle and silent auction treasures.

Isn’t it fun to come together on a dreary, cold, rainy day and raise a LOT of money?

Can you help me with this list?  WHY DO YOU LOVE GFWC?

Jonie Sieghartner

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.  During dinner, she complained that she didn’t feel well and went out to sit alone.  10 minutes later when someone went to check on her, she had lost feeling in her left side.  By the time the ambulance arrived, her speech was slurred.  The incident occured in a small town, and as it was very windy that night; a helicopter ride to the large trauma center was out of the question.  Jonie passed away a few days later.

Jonie was a very successful farmer, mother, and clubwoman.  In fact she founded the Colona Area Junior Woman’s Club. Another of her great club accomplishments was to draw the winning cover for our state chronicle.  In the last administration, Illinois compiled a chronicle of the histories of the clubs of our state.  Each club was asked to write a short history and also relate information about the club at present.  This was inspired by the fact that our International President was a resident of Illinois, and we felt it was a treasure to add to the Woman’s History and Resource Center in our Headquarters in Washington.  Jonie’s cover won the competition.

Jonie club did a wonderful Community Improvement Project.  They raised the money to put a fence up in front of their local library and protect the children from traffic.  This project was one of Jonie’s special loves.

We are strikingly reminded of Jackie Pierce’s educational efforts to bring knowledge of the danger of strokes to our members by this unfortunate incident.  Stroke symptoms often include nothing more than blurred vision or a bad headache.   A stroke patient needs immediate medical attention that can only be given on an ambulance!!  Even at the most basic level, an ambulance will administer oxygen and get the patient immediate attention upon arrival at the hospital.  Time is off the essence!  Do NOT drive a suspected stroke patient to the hospital yourself.

Has someone had a stroke?  The new test includes asking the suspected patient to speak a simple sentence, raise both arms, and stick his/her tongue out.  You are looking for symetry and paralysis.  Is the tongue in the center, are both arms up, can the patient speak clearly?  If you are not sure, call 911!  Please.