Annual picnic in high wind, grab your plate.

Our Club has a bit of a tradition, we eat before we meet.  It is not my favorite thing, as I am not a fan of brunch, but I do like picnics.  This month we had our annual picnic in one of Spokane’s numerous and wonderful neighborhood parks, Comstock park. We were challenged by the weather.

Yum, fresh whole wheat pecan bread

The wind was gusting up to 35mph and we still had fun!  About thirty members and family attended, with the youngest attendee 4 years old, and  the oldest 80 something.  Newest member 1 hour and  longest time members from 1968.  The food was great  and our meeting was lively.

Pat T blowing in the wind with good humor

I was the team captain this year and it was a lot of responsibility but I enjoy this event. I am glad TTWC has decided to join RFL. This year theme was “Toon out cancer” so each team had a cartoon theme! Ours was Casper the Friendly Ghost. Our tent was wonderfully ghostly and we even played the casper song… We had a survivor in our team who walked the survivor lap.

The ceremony was great and the most exciting part was the Luminaria. As you may know (or not know), Luminaria is lighting the candles.  As the sun sets over campsites and darkness falls, the night is brightened by the glow of illuminated bags called luminaria, each bearing the name of someone who has battled cancer. Some celebrate cancer survivors, while others help us honor and remember those gone too soon. All represent someone special who has been profoundly affected by cancer and the family and friends who continue to fight back in their honor. I am partial to this ceremony because I was in it this year. I was among the 5 people chosen from the teams to recite a poem. My poem was called: “I Light A Candle”. I was pretty nervous to read this but then I realized the lights are off and it is pretty dark and I could only see if I used flashlight to read, so I read! I did enjoyed it a lot….

I wanted to thank eveyone who stopped by our tent to visit and buy raffle tickets and give us word of encouragements. Please join us again next year….

On Woman’s Club front,  it has been a busy new year. I am the new chair for our Int’l Affairs department and I am glad that the previous chair is in my committee and agreed to be the co-chair. I was panicking there for a while. It should be a new challenge for me as I have not been a chair before.  I also agreed to be Relay for Life team captain this year.  I was the co-captain last year so this is more responsibilities for me now.  I have to say I really enjoy doing Relay for Life and it is one of the projects of Home Life that I am glad we participate at. If they asked me again next year to be the captain, I will say yes… Well, our RFL event is March 26-27  at Greco Middle School again in Temple Terrace, FLorida. As I said before, it is a wonderful event and I just found out last night at one of the captain’s meetins, that I will be one of 5 people who would read a poem during the Luminaria ceremony. I am actually looking forward to that although I have always been shy in public speaking but I thought why not, it is for a great cause. My team has made 75% of our goal as of today which is great and I am proud of them. I personally made cupcakes again this year and sold quite a bit of them. So we are doing just fine.  Relay for Life theme this year is: Toon Out Cancer so each team had to pick a cartoon theme and we decided to go with “Casper the friendly ghost”. ALthough my first choice was olive oil and popeye since eveyone thinks I look a little like olive oil!!!!!!

Well, I think I’ll sign off now. I promise I will write soon….

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!

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.)

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!

An artist named Dorothy Hope Smith drew Ann in 1928. That drawing became the famous baby picture on all of Gerber baby products. Ann has made a lot of appearances for Gerber during 1990’s and calls it a pleasant experience.

She was invited to join Temple Terrace Woman’s Club in 2003. She said that she was in her 70’s by then and in middle of writing her last 2 books so she wasn’t a productive member. However, she enjoys speaking to women groups around Tampa Bay area.

I asked Ann about her background. She has master’s degree in English Education and was an English teacher for 26 years. She was also head of English department for Hillsborough High School. She always wanted to be a writer and a newspaper person. So, she started her career as a writer after retirement. She took creative writing classes for 12 years and attended any and all writes conferences around. She is a member of Tampa Writers Alliance.

I wanted to know how she finds her story lines and what the process of writing a novel is. She told me she gets her inspirations and ideas for her plots from a lot of different sources. On a trip to Charleston, SC she came across a haunted-looking mansion and that made her think about what if murder happened there a long time ago. She does her researches through archives, making trips to small historic town and talking with natives. She told me she actually had a reading with a medium as part of her research for her 4^th book: Micanopy In Shadow. She said it was an interesting experiment. The lady was a certified medium in a town called Cassadaga. She also had her husband’s help in researching police procedures as he was a Major with Hillsborough County Sheriff department.

She told me writing is a hard process. It takes her a little over a year to finish a book. You have to write lists and summaries, write developments you imagine happen. You have to know the ending of the book from the beginning and work toward that goal. Also, there is a structure in literature to follow in writing a book. She is currently not thinking about writing the 5^th Brandy O’Bannon book. She said appearances and marketing is a hard work in her age now. That saddened me a little because I found her books very interesting. I bought her 4^th book and loved it and went back and read the other 3. Brandy is smart, hard-headed and risk taker. I like that about her!

Ann also told me that she is a member of Mystery Writers of America which I think is a big honor. She sold a short story long time ago and submitted it to them and has been a member since 1995. Her favorite mystery writers are: PD James and Tony Hillerman.

As she told me, she is still grieving over losing her second partner in life only lost to her this past May. Her mission right now is to talk to groups of mostly women approaching retirement: Do what you always wanted to do like becoming a mystery writer…..

1) Pile of school supplies folks have donated that our club is collecting.

2) Non-perishable food items for us to stock the pantry for Ronald McDonald house.

3) Scrapbooking items for a craft show in October. We are making post it note holders and lots of other fun stuff. I have got to get cracking on the ivy bowl snowmen we plan to sell.

We are also gearing up for Pigs N Peaches Barbecue. Our club is planning to sell barbecue plates this year on Saturday of the competition. This is our first year to sell, so I am very nervous but very optimistic.

Tuesday night is our club meeting and we will be getting together to make peach muffins to sell as well. Will let you know how it goes. Would love to hear helpful hints from folks that have sold at these kind of events before.

Blog at you soon!

Allison with new Junior friends and members of GFWC Staff

Wow, Wow, Wow is all I can say after returning from GFWC Annual Convention in Cleveland OH. This was my third time attending and I must say that this was my favorite by far!

The speakers were absolutely world class: Laurie Seligman (whose book I bought; and I NEVER read books but am halfway through this one…) Actress Victoria Rowell who was dynamic and engaging were just two of the amazing featured speakers.

I learned so much at the workshops I attended. The “Putting Your Passion into Practice” lunch and learn that was led by Kia LaBracke and Elizabeth Davy was inspiring and informative. I also really loved the “SWOT” workshop about identifying your club’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. I am so very glad I chose to attend as many workshops as possible because I think it will really make a difference in my club and elsewhere!

I have to say my very favorite part of convention was that I met the most new people this year of any year I’ve attended ~ I LOVED getting to meet new Federation sisters and hearing their stories and experiences and sharing laughs and advice. I want to send some “shout outs” to my new GFWC Sisters: Caroline and Michele from South Carolina, Rhonda and Candi from Illinois and my super fave, Suzanne Way from Wisconsin! What a great time I had meeting and getting to know you all ~ I love my Junior Family!! These are amazing ladies who give so much to the Federation in addition to everything else they do for their families and communities. GFWC Juniors are the best!

It hasn’t been too long since our chapter, Junior Woman’s Club of Columbia (SC), held our spring installation. It was an exciting time as a wonderful new board was installed. I am serving as Provisional Vice President and Education Department Chair for this year and I am so excited about those opportunities. As you read this, I am preparing for our summer membership social in August. This year it will be a JWC Columbia “Fiesta”!! One of our members owns a stationary shop and she graciously donated the cutest Fiesta themed invites! Now, I have to get them all addressed and mailed!

Last night I attended the District Meeting for GFWC-SC with three fellow board members and really good friends. We had a terrific time and by the end, all four of us had been elected to serve on a state committee…how exciting for us and our club! It was an informative evening and an all around good time with women from our district.

I love being a Clubwoman! This has become such a part of my life — a life changing part! I’ve made great friends, gotten actively involved in my community and invaluable leadership experience. I can’t imagine life without GFWC and my chapter!

Being installed as Provisional Vice President

I LOVE meeting other Clubwomen! We met Doris, from Columbia Women's Club at the District Meeting!

My Ride

I have a list of things to do, and a list of things that need to be done, and then the real list of things that must  be done.  And always the balancing act of finding joy in what I do, so I can actually do it.  Pain is reduced by producing seratonins in the brain, and well, ” good vibes” make  seratonin.

Here are some of my favorite seratonin producers for this summer.  Hard physical work in  my garden is just plain good, board meetings for the Woman’s Club are fun because I like these people.  Inventory is interesting because I am a history junkie and we have a few surprises in our clubhouse closets. Clubhouse vintage fashion inventory is fabulous for me with a BS in textile science, oh yeah, lots of fun. Of course, I love my new bike. I now have it all rigged out with cane holder, covered plastic gear tub, flashing lights and a bugle horn.  No more guilt about driving my car two blocks to work at the clubhouse, I ride my bike!

On the down side:  painting the men’s room at the clubhouse; working up enthusiasm is challenging so it has to be a party.  There is so much more on the gotta but don’t wanna list, but I have depleted my seratonin levels just thinking about it.