I’m A Clubwoman

What should you do with a picture that wins at your County Fair? Why enter it in your GFWC State photography contest, of course! So I did….not in an ordinary contest though.

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 [...]

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

I want to issue an apology for having let so much time lapse since my last blog. My life as I know it has been turned inside out as I have walked away from a business relationship and started up a new enterprise. I figure this is what this blog place is all about: us women as we go through the great challenges of life, and mine is definitely been a challenge over the last three months. I don’t know if I have said anything about this before, but in addition to being mother of three and a GFWC member I also own and operate my own small town newspaper. I write a weekly column as part of the paper and I would like to share with you my first editorial in my newest endeavor. I hope you enjoy it.

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!

I have a handicapping genetic condition that requires constant maintenance and tuning of my reluctant body or I don’t get to play. I am accustomed to rapidly adapting to my circumstances, but I do not like to learn new routines as they confuse me. But that’s my life.

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.

So often when I think about domestic violence I tend to focus only on women. After all, they are usually the ones that take the brunt of the abuse whether it’s verbal, physical or emotional.