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!

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!

Gail Cropper as"Who is That?"

007 makes a Mummy for Cowgirl

In October, our Club decided to do an old fashioned Halloween Bingo Family Fun Night.  It was a bit last minute so we did simple decorations, games and crafts projects for the children.   We had a haunted house on the stage, Bingo for prizes and a super cake walk.  T he PR was a little short, but everybody had fun, we made a little money and we learned a lot for next year.

One week before Thanksgiving brought the Fire Marshal to the the clubhouse for our annual inspection.  She was a young inspector and sharp on all points.  Six of 10 emergency exit lights were not functioning, 2 exit lights were out, and one 90 year old exterior door used maybe 3 times a year simply would not open. I got a good education out of the experience, met a great volunteer electrician, and dragged my fix-it friends to the building for help and company. Well, things happen to a 100 year old building, but what a pain to have this at the holidays. It took 5 weeks to get all this corrected, whew!

The day before Thanksgiving our eldest  member passed away.  Blanche Madren was 102 years old and just a delight to talk too.  We were all sad but want a wonderful life she had. We held a memorial on Dec 14.

Blanche and Rosemary August 2009

December 5 was our huge annual Snowy Lace and Lilacs Vintage Fashion Tea.  Seating for 140, tea delicacies piled high for 14 tables, hot tea  and a fabulous 100 year retrospective of fashion from our clubs Spokane Vintage Fashion collection.  Amazing outfits modeled by club members of all ages.  I narrated the fashion show for the first time this year and got pretty decent reviews.

Teapots and a few goody trays ready for serving

At our November and December Club meetings we held an in club Crack fundraiser, to repair the  foundation cracks  in our basement level  room called the Rose Room.  We raised $1000 pronto and got bids.  The contractor was scheduled to come in Dec 21 for a three day job.  Last December, Spokane had maybe 60″ of snow, this year it poured rain all December. The Rose Room was an on again off again pond. Rain was pouring through the cracks as the workers prepped for sealing.  The repair  seems to be working.  At least the room stayed dry for the wedding rental on December 28.  It was a  Military wedding with full honor guard.

I finished up the year doing major rewrites of rental contracts for Club Rentals.

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!

1. 

   Rosemary in The Clubhouse Horror

   Rust paint and very coarse steel wool for “The Clubhouse Horror”. Last Spring our Rental chair was showing the the building to a future bride. Her fiance was not pleased.  The bride made us promise we would do something about the smell in the Men’s room before her September wedding.  It was bad in there long before I joined the club.  I have scrubbed with bleach, steam cleaned, and  used animal  deodorizer, but nothing touches that smell-o-male.   There is a jungle of pipes rusting away under that exclusively male, wall hung  fixture [who invented that thing?].  The whole business is just so bad to work around.  At 9 hours and still counting, of scraping and chiseling those pipes, and sanding the walls and ceiling with my half sheet sander [fondly know as "the bomb"] I am almost ready to prime the pipes and walls.  The final coat, rustoleum for the pipes, epoxy for the walls will, I pray, eliminate the smell.  I say, ‘”never again ladies, we are keeping the boys room clean.”

2. Wood Boards and Screws We are reorganizing our many closets so more of our long term renters [added a church and a dance troupe] can rent closets for their equipment.  This was an arduous process, the closets were a mess, and some members were reluctant to allow change from traditional uses.  Now, in the name of progress and increased income, I am building in shelves and adding a hefty security deadbolt to a less convenient, but under-utilized, closet under the stairs. We will still have to shred  boxes full of decades of old checks to make room, but that’s doable.
3. Bulletin Boards, More Wood Two years ago our club PR committee discussed placing a large cork  bulletin board in the public area of the clubhouse.   I was stumped until today on how to find one that fit the space and our tight budget.  I looked at the back-to school circulars on my kitchen table and inspiration hit.  A Rosemary-can-build-it solution appeared on the closet piece of scrap paper, combine 3 smaller bulletin boards [cheap for school!] in one 1X2 frame.  Today I cut and stained the wood.  I will post a picture when finished.
4. Dump Run The old coal room was/is downright scary.  There is absolutely no light in there and ugh! the 100 year old pile of coal dust encrusted junk was  truly unpleasant to sort.  The boiler last used coal in the 1950’s but coal is still piled in the corners.  A fellow club member, Correen, and I  braved the coal hole last Fall and sorted  piles for removal.  This week, my darling spouse, Philip, hauled the whole mess off to the Waste to Energy facility.

Yeah! Progress happens one volunteer chore at a time.

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!