Happy Valentineâs Day!!! As we enter February, I realize that our Club year is already half over. Time does not stand still and neither do the women in the Womanâs Club of West Deptford. We have accomplished so much in 5 months and we have many things still to complete before June when our new Board will take over.
âIf the words you spoke appeared on your skinâŚwould you still be beautiful?â
SourceâŚâWe Are Teachersâ
As a retired 1st and 2nd grade teacher, I am aware of how important my choice of words were with my impressionable students. However, what I have learned is how important my choice of words are when dealing with everyone I come in contact with each and every day. Fortunately, I see some pretty beautiful ladies when I am with our club members. The value of friendship and working together as a club/team/committee is what makes our club so special. So to each of you who shows kindness and support to everyone in and out of our clubâŚyou are beautiful and I am glad to be your friend!
January was a busy month as our Committee Chairs had to get their end-of-the-2019-year reports to me so that I could send them out by February 1st. To each of you who worked so hard to fill out those forms and calculate hours, I thank you! Our paperwork was definitely in the mail and filed on time.
I want to recognize and thank Carol F. and Linda J. for sitting with me for 4 hours as I read and completed each report to be sent to the different State addresses. Their help was invaluable! I also want to recognize Linda J. for taking the 1st VP position and taking it to the next level. Linda continues to find new ways to bring in funds for our Operating Account with interesting and âdeliciousâ fundraisers. If you havenât already ordered your pies for February, it is not too late to get your order in to Linda at our February meeting. Linda also keeps quarterly notes on all of our volunteer hours, has taken the âCommunity Improvement Programâ full on with our Adopt a School and Bringing Literacy to Children program as well as run the Arts Creative Committee. She has already put together packets to give to our members to that you can all shine with the amazing creative art projects that you do. Thank you Linda! Also, I want to recognize Linda M. and Janice M. for their dedication in bringing to our club the information on difficult topics such as Domestic Violence as they had done at our last meeting. It is hard to hear these stories but we need to know what is going on outside our personal world. Thank you Linda and Janice for continuing to make us aware of what is happening.
I want to thank all of our ladies who came out to the January District meeting at St. Paulâs Methodist Church. Our snowman/winter theme was well received and we received compliments from a some of the other clubs as well as State Board members who were in attendance. Our ladies took care of registration, purchasing of State items and materials, liquid refreshments and all paper products. I am sure if I tried to list everyone, I will forget someone and I donât want to do that so THANK YOU to everyone who helped make this meeting a major success. I will recognize Denise H. who made sure that we had the church, had the room set up and purchased an American Flag with her husband so there would be one available for our meeting. You rock Denise! We were asked if we would host again in the futureâŚour answer is YES!
Now we move ahead for the next five months. There is still time to sign up for a board position and to serve on a committee. All committees are open to our members who will come with new ideas and support. It is my responsibility to put together the new committees and I will do that before the end of our club year. The board positions will be closed at the March meeting where I will announce who is serving on our Nominating Committee. These ladies have the important job of putting together a slate of officers who will work cohesively and put the members of our club and our service to our Township first. They will present their slate of officers to the club this Spring and I know they will do an excellent job.
GCI is in full swing as we prepare to interview WDHS girls who are interested in attending the Girlâs Career Institute at Douglass College on the Rutgers Campus in New Brunswick. I canât wait to hear who will be representing WCWD. Also, did you know that the West Deptford Junior Womenâs Club also attends and selects a girl as well to send? I have heard from the Juniors and they are very excited to participate. By sending girls to GCI, we are setting a strong course for success in each girlâs future as they learn to work with others, find themselves and hopefully explore a career that interests them.
The WCWD Board was also busy at our last meeting as we prepared a Donations List from a list of Community Organizations who can use monetary support. We discuss the advantages of donating to every group listed and assign an amount. All of the money that we will be giving out this year comes from our very successful Designer Bag Bingo. It is because of the hard work of our members that we can do this each and every year. You will be sent a copy of our Donation List with our Agenda the weekend before our February meeting.
With the 2020-2022 new season comes a new State Project from the Federation. This year we get to pick from three very worthwhile projects, Embrella, NJ Coalition Against Human Trafficking, and Operation Chillout. Please look at the information provided at the end of our newsletter so you will be able to make an informed decision at our next meeting.
The Standing Committee on Womenâs Suffrage that I set up in September has already gotten some information together. Nancy B. agreed to co-chair this worthwhile committee and we have already reached out to the Alice Paul House for a speaker, the Board of Elections to register new voters, and the League of Women Voters for information. We need another co-chair to help Nancy. I do have two ladies already signed up to help and a couple more would be great. New members are more than welcome to help. Once we have our program together, I will be reaching out to the Principal at the High School to hold this informative assembly and allow for voter registration. We are moving quickly on this and I know it will be a major success.
International Womenâs Day is March 8th. You will be receiving an email from me after our February meeting. I am asking each of you to respond to this email promptly as I want to do something special. In this email, I will be asking every member to share with me one thing about you, something that you may have accomplished, participated in or just makes you personally feel special. I am requesting that every member participate. ?
I am very happy to announce that Karen D. has reached out to Lt. Mike Franks, who will be our speaker at our February meeting and share with us the ins and outs of the unique K9 Unit in the West Deptford Police Department. Thank you, Karen!
Donât forget to wear red on February 11th so our meeting will shine for Womenâs Heart Health Month and Valentineâs Day. Bring your Secret Pal gift and pack up your purple bag. We have a full schedule in the works.
Warmly,
April