March President’s Message

March is here! With the month of March starts the beginning of Spring and all the new beginnings that are associated with this special time of year. Spring is all about new ideas and transformations. It’s a season that symbolizes starting fresh and starting over.

“Do what you can to show you care about other people, and you will make our world a better place.” —Rosalynn Carter

As we look toward the last four months of this club year, we think about starting the next two years with a new club board, involving the many amazing new members we have with us, new ideas that we can share, and new projects we can take on. The quote I am sharing this month is really about us. We show every day how much we care about each other and about others. In our own way, we are making our world a better place.

What an awesome meeting we had last month. Dr. Rev. Phil Oehler did an outstanding job explaining about the Greater Woodbury Cooperative Ministries and how the Food Pantries work. He was so appreciative to receive the food that was donated by our members. Every little bit helps and you definitely made a difference.

It was wonderful welcoming Shannon Burrini from the Woman’s Club of Runnemede. She had a great time, took lots of notes, and even found a baby in her Mardi Gras cake, which made her one of our four Queens of the meeting. I told her to extend our invitation to anyone who wishes to attend our meetings. We are pretty cool to hang around with.

Don’t forget to get your form to Ann C. if you wish to enter a project at the April Garden District Spring Conference and Achievement Day. Our members always make a great showing and I know that this year will be just as incredible. Also, Ann needs to know if you will be attending the April 18th Conference. Please let her know and get your $47 to her along with your meal choice. Look for her article in this month’s Tidbits.

Our Second VP, Cynthia H-B. has scheduled a New Member Orientation for May 21st. Our next Garden District VP Mary Schneider will join us along with other guests. Please put this date on your calendar. We encourage all of our new members to attend, as well as any of our veteran members. We share a lot of information about the GFWC, NJSFWC and the WCWD. I know that our new members don’t know what these initials mean… you will soon! Come to the New Member Orientation and we will share all the information with you.

The committee collection for this month is for Advocates for Children. Please look for Chair Karen Hink’s article in this month’s Tidbits for more information on what her committee is doing this month.

“Trumpets Blaring”…The Honor Roll and Order of the Lily Committee will be announcing this year’s recipients of these prestigious awards. Chair Carol F. and her committee will be making these presentations at our March meeting.

Also, our Nominating Committee is hard at work putting a new slate of officers together for the 24/26 club years. Look for more information from Cheryl F. this month as we will be voting on this new slate in April. A little background information…Cheryl and her committee will be accepting nominations from club members in the next few weeks and their job will be to put together a slate of officers that will work well together and support not only each other but the club members as a whole so that we are successful in everything we do. This is not an easy feat for them as they work incredibly hard to put the ladies in positions who have expressed interest in a specific role. All of you are definitely qualified but only eight will be able to serve for the next two years. Thank you to all who are interested in serving and thank you to our committee for preparing an Executive Board for us to vote on next month.

Just a friendly reminder that Peg S. is collecting dues for the 24/25 club year. Dues are $45 and are due by our April meeting. We must submit our number of members to the State by May 1st.

Get those Secret Pal gifts together for our meeting and let’s wear our club shirts if you have them or just a purple shirt to our March meeting. New members or any member who needs one, please reach out to Cynthia H-B to order one. We need to wear our name tags so that our new members will learn our awesome members’ names.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Happy Spring and Happy Easter ladies. I hope your month is fantastic!!!

April

Shout Out to Members

As we travel the month of March, we look forward to the coming of Spring, the promise of starting fresh with the warm weather approaching and continuing to be the best we can be.

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” —Henry David Thoreau

This quote really had an impact with me as it embodies our members who continue to show their dedication to our club and make their ideas and dreams a reality and achieve the goals that each of us sets out to do.

Even with four months left of our club year, our Basket Raffle Committee has already started work on our next big fundraiser, set for October. I want to thank Sue N., Jody H., and Nancy D. along with Janice M. who have taken up the reins to organize this year’s Basket Raffle. These dedicated ladies have already had two committee meetings so that they can put together the information needed to present to all of you at our meeting this month. They will be looking for all of our amazing members to help make this another success. Way to go, ladies!

A big shout out to all our members who are submitting projects for our April Spring Conference and Achievement Day. Ann C. has been working to get all the information out to you so that you can submit your personal projects for the Arts Contest. Every year our members win awards for their projects, and I am positive we will receive several again this year. All of your work is incredible and I can’t wait to see it on display!

Another recognition goes to every one of our members who donated food items to the GWCM at our last meeting as a thank you to Rev. Phil Oehler who came to our meeting to talk to us about the Greater Woodbury Cooperative Ministry and the food pantry needs. Over 100 lbs. of food was donated at our last meeting. Impressive!!! Once again, we have made a difference in our community and beyond.

A big thank you to your very hardworking board who spent a considerable amount of time going over the Donations List so that the monies we distribute each year help as many as possible in West Deptford and beyond. This is always a difficult task as we have only so much to share and you are all so generous and want to help so many. The board once again did an excellent job and I am very pleased to be able to share this list with you before our next meeting.