Spring?

One day it's sunny and the next it's raining so hard we can hardly see across the street. Must be spring in the Northwest! Our Altrusa club's new year begins in June, so officer elections and installation is always on our agenda in May. This year we had an installation dinner at a local restaurant, and had a fun, social time (plus a yummy dinner!) Here's a picture of our new officers. The bigwigs are President Adele Gowdy, VP Winona Smith, Treasurer Virginia Russeff, and Secretary Debbie Johnson. The supporting cast are committee chairs and board members.

One of the president's special awards is the Altrusan of the Year. This year Adele presented the award to Maggi Miollis, whose handles the graduation baskets we donate to graduates of the Emergency Support Shelter. As the women leave the shelter and establish their own homes, we provide them with a laundry basket full of housekeeping necessities such as cleaning products, sponges, towels, laundry detergent, and much more. As club respresentative, Maggi has delivered over 30 baskets in the last several months. Luckily, she is an excellent shopper!

Another springtime activity for Altrusa clubs all over our region is attending our district's conference. This year the conference was held in Silverton, OR at the Oregon Garden. Our district consists of 25 clubs in Washington, Oregon, Montana, and British Columbia. There were 150 Altrusans at conference this year! Conference includes leadership training seminars, times for meeting members from other clubs and exchanging ideas, and meeting our district's leadership in person. It is such an uplifting experience to be among so many women who are committed to service in their communities. Altrusan's rock!

Here's a picture of our club representatives going to the Awards Banquet - where our club won 2nd place in the Letha H. Brown Literacy Award competition. Wow! We were soooo excited. That's Gail, Adele, Virginia and Eleanor. Looks like they're having fun.

Our entry was our Bertie Bear reading program. We take Bertie, a very large stuffed bear, to the Head Start classes and act as guest readers for a story time. The club donates the book we read to the classroom, plus gives each child a coloring book with a story and coloring pages about Bertie Bear and her friend Tweeny Bee. The coloring book was designed by one of our members, Sandra Putaansuu. The kids LOVE Bertie and our members have a great time reading to them. It's a win-win. Here's a picture of Bertie celebrating her award.