The Help

The latest in our club's zany and fun adventures was the end of September when several members volunteered to be "The Help" at member Debbie's home for her son's wedding rehearsal dinner party. Since Debbie was expecting guests from out of town as well as the wedding party, she asked if any of our Breakfast Bunch members would be interested in helping out at the party so she could be free to enjoy the evening. Turned out there was a lot of interest, beginning with member Krista's great idea to craft some appropriate uniforms for The Help. Several members got together at Krista's and sewed up a storm.

Once properly attired, a group of six Altrusans put on their best manners and arrived at Debbie's to await their instructions.

They set up the buffet tables when the wedding party was out rehearing, they replenished food items as hungry guests appeared, they waited tables, cleared and cleaned up, too. Word has it they provided a bit of entertainment for the guests, although that part may not have been planned!

The end of the evening found them in the kitchen, tired but still smiling.

Thanks, gals, for working hard and doing a great job. Plus, Debbie made a donation to our club's treasury in thanks for their efforts. What a team!

September Garage Sale a Success!

The weatherman provided a beautiful, sunny fall day - perfect for shopping. Our club members, friends and neighbors provided a ton of great items to sell. Our co-chairmen, Darlene and Adele, worked really hard to get things organized, and several members of the club assisted with layout, pricing, sales and clean-up.

Here are Eleanor, Darlene, Winona and Adele taking a much-needed break from the action. The sale ended a little after 4 p.m. and members plus a couple husbands made quick work of clean-up. Leftover items were donated to various non-profits around town. Thank you, thank you, to everyone who helped - and of course shopped (!!).

September Happenings

September has gotten off to a great start with lots of activities in the offing. Plans are set for our next big Garage Sale on Saturday, September 22!

Members are busy collecting sale items from friends, family and their own households, and there are bound to be some great items (and deals) available. Word has it that there will be tools, household goods, a bedroom set, and much more. Plan to be there! The address is 4039 Rosewood, Longview, and we'll be manning those tables from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m.

In October we'll be participating in "Make a Difference Day," a nationwide day of neighbors helping neighbors. Altrusa clubs all over the country plan projects for this particular day, which this year is October 27. Our club will be on a scavenger hunt that day, to find useful items that can be distributed through other service organizations in our area. More information to come on that!

One of the local groups we help support with our donations is Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue. Board member Maggi Mioliis, on left in the above photo, was our club's representative at the September 11 remembrance ceremony in Kelso. She presented our donation check at the ceremony.

Fall is full of opportunities for The Breakfast Bunch. In the weeks ahead, look for information on our annual poinsettia sale, our toy wagon raffle, and some Christmas giving ideas. See you soon!

Summer Happenings

The summer season always seems to be short around the Northwest, and since good weather didn't really begin until July, this year is no exception. Lots of activities and summer events packed into a few short weeks. We Breakfast Bunch gals got together for a really fun potluck BBQ on August 4. The weather was sizzling but we always have GREAT potluck food (lots of good cooks) and GREAT company. Our member Betty hosted us in her beautful backyard, complete with a large koi pond full of her amazing fish pets.

She let us feed them, too. You hold the pellets in your fist and they actually swim up and suck them out. Yes - their fish lips are actually touching you! Not your usual Saturday afternoon activity.

Here's our president Adele manning the bbq. She cooked a giant pork lion for us - yum.

And here are some of our members enjoying the day, the food, and the company.

Garage Sale - with music

In other news, our member Robbie had a moving sale at her house the end of July and invited our club to tag along with some tables. Seems that a good time was had by all - reports of singing, dancing and fun underlined the event. Oh yes, and we had a successful sales day, too. In fact, it was so successful that we decided to hold another sale on September 22. Are you ready????  Ba-ba-ba, Ba-barbara Ann!

Cowlitz County Day of Caring - September 12

The Breakfast Bunch will be participating in United Way's Day of Caring this year by joining RIF Day at Wallace School. (RIF means Reading is Fundamental). Our members will help kids pick out books and then read the books to them in the library that day. It promises to be a worthwhile adventure.

Garage Sale Notice:  The Altrusa Garage Sale is back! Look for us on Friday and Saturday, July 27 & 28, at our normal spot at 2659 Magnolia Street, Longview. We have lots of interesting items available for your shopping pleasure. Don't miss it!

In other news - we had a wonderful speaker at our meeting this week. Carly Monkman of the Melaleuca non-profit division came and told us about the Melaleuca products, why we might enjoy them (they're chemical-free) and how our purchases could make money for our club. The samples we tried at the meeting were great and it was interested to hear her reports of people who have been helped by using the chemical-free products in their homes. Melaleuca products are manufactured in Idaho, and they offer a wide variety of items for cleaning, skincare, etc. We'll let you know how we decide to be involved.


Upcoming Events - Our annual summer BBQ is set for Saturday, August 4 at member Betty's Trembley home in Longview at 3 pm. We're all looking forward to the usual - good food, good company, and lots of laughing. We're all invited to bring guests, so if you have a hankering for any of the above please feel welcome to attend.

Early Summer Happenings
The Breakfast Bunch has been busy these past couple of weeks! Our new club year starts in June so there's lots of planning going on, and we also added two new members.But first let's talk about our District Conference in May.

Conference this year was held at the Oregon Garden in Silverton, OR. There are 24 clubs in our district and each is eligible to enter a project in literacy or service categories. The really big news is that our club won 2nd place in the Letha H. Brown Award for Literacy with our Bertie Bear Reading Project! We were sooooo excited! Bertie Bear goes to the Head Start classrooms with us to read to the kids, and she is pictured above with her 2nd place ribbon.

Sue Yarbrough and Susan Brookfield were recently initiated into membership with an inspirational ceremony depicting Altrusa as an orchard with each member offering something unique. Attributes of membership were likened to different varieties of fruit and each new member received a basket full of fruit at the end.

At the start of each new fiscal year The Breakfast Bunch holds a planning retreat to discuss goals and make recomendations for service projects as well as ways to raise the money to complete those projects. This year attendees could purchase raffle tickets and hope to win one of the prizes members contributed. It turned out to be a lot of fun, with raffle items ranging from gift baskets to plants to dust buster supplies! The chocolate cake pictured above was one of the yummier items.

Featured Artwork ..... by our own Krista Mead
We have so many talented members in our club and luckily for us, they have a variety of talents! During the month of June the Backstage Cafe (next to the Kelso Theater ) is featuring Krista Mead's artwork!

The Membership Committee has invited everyone to a small gathering on Tuesday, June 26 at the Backstage Cafe at 5:30 p.m. Friends, spouses, members and guests are all invited. Wine and other yummies will be available for purchase.

Congratulations, Krista!