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.

 

Bertie Bear LOVES Literacy

Since literacy is a big part of Altrusa's mission, we felt so fortunate to be able to take our own Bertie Bear to Head Start classes at Broadway School recently. Our members (and Bertie Bear) participated as guest readers, reading a fun story to classes, helping them pick out books of their own to take home, and providing a Breakfast Bunch produced coloring book for each child. It's a fun (and enlightening!) day.

Spell-ebration 2012

Put Spell-ebration 2012 down in the history books! Last Friday, March 9, the Kelso Theater Pub was alive with costumed spellers, their enthusiastic supporters, Altrusans, costumed bees and a giant dog. What a fun night!! Thanks for all the support from our great sponsors and the community.Of course, it helps when it's a FUN fundraiser.

Our first place team this year was "The Queen Bees," representing the County Clerk's Office:  Beverly Little, Sheryl Moul and Leah Iverson. The battle for 2nd and 3rd places waged on for quite a while, but eventually the "Rightway Bees" claimed 2nd: Kari Pearson, Carl Wirkkala, and Dot Com, and 3rd went to "Totally Trendy" - Sarah Strain, Karen Case, & Michael Cowan. Good spellers, all!

There was lots of other fun. Best Cotume Award went to "Bee S.A.F.E." (Emergency Support Shelter); Best Name to "Ole Spellas" (Pioneer Lions); Most Creative Spellers were "Rightway Bees" (Rightway RV); and Best Team Spirit was awarded to the "Windermere Wordsmiths" (Windermere Real Estate).

Spell-ebration! It's coming up soon - March 9, 2012 at the Kelso Theater Pub - so it's time to get your 3-person team together. If you're worried about finding 3 good spellers, it really only takes one good speller and the other two can be moral support! It's an evening of great fun, wonderful Pub pizza, audience participation (prizes for the best cheering section), and of course spelling. Team registration is $75 for your team of three, including pizza. Audience tickets are $8, including pizza. Click on this link to get more information and a registration form: 

 http://www.poouster.com/altrusa/spellingbee-resgistrationform2012.pdf

Post-Holiday Update

The holidays and all the fun that goes with them have come and gone. At our club Christmas Party this year we got together to make darling stuffed animals that we can donate to one of our local charities. Altrusans chose their favorite animal and brought it to its well-rounded cuteness with stuffing. It was a fun and worthwhile afternoon - a good way to celebrate and be able to pass along that spirit to others.

So - onward to other fun activities!

Our club's major fundraiser, Spell-ebration, is coming up Friday, March 9 at the Kelso Theater Pub. Reservations for 3-person teams and tickets for the event are now available. Click on this link to download more information and the form:  http://poouster.com/altrusa/spellingbee-resgistrationforms2012.pdf

The Holiday Season is Definitely Here!

The Breakfast Bunch is definitely in the middle of Christmas! We're still taking poinsettia orders, we have the the gorgeous "Jewels on the Rivers" afghans in stock for Christmas giving. (Or hey, treat yourself!) In addition, we're selling raffle tickets for our toy wagon again this year. A $2 ticket will buy you a chance to win a radio flyer wagon heaped full of toys. Talk about one-stop shopping! You can get raffle tickets at Cowlitz Credit Union on Friday, Dec 16, or anytime at Banda's Bouquets on Broadway in Longview.

November Happenings

November is always a fun month - all those holiday bazaars, thoughts of fall foods, and holiday planning. We can help you with two things - decorating and gifts! First of all, we've started taking orders for our florist-grade, lovely six-inch poinsettias. There are color choices available. They're a great buy at $13 each, fresh, and delivered directly to you - PLUS - you get the added benefit of knowing your money is going to support community programs. The local Emergency Support Shelter is one of our projects, and we were recently honored to participate in their Candlelight Ceremony to support victims of domestic violence.

On to gifts - we have the perfect gift for anyone on your list! Our lovely "Jewels on the Rivers" commemorative afghan is available for $55. It's a finely woven soft cotton tapestry with images of Southwest Washington points of interest and comes with a booklet explaining the history of each "jewel." You can see them at Banda's Bouquets, 1310 Broadway, Longview, or contact us at Altrusa-CowlitzCounty@hotmail.com to place an order.