April/May 2009 - Junior League of Minneapolis

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Community SMILES ON KIDS FACES IS A MASTERCARD MOMENT! By Sue Patow, Books 4 Kids Chair Thanks to your generosity and time Books 4 Kids has once again been a great success! 56,394 books have been collected and 35,130* have been distributed to children from toddlers to grade 8. Thank you for hosting book drives, cleaning out your closets and involving your friends, schools and workplaces in the book drive. It truly was a success due to your support. The smiles on the kids faces as they selected a book of their own-was more than a MasterCard moment! The need, especially in these economic times, has been overwhelming. Seven new organizations were added to the list of recipients this year. Schools and non-profit organizations are already filling out applications for next year! New this year, book collection started in the fall with school challenges and member-hosted holiday collections, enabling us to start sorting and distributing books in mid-November. The last delivery will be April 27. Reading Circles was strengthened as a part of B4K. Community response was overwhelming and many JLM volunteers spent meaningful time with children of all ages in organized one-on-one or small group reading sessions. Reading Circles will be a new project next year — sign up now to help children become lifelong readers. Books 4 Kids would not be a success without the committee members’ commitment and dedication. They are truly awesome women! I do want to highlight a few: Rebecca Thompson, who not only secured a donation of 19,000 books from General Mills but also spearheaded the development of Reading Circles. She and Anna Olson worked with schools, community organizations and JLM members to launch and grow the program throughout the year. Sarah Oehlerts and Katie Hetherington were an awesome team: they identified recipient organizations and coordinated book sorting shifts and deliveries, often in their own SUVs with Molly, Gavin and Ed! Sara Schmidt and her team initiated and coordinated the school challenges in the fall giving us a head start on book collection. Mary Mathiowetz oversaw book collection and manned the spreadsheet of donors, keeping us all on track and busy writing thank you notes! Mary is the incoming chair of B4K and I know she will continue the success of the past five years. Karin Abel and the New Members hosted a very successful “Books 4 Bowling” event: 820 books were collected, beating last year’s record! I would also like to acknowledge the generous support of the Beard Group for providing free warehouse space beginning in August and Two Men and a Truck who provided the now-familiar collection boxes and their trucks and drivers to help with our biggest book distributions. On behalf of the recipients of your generosity and the Books 4 Kids committee, thank you once again for your support. Start saving your books for the Fall collection! * Duplicate books from General Mills will be distributed in the 2009-2010 book distribution Minnesota Orchestra Daily SYMPHONY BALL 2009 SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 2009 Join other young professionals for the newest addition to Symphony Ball! Enjoy a hosted bar, light bites and music by Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles. Tickets start at $65. 1930S BLACK TIE-Admired but not Required Saturday, June 20, 2009, 8:30pm – 1am The New Deal Lounge, Minneapolis Convention Center For more information or to purchase tickets: www.minnesotaorchestra.org/crashtheball 12
Community THANK YOU FOR MAKING AN IMPACT ON OUR COMMUNITY! By Annie Gorman, Helping Hands Chair As the JLM year comes to an end, I wanted to take a few minutes to thank each and every one of you who decided to make an impact on our community through volunteering at one or more of our Helping Hands events. We couldn’t have done it without you! Our goal this year was to organize impactful events and drives by connecting with past projects and new organizations throughout the JLM year. Some of the past projects we engaged were Cook for Kids events at the Crisis Nursery, an art supply drive for Free Arts MN and events supporting CARE Partners and the Jeremiah Program. New organizations ranged from painting porches at an Aeon Housing apartment complex, childcare at YouthLink and the Tubman Alliance, and a Spring Fling at Passage Community, a family housing division of Simpson Housing. We also expanded Impact Day into two separate events this year as a way to celebrate our 85 th anniversary through highlighting our presence and current impact on our community. We continued the success of last year by bringing together nearly 100 JLMers at Bridging for furniture assembly and sorting household items. A second event at Second Harvest Heartland was added, where 50 JLM members sorted over 12,000 pounds of food for distribution to various shelters around the metro area. Thanks again for your support and commitment to our community! THE YEAR OF FIRST – KIDS IN THE KITCHEN MAKES A DIFFERENCE By Debbie McDowell, Kids in the Kitchen Our New Member Event on March 17 was a huge success this year! For this year’s event, we partnered with Bolder Options, an activity-based one-on-one youth mentoring program that focuses on running and biking, academic goal setting, and volunteerism to build self-esteem and encourage healthy eating habits among 10-14 year olds. We began the evening with a discussion on overall nutrition, focusing on each of the different food groups, followed by four interactive ‘stations’ — make-your-own pizza, trail mix, and fruit kabobs and vegetable tasting — to illustrate how eating healthy can taste good and be fun. While the pizzas were baking, the kids were able to paint their own recipe boxes (a few were quite the artists!). Finally, we wrapped up the night with dinner (hot, steaming pizzas that they had made earlier), and surprised them with goodie bags that they were very excited to take home with them. The event was a success on many levels. Bolder Options was very impressed with the Junior League of Minneapolis and loved the event. More importantly, though, was the positive response we received from the kids with some saying, “I didn’t know vegetables could taste so good!” and “I really enjoyed the teamwork tonight!”. All of the New Members can agree that the best two words we heard were “Thank You”. We wanted to represent the Junior League in a way that made a difference to these kids – even if for just a few hours out of their day – and we did. 13
Page 1 and 2: April/May 2009 Volume 10 Issue 8 Pr
Page 3 and 4: Members THE MISSION FOR 2009-2010 B
Page 5 and 6: Members TRANSFERS EXPLORE A NEW FAS
Page 7 and 8: Members 85 LEAGUERS: ANNIE GORMAN G
Page 9 and 10: Members APRIL BIRTHDAYS ATTENDING T
Page 11: Members HEADQUARTERS INFORMATION By
Page 15 and 16: Community MAKING A DIFFERENCE: THE
Page 17 and 18: Fundraising ANNUAL FUND By Emily Ba
Page 19 and 20: Sustainers SUSTAINER PRESIDENT’S

April/May 2009 - Junior League of Minneapolis

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