Junior League of Boca Raton - May Bridge 2009

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Spirit of Giving Network CommitteeMakes an Impact in the Communityby Mary RedmanSpirit of Giving Network is a collaborative of 22nonprofit organizations with a focus on children andfamilies in South Palm Beach County. Through itssupport of the Spirit of Giving Network, the JuniorLeague of Boca Raton is having an impact on improving after schoolcare, family services, and primary education of thousands of SouthPalm Beach County’s underprivileged and underserved children.Working with the committee this year has been a pleasure.I would like to thank them all for their time spent, theirideas presented and all the effort and heart that they putinto making such a significant impact to the Spirit of GivingNetwork. The committee members were Hillary Fey,Melissa Montes, Susan Sobkowich, Jill Patterson, KristenPetersen, Susan Davis, Mary Redman and Joyce DeVita(Sustaining Advisor).Spirit of Giving Network Committee – NewMember Project – Life Skills Seminar by Jenny WickerThe 2008-2009 Spirit of Giving Network Committee workedtogether during the League year to make a significant impactin the lives of the families that are a part of the Spirit of GivingNetwork. We started off the year by driving the Holiday GiftDrive to record numbers in the amount of gifts given to thechildren throughout the Spirit of Giving Network community.We received such a positive response from our organizations.The most common feedback given from the organizationswas, “The Holiday Gift Drive was very smooth and the mostorganized gift drive ever! Thank you. Every child receivedtheir desired gift.”The second half of the League year, our committee decidedto focus on fulfilling more than 200 wish list items for theorganizations. We first asked the organizations to review thelists to see where they could help each other. By doing this,they were able to fulfill 10% of the items. We then reachedout to the League in order to fulfill more of the items.Although the response was smaller then we had hoped, wewere still able to fulfill many wishes for the organizations.Throughout the year, Kristen Petersen and Mary Redman werethe liaisons with the Spirit of Giving Network new memberproject committee. The new members were assigned the taskof putting on a Life Skills Seminar for the 22 nonprofit organizationsthat are a part of the Network. Being able to mentorand guide the new members to a successful and fun eventwas our goal. We attended their meetings, helped connectthem to our organizations and gave them advice when theyasked. In the end, they put on an event that was a successand a huge value to the families that attended. (See the followingarticle written by Jenny Wicker).Kristy Brown, Kiersten Rutherford, Katie Brown, Whitney Turk and Jenny WickerOur new member project turned out to be a small but wonderfulsuccess. We invited over twenty organizations to participatein a Life Skills Seminar. The seminar took place onMarch 4th at the Youth Activities Center. Dinner was served,courtesy of Publix, and the speaking began. Dr. Marks, apediatrician who specializes in teaching children about obesity,spoke to the parents; while her co-worker taught thechildren about certain foods. The parents watched a presentationand the children played games such as red lightgreen light with food groups. It was really cute to watch thechildren stick pictures of foods with their corresponding lights(red light for bad foods and green light for good foods). Itwas even more interesting to see the parents’ reactions to af i v e - y e a r - o l dcheeseburger thatstill looks the sameas it did the day theyordered it in ahappy meal. Puttingon this seminarhelped our grouplearn a plethora ofinformation includinghow to deal withdonations, organizinga done-in-aday,assigningchairs and muchmore. I think everyonewould agreethat this seminarwas a great success.24 community corner
“All Aboard” Final Boarding Callby Toni GianfortunoThe Junior League provides funding and volunteer supportto develop and provide classroom presentations tolocal 4th graders on topics related to art, culture andthe history of Boca Raton. In a strategic partnershipwith the Boca Raton Museum of Art and the Boca RatonHistorical Society, the Junior League will supervise, coordinate and executean innovative and exciting educational outreach program.As Hometown Histories comes to a close in the 2008-2009League year, we would like to recap the year of ourgoals/objectives and the impact Hometown Histories has hadin the community. Hometown Histories has trained all of itscommittee members to be presenters and go forward with theprogram in the area schools. The committee has completedfive out of the ten elementary schools before the winter break.During the blackout date with FCATs, we’ve had time toaccomplish preparing the kits that are left behind for eachschool so the educators may continue through the years withpresenting the program to the area 4th grade students. As wehave partnered with the Boca Raton Historical Society and theBoca Raton Museum of Art, we have had an awesome year.Hometown Histories kicked off the 2008-2009 League yearby celebrating the 100th birthday of the firstschool, a smallwooden structure built in 1909. The first presentation wasgiven to Boca Raton Elementary School in honor of being ourcommunity’s first school. The Boca Raton Historical Societyrecently partnered with Boca Raton Elementary School also tohelp celebrate its 100th Birthday.The mayor of Boca Raton, Susan Whelchel, read a proclamationfrom the city, and Palm Beach County Superintendent, ArtJohnson spoke about the change from the original woodenstructure to the new Boca Elementary, which serves as a technologymagnet school.Executive Director Mary Csar of the Boca Raton HistoricalSociety and Museum presented Boca Elementary Principal,Bradley Henry, with this year’s BRHS ornament commemoratingthe town’s first school. The other dignitaries in attendancewere Nora Rosensweig, Area 5 Supervisor, former Area 5Supervisor Carole Shetler, School Board Member FrankBarbieri, and former Area 5 School Board Member MarkHansen.As the schools finished up with the FCATs at the end of March,Hometown Histories was ready to start up with the remainingfive schools. It will be a tight squeeze to complete the last fiveby the end of the year. However, Hometown Histories remainspositive and on track to reach our goal. Our first school wehave lined up in April is Verde Elementary.The Hometown Histories committee has enjoyed the challengeand the honor to partner with the Boca RatonMuseum of Art, the Boca Raton Historical Society andMuseum and the Palm Beach County School District tosupervise and coordinate this innovative and exciting educationaloutreach program.community corner25
Page 1 and 2: Volume 19, Number 6May 2009Women Bu
Page 4 and 5: President’s Perspective by Kriste
Page 6 and 7: Shannon Moriarity - Doing it All! b
Page 8 and 9: Member SpotlightJENNY WICKER, NEW M
Page 10 and 11: Caring HeartsThe Junior League of B
Page 12 and 13: her legacy around Boca Raton. Her p
Page 14 and 15: Fun Times in Summertimeby Andee Hol
Page 16 and 17: Dollar$ & Cent$ IIby Denise O’Sul
Page 18 and 19: Community CornerJLBR to Participate
Page 20 and 21: Mary Lavalle & Susan Saxton at New
Page 22 and 23: Milagro - The Miracle Continuesby L
Page 26 and 27: A Busy and Exciting Year for Kids i
Page 28 and 29: From a Cook’s Point of View by Ma
Page 30 and 31: Chocolate Decadence Raises over $45
Page 32 and 33: Latest Scoop from MSAT by MSAT Comm
Page 34 and 35: Sustainer Scoop by Lou Ann SuchHAPP
Page 36 and 37: Bulletin BoardActive SummerBirthday
Page 38 and 39: Bridge PatronsThe Publications Comm
Page 40: Nonprofit Org.U.S. PostagePAIDBoca

Junior League of Boca Raton - May Bridge 2009

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