Looking back on 2011.

It is January 2012 and that can only mean one thing in the world of Women's Club's....it is "Reporting" time.  It is the time when we look back at the previous year and put in writing all the time, money, and energy we have spent on activities throughout the year.  Even though this sounds easy enough to do, it is not; in fact it is quite hard.  Thank goodness we have some club members who are good at writing down everything they do and are willing to help those of us who aren't as through.  Let's start with December:

A Christmas auction was held at the Grundy Presbyterian Church and 16 members and 4 guests attended.  A total of $830.00 was raised to go toward our general fund.  The GWC tried really, really hard to give away money to various charities.  We succeed in donating $250.00 to the Social Services to be used to purchase food for a Christmas dinner to feed local area children.

Ginger giving a check to Cecil Stiltner for Social Services

We also donated $200.00 to Heritage Hall's resident aide fund so that they could purchase need articles for 5 new residents.  A DVD/CD player and a digital camera were also donated to the center to be used throughout the year at their functions.

Sandy, Bertha, and Tania presenting to Heritage Hall.

Socks, blankets, toiletries, and various other gifts were donated to the local Woman's Shelter.  The shelter had 3 children and 5 women in residence for the month of December.

Glenna, Bertha and Sandy showing some of the gifts.

Two scholarships were awarded.  The Appalachian School of Law and The Appalachian College of Pharmacy each received $500.00.  These scholarships are to be awarded to a woman from Buchanan County.

Tania presenting Dean Mayhew with a check.

96 pairs of socks were also collected from club members and donated to the local Woman's Shelter.  Each pair of socks were put in a plastic bag with a note that read:

As you begin your new life and Step Away from Abuse,
we hope you will find comfort and warmth as you walk into your newly found freedom.

Peggy, Sandy, and Ginger giving Kristi sock for Woman's Shelter.

November:

SER was held in Kentucky this year and 5 members and 1 guest attended.

?, Sandy, Bertha, Tania, Liz, and Shirley at SER in Lexington, KY.

November is also the month we hold our largest fundraiser.  The 6th annual Holidays in the Hills was held November 19th.  This year's event was sponsored by Consol Energy and had over 40 vendors attend.  This year the Mt. Mission Choir had a small concert and a professional photographer was on hand to take Christmas Card pictures.  A total of over $3400.00 was raised.

October:

The Southwestern District meeting was held in Hillsville, VA and eight members attended.  We even preformed a skit entitled "When I grow old I shall wear purple".

Jenny, Sandy, Tania. Ginger, Betty, Peggy, Liz, and not pictured was Shirley.

A 5 gal. jug of "pull tabs" were presented to District President Jenny Martin to be donated to the Ronald McDonald House.

Tania giving Jenny the pull tabs as Sandy looks on.

Ladies Night Out is a Relay for Life event that 10 members attended.  We wore our decorated bras on the outside of our shirts to bring awareness to breast cancer.  We attended a Town Council meeting and asked that October be declared Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

  
The Town of Grundy asked the GWC  to take over their annual Spiritfest.  A small event that was free to anyone who chose to come.  Lots of work went into making the event a huge success and we have already been asked to undertake this event again next year.

Betty, Bertha, Tania, Sandy, Pam, Liz, and Nikki accepting a check from Consol Energy.

September:

We held our first Roundup Rodeo membership drive.  We send out invitations to past members encouraging them to re-join and also to potential members that had expressed interest in joining.  One new member was added, Tamara Neo.

Looking good in our hats and boots.

Nikki Stiltner walked in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk in Philadelphia.  The Liberty Garden that was replanted to remember the events of 911 and a new sign was added.

Tania Bertha, and Sandy in front of the garden.

August:

The Grundy Woman's Club was acknowledged at the Relay for Life event as a Gold Level Corporate sponsor.  
We had 5 members attend GFWC VA LEADS in Lynchburg, VA.  We had a lot of fun learning new ideas and making lots of friends.

Tania, Liz, Sandy and Bertha with Lori Chevalier and Hope Royer, GFWC VA Presidnent.

July:
A well deserved break.

June:

GFWC International Convention was held in Milwaukee, WI and Sandy Stiltner and Liz Stiltner attended.  Sandy was chosen as GFWC Virgina's LEADS candidate.  She garnered lots of knowledge from the seminars and shared it with our club. 

Sandy accepting her certificate from GFWC Int. President Carlene Garner

The 1st annual Vintage Fashion Show and Jewelry Sale was also held in June.  This was a great fundraiser and also took advantage of recycling jewelry and clothing.  We raised over 1100.0 to go toward our scholarship funds.

Betty, Sandy, Pam and Ginger enjoying the Vintage Fashion Show.

May:

The annual College Shower was held in May.  This year we expanded from two participants to three.  They were provided blankets, gift cards,  lamps, clocks, computer accessories, etc.    We also attended Family night out, a Relay for Life sponsored event. 

Margaret, Ginger, Kristi, and Peggy with our plaque.

April:

A yard sale was held at Margaret Wakeland's house.  Even though it was cold and windy we managed to raise close to $400.00 and recycled a lot of nice clothing.


GFWC Virginia held its State convention in Richmond Virginia and eight member attended.  

Liz, Sandy, Betty, Tania, Peggy, Ginger, and Bertha with Sue Meredith.

April was also Child Abuse Awareness month and the GWC sold pinwheels, the national symbol of child abuse prevention, and planted a pinwheel garden.  The proceeds from the sale was sent to Prevent Child Abuse Virginia and a book was donated to the Imagination Library in the memory Ethan Stacy a local child who suffered and died at the hands of a child abuser.

Planting a pinwheel garden to prevent child abuse.

March:

At our March meeting we honored June Croley, the founder of GFWC, and Ginger Robertson dressed as June and gave a speech. Past presidents of our club that were at the meeting were also honored.

Present and past presidents of GWC Sandy, Betty, Ginger, Anna Ruth, and Jessie.

We also had eleven members go to the Southwestern District meeting held in Richlands, VA. 

February:

  In honor of February being American Heart Month the members of the GWC wore Red to their meeting.  Members brought watches to be sent to the American Mural Project.  Five new members joined our club.

 

 Cammy Crockett, Donita Estep, Pam Wolford, Debbie Bostic, and Mary Stacy all joined.  Glenna is congratulating the ladies.


January:


A reporting meeting was held at the Buchanan County Library.  One member attended the Legislative Reception in Richmond, VA.

If after reading this you think that being a member of the Grundy Woman's Club is time consuming, you are right.  This is only a FEW events that we did throughout the year, there are many, many more that did not get listed.  If you think that being a member of the Grundy Woman's Club is rewarding, you hit the nail on the head.  Come join us and  make a difference in someone's life.

SER=FUN

Southeastern Regional Conference may not immediately make you think of having a good time, but you would be wrong.  This years SER was held at the Marriott Griffin Gate Spa and Hotel in Lexington, Kentucky and was fabulous.  Well, except for the part where the hotel did not get the room reservations correct and we had to share a bed instead of having one by ourselves.  Just a little togetherness.

The tours were fun, the meetings were informative, the food was great, and there were plenty of fabulous vendors willing to take your money.  If that was all there was to do you would have had a great time, but we found a few other things to occupy our time.

Meet some of the players from Ole Miss.  They were there for a football game against Kentucky the next day.  I am sure it made their day having their pictures taken with Sandy and Bertha, until some lady made the girls leave.

As you can see, these conferences are a lot of work.  You have to attend meetings all day, shop till you drop and then they expect you to dress up in fancy outfits for dinner.  Jeans and Bling was the theme for dinner on Friday night.

Tania and Bertha just horsing around!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cash Bar - two little words that can really make a conference.  That is a place where you give them "cash" and they give you "alcohol".  I really loved that concept, Bertha really loved that concept, Liz really loved that concept, but Sandy really, really, really loved that concept.

Just a little togetherness!!!

See you next year in Roanoke, VA

P.S. -  bring plenty of cash.

Holidays in the Hills 2011

The 6th Annual Holidays in the Hills was held November 19th at the Appalachian School of Law's Booth Center in Grundy, VA.  This is the Grundy Woman's Club's largest fund raiser and this year was the best yet with over 3400.00 raised.  Let's hear it for the "Girls".  A lot of hard work goes into making the event a success but it is all worth while.

This year 40+ vendors came out to display their goods.

There were vendors of all kinds, make-up, jewelry, crafts, candles, fishing poles, floral arrangements and more.

 

 

 

 

 

The Mt. Mission Choir even stopped by and sang several songs to the delight of the vendor and customers.  They have already penciled us in for next year.

 These nice people were from Wise and made stain glass jewelry.  If they try to tell you they brought me a case of wine just ignore them.  I think they are a little delusional.

Anna Ruth, Peggy and Jessie enjoyed the day.

As you can imagine an event of this size does not happen without a few mishaps.  What if a vendor shows up that you don't have a table for - no problem, what if there were more vendors than you really had room for - no problem, what if the elevator decided to completely shut down about two hours before the show ended - BIG problem.  Some of the vendors had really, really heavy items and lots of them to load up after the show.  Thankfully Jeff, (the gentleman hired to help with set-up and clean-up), and Cade, (Bertha Street's grandson), were happy to help carry a lot of boxes and packages to cars.  However this brings up the subject that maybe we have outgrown our current facility and finding one on the ground floor would be nice.

But didn't our table look nice.  Big thanks to all that helped and plans are already underway for next year.  Mark your calendar for November 17th, 2012.

Spirit Fest 2011

We've got Spirit, Yes we do,
We've got Spirit, How about you?

The Grundy Woman's Club took on another project and a big one at that.  The Town of Grundy asked the Grundy Woman's Club to undertake the responsibility of putting on this years Spirit Fest.  Seems like a simple enough project, after all we have put together the Holidays in the Hills for 5 years, surely this couldn't be much different.  WRONG!!!!

Several members of the woman's club met with Town Manager Roger Powers to discuss the possibility of the woman's club coordinating the Spirit Fest.  We came armed with a lot of questions about the event:  time, location, over sight, and most importantly budget.  How much would the "Town" allocate for the woman's club to spend on putting on this event?  Zero, nada, nilch!!!  Nothing, we would not only organize the event we had to RAISE the money for it.  WHAT????

You would think most sane people would say- No Thank You.   What can I say, we are not normal.  So, Bertha Street set to work calling the Coal companies in the community to ask that they support our event.  We are extremely blessed that they responded wholehearted and we raised over $5000.00!!!  A few phone calls later and the entertainment was all lined up however no more money:)

A beautiful day brought out lots and lots of people, free entertainment and free rides didn't hurt either.   Bluegrass bands, Country bands, and Classic Rock bands along with a square dancing group all preformed.  The PICK program, a program in the school system that introduces children to musical instruments, brought a group of youngsters to play.  They were extremely talented.

There were lots of fun and games for the youngsters.  A bounce house and slide, a sticky wall, a joust tournament, a mechanical bull, a rock wall, and a five station sports game kept everyone busy and it was all FREE! 



                                                                     
I think we did a pretty good job!  We can now sit back and relax.  

NOT!!!!  It's time to start on the 6th Annual Holidays in the Hills.  Being a Grundy Woman's Club member is exhausting.                                                                                                        

Town Council

Five members of the Grundy Woman's Club went before the Town of Grundy council on Tuesday night,  October 11, 2011.  Woman's Club members Pam Wolford, Ginger Robertson, Betty Shields, Tania Stephens, and Sandy Stiltner asked the board members for permission to put up pink ribbons throughout the town to bring attention to breast cancer and also asked that the Town of Grundy declare October "Breast Cancer Awarness Month".  The members readily agreed and thanked the club for not only decorating the town with ribbons in the past but also for taking down the ribbons later the next month.

We also updated the council members on Spirit Fest and presented them with a flyer that will appear in this weeks newspapers and an agenda for the upcoming event on October 22nd.  The members were impressed with the amount of work the Grundy Woman's Club had put into the event.  Then council member Gary Prater commended us for all the work the Woman's Club does throughout the year.  He said that there were a lot of organization in the community but that the Grundy Woman's Club was always out there visibly helping citizens of the County.  All the members agreed that the Grundy Woman's Club was an asset to the Community and they were thrilled to be able to call upon us.

Ladies at this time give yourself a big "Pat on the Back" for a job well done; it is nice to be appreciated!

 

October = Work, Work, Work

October is really shaping up to be a busy month.  It would be nice to decorate the house and yard for Halloween, but who has the time?  The Grundy Woman's Club will have their monthly meeting at the Buchanan Public Library at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday the 8th.  We will have a short meeting (that would be the first time) with a brunch style meal and then start to decorate our Bra's.  A lot of decorating materials have already been purchased; hair, eyes, lights, fur, etc.  What else could you possibly need....other than a bra.

On to Saturday the 15th.  Our Southwestern District meeting will be held in Hillsville, Virginia.  The meeting should be lots of fun, the two hour drive there and back, maybe not so much. 

On Thursday the 20th will we be attending the Relay for Life "Ladies Night Out".  This is always a great event with a lot of vendors and great information regarding Breast Cancer Awareness. The Grundy Woman's Club will have a booth again this year and be giving out literature on Club work and have some items for sale.  To bring attention to this terrible disease we will wear those decorated Bra's we made, on the OUTSIDE of our shirts.  That should be interesting to say the least.

Now it is on to Spirit Fest, an annual event that the Town of Grundy has sponsored for the last several years.  The Town asked the Grundy Woman's Club to take over the responsibilities of the event this year.  "No" does not seem to be a word that we Club ladies use very often.  This has been a lot of work but it is coming together nicely.  Let's hope the weather cooperates and we have a nice day.

Did I remember to mention that on the 11th we would also be going before the Town Council to have October declared "Breast Cancer Awareness" month and asking for permission to decorate the town with pink rigid vinyl ribbons?  As I said October is a busy month. 

Membership Rodeo

A beautiful Saturday with just a touch of fall in the air was the setting for our first Membership Rodeo.  We were prepared with hats, bandanna's and lots of good food.  We conducted our first meeting of the fall and then did a question and answer session of what the Woman's Club is and stands for. 

We welcomed into our fold Tamara Neo, the Commonwealth Attorney for Buchanan County.  Tamara is pictured above in the red jacket and should be a great asset to our club.

Betty Shield and her daughter Sandy Stiltner

One of the really fantastic aspects of the Woman's Club is how it expands the generations.  Betty Shields, her daughter Sandy Stiltner, and Sandy's daughter Nikki all attended  the roundup.   What better gift can you give your daughter than to introduce her to a wonderful group of women and teach her about the benefits that can be produced when we as women put our hearts and souls into a project.

Bertha Street, Liz Stiltner, and Tania Stephens enjoy the beautiful day.  I am not really sure what Bertha is doing.....


Hope to see you at the next meeting!