On March 17, Judy Shostrom, Deborah Thomas, and I went to Kinnan Elementary School to award the MCREA Fifth Grade Essay Contest winner, Victoria Rodriquez, with a $25 gift certificate. Her teacher, Joy McArthur, also received a $25 gift certificate to use as she wishes in her classroom.
Judy and Deborah were very composed and professional as they spoke on the televised morning announcements about the contest and about MCREA. I was very impressed with their ease in front of the camera. Victoria's parents showed up and were very pleased with Victoria's honor. Her essay has been forwarded to FREA to compete with other essays from winners around the state. Deborah is already planning next year's contest. This year was a complicated one for teachers who had a hard time, she thinks, carving out any time for doing the essays. Four schools did participate with 22 essays turned in. We think interest will grow.
Victoria's mother said that Victoria is a voracious reader, a clue to her ability to write well. The topic that was chosen by FREA was to describe an experience that the writer had with an older person -- grandparent or friend. Victoria chose to write about a trip her family made to visit her grandparents in New York State and their trip to see Niagara Falls. She made the reader feel as if he or she were there too.
Our April meeting gives everyone an opportunity to reminisce about a favorite trip or to discuss an exciting one you are planning. We call this our Show and Tell program and it is always lots of fun. Please bring in any interesting object which you picked up on your travels and share it with us. We will meet at Renaissance on 9th, at 11 a.m., on Thursday, April 16. As usual, if you do not hear from your caller in the week preceding, please call Mary Ann Jensen at 756-7603 to make a reservation.
At our March Board Meeting, we had amassed 11,077 hours of volunteer work. Each year, we nominate one of our members who has volunteered many hours as our Volunteer of the Year. This year's nominee is Sandra Stephenson who creates those brain teasers for our enjoyment at lunch and the Bingo cards for the Scholarship Fund. Among hundreds of hours she spends on other volunteer projects, she also knits and crochets those hats for newborns.
The roster of new MCREA officers for 2015-2017 was announced at the March meeting. The election will be held at the May meeting. The following have graciously accepted their nominations: President, Susan Roe; First Vice President, Phyllis Omilak; Second Vice President, Elaine Waldron; Secretary, Nancy Erwin; Treasurer, Pat Griffin; Past President, Judy Shostrom.
Now is not the time to heave a big sigh of relief that those people have agreed to take over the helm and your job is done. There are many committee assignments which must be made, and when you are called to serve, please say yes. If you would like to serve on a committee, check your Directory, choose one, and let one of the new officers know. No task is too hard because we all share the load.
I will be emailing you an MCREA Renewal of Membership form. Please take care of this as soon as possible which will save us having to place phone calls to procrastinators.
Please remember to bring in some children's books this month for the FELT project. I will be grading them and boxing them up early in May in order to get them to FELT for the last day of school distribution. We need lots more. I intend to visit the Goodwill Book Store at Tara soon to pick up some. Big Lots and grocery stores often have books on sale which would be great to add to our stock.
See you on April 16.
Ellen
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