May, 2017

    Another season of MCREA is nearly over. We have contributed a great deal to our community this year.  We have supported scholarships for FREA as well as our own MCREA Scholarships. We have donated about 500 books to FELT to be delivered to school kids along with their food backpacks.  We have sponsored a fifth grade essay contest and enjoyed awarding the winners and their classmates gift certificates.

  We have contributed to the Manatee County History Fair and to the Manatee Schools Foundation.  Our members have contributed hours of their time in the schools tutoring and doing other necessary work to help teachers and students, like volunteering at book fairs.

    We have donated food to the Manatee County Food Pantry, and toiletries and other gifts to nursing homes and the Salvation Army.  I am sure that I have forgotten something, but we have been very generous.

    And we had fun too.  Our meetings always had interesting programs and there was great joy in winning the door prizes, especially the big one.  Besides the action at the meetings, who does not enjoy the chance to visit with old friends?

     Our MCREA Scholarship winners will attend our May meeting.  There are four this year, one from Palmetto High, one from Bradenton River High, and two from Lakewood Ranch High.  Each will be awarded $500.  We are also awarding $1000 to Danielle Guida who is entering her third year as an education major.  In addition, she has been awarded $1000 from FREA.

     This meeting will be the last chance to buy FREA Extravaganza tickets.  Also, it will be your last opportunity to pay your dues easily.  After that, you will need to send a check to the treasurer.  Our new treasurer's address in the handbook is incorrect.  Please make a note of the change:  Judy Bodner
                                                        5111 134th Terrace East
                                                        Parrish, FL 34219
Her phone number is correct so you can phone her if you need to.

    Our program for May is "Show and Tell".  There is no special theme, so bring something that means something to you.  We will share at our tables, and then tables will choose whom they would like to share with the group.  I know, I am scratching my head too.  Maybe there was a trip that you made, an object from your past at work or from childhood, a photo that means something special to you. 

    We will also have a "Dollars for Scholars" auction.  If you would like, bring something that is new or slightly used to put in the auction to raise money for our scholarship fund. Instead of writing bids for each item, you will be able to buy tickets ($1 each, $5 for 6)  which you can place in a container in front of each prize.  Then there will be a drawing for each item. 

 



 

    At our April meeting, Rick Kerby, Artistic Director of the Manatee Performing Arts Center, spoke to us about building some of the sets for the plays presented this season.  He brought set designs and discussed how they were created.

    Fay Murphy, MCREA Parliamentarian, and Executive Secretary of FREA, inducted our new officers who will serve for two years.  Mac Aldrich received a certificate for Volunteer of the Year of MCREA. 

    A Memorial Ceremony remembered our members who passed away:  Joan Kratzmiller, Marie Lehrer, Rita Sampselle, and Joyce Ellis.

   I hope to see you on May 18.  If you have not heard from your caller, please call Susan Roe, 792-4786, or Mary Ann Jensen, 756-7603.

Ellen