May 6, 2018

     And here we are at our last meeting until September.  The year seem to fly by now that I am not watching a clock in a classroom.  How slowly some of those days were.  My son said on a Friday that if he were still out on the playground sweating in the hot sun, it would only be Wednesday.  At retirement everything seems to move much more quickly because usually the tasks are much simpler to do and more diverse.  At least I think that is the reason for the speed up.  But it could be that is much faster going downhill. 

    Thank you for all the books you brought to our last meeting.  There were more than 100 really nice ones to get out to the schools right away because the last day of school is near.  Patty Edwards and I delivered 50 to Palma Sola Elementary in April.  That is a total of 375 books that we have sent to elementary school children since September.  I have at least 100 more that we should get out there.  We want the principal or assistant principal to be involved in the process because we want the books to be given to children, not stored in a library or a teacher's classroom library.  It is important to also think about the children who are not in a Title 1 school, but who are not typical of the usual population in a non-Title 1 school.  All elementary schools have reduced lunch families.  Probably those parents are not as liable to be buying expensive children's books when they have to keep to a tight budget for the necessities of life.

    So, who knows a principal or someone who can get you into a school to deliver a box of 50 books?  Please let me know and I will bring the books to you at our next meeting, or sooner if you prefer.
Call me 794-1646 or email me at ellenbell411@hotmail.com. The schools and those who delivered books follow:
Sue Roe                                                             Oneco Elemenatry
Deborah Thomas                                               Rogers Gardens Elementary
Judy Shostrom and Judi Ussery                        Samoset Elementary
Connie Myers                                                    Ballard Elementary
Carol Champlain                                               Tillman Elementary 
Bruce Dietch                                                      Sugg Middle
Elaine Graham                                                   Prine Elementary
Pat Edwards                                                       Palma Sola Elementary

    David Brown who has been an FREA Trustee for several years is stepping down  His position will be filled by Karla Brogdon.  The duties of the Trustees are to oversee the FREA Scholarship Foundation.  Deborah Thomas has accepted the position of District VII Director.  Susan Davorac is the District VII Volunteer of the Year.  Our Essay Contest Winner, Julian Sylva, was chosen winner  of the District VII Essay Contest.  His essay has been forwarded to FREA to compete with the winners from the other district.

    MCREA members contributed 18,000 volunteer hours this counting period.  No slouches, us!

    Danielle Guida has received the recurring scholarship from the FREA Scholarship Foundation.  She is in her 4th year.  She will also be receiving another MCREA Scholarship.  She plans to spend part of her last year studying in Spain where she will live with a local family.  We have four new MCREA Scholarship winners.  We hope they will be able to attend our May luncheon so we can congratulate them and remark on how young they are.

    Elaine Waldron announced that our Handbook will be accepting ads.  If you have a business which you would like to include, please give a business card to Elaine.  The price is reasonable  --$10 per business card and $25 for a full page. If you can sell an ad to a business not affiliated with MCREA, those will be accepted also.  The purpose is to raise enough to pay for the handbook production.

   

Dr. Diana Greene

 





    We enjoyed hearing from Dr. Greene, Superintendent of the Manatee County Schools.  She spoke about the referendum that passed and provides funds to raise teacher and support staff salaries.  Of course, after this meeting, we read that perhaps we will be losing this reasonable, calm, and dedicated leader to another Florida county.  I believe she has brought equilibrium and structure to our schools, but this will be a chance for her to return to her home county.

    Our May meeting should be lots of fun.  Last year's Dollars For Scholars auction was a great success with some of us "winning" great prizes.  Remember, the big prize winners were the mothers of the scholarship winners.  Please look around your cluttered houses and choose some wonderful item or items that you know one of us needs to further clutter up our houses.  Seriously, at our ages, we have amassed lots of stuff, but will our children want it?  This is an opportunity to re-gift without guilt because the ticket money goes to the scholarship fund.  We will not be doing our show and tell event this year in order to give us lots of time to peruse the wonderful items on the auction block. 

    If you haven't heard from your caller by May 13, call Mary Ann Jensen at 756-7603 to make a reservation.  This will be our last meeting at the IMG Country Club.  Next year we will meet at the De Soto Mall with our favorite chef and staff from Renaissance on 9th serving our lunch.  Same price, great food, and we can shop afterwards!

See you soon,
Ellen