Donation to Jen's Friends

On December 11th, members Dorothy Wondolowski, Marsha Brown and Kathy Somerville met with Wendy Holmes, President of the Jen's Friends Foundation Board, to present our annual donation in support of this worthy cause.  Jen's Friends provides financial help as well as drivers and personal support to local residents battling cancer.

Elves at the Polar Express

On December 7th a group from Carroll County Altrusa, along with friends and family, volunteered to perform as Elves at the Polar Express in Glen.  The Polar Express train ride is a major fundraiser for the Believe in Books Foundation which provides children's books to local libraries and schools.  We "Elves" put on our costumes and escorted children and families from the train to Santa's workshop.  We all had fun choosing an Elf name - we had Sparkle, Dusty, Jingles, and more - and embellishing our imaginary Elf jobs.  We enjoyed this evening of fun!

A Great party for the Foster Families of Carroll County

On Saturday, December 13th, the staff at DCYF and members of Carroll County Altrusa hosted a Christmas party for all the Foster Families in the county.  Held at Madison Elementary School, crafts, face-painting, balloon animals were all provided as fun activities.  In addition, each child left with a new book and hat and gloves.  This event is a fun traditional for Carroll County Altrusa members.

Save the Dates!

• Sunday, November 23rd.  Stocking for Soldiers packaging. Delivering our cards for the soldiers. White Mountain Hotel 1 pm
• Sunday, December 7th.  Elves gathering at the Polar Express to support Believe in Books Foundation.  4:15 at The Theatre in the Woods, Glen
• Monday, December 8th.  Christmas Party at Lorraine's home.  A batch of cookies for the nursing homes is your ticket.
• Saturday, December 13th.  DCYF Christmas Party for foster families of Carroll County.  2 - 4 pm at Madison Elementary School gym.

District One Workshop

On November 1st approximately 75 members of Altrusa, District One attended a day-long workshop hosted by the Portland club.  Topics covered included focusing on the strategic plan to help members choose specific service priorities.  Club members then shared ideas of ways to market our Altrusa name to the public.  The keynote speaker, Pat Gallant-Charette, was inspiring.  She began marathon swimming at age 46 and now at age 64 holds 3 world records for marathon swimming, recently swimming the English Channel. Her story can be seen at patgalant.blogspot.com

Pat Gallant-Charette

Nine members from Carroll County Altrusa attended the workshop, and enjoyed the ideas, good food and camaraderie.

Fabulous Flatbreads Fundraiser!

Last night, Thursday, October 23rd, was a busy night at Flatbread Company restaurant in North Conway.  Many of our members came from near and far with friends and family to enjoy pizzas at this popular restaurant.  Not only did we have a delicious dinner, but Flatbreads donated 10% of the pizza sales to our club for our literacy programs.  And our raffle wizard, Nancy, sold $200 worth of raffle tickets for the 50/50 raffle!  The winner kindly donated a portion of her winnings back to our club programs.  The beautiful banner was created by Holly for the event, and can be used at future events.  Many thanks to our wonderful members for their enthusiastic support and large appetites.  Also, thanks to Tara Eames Murphy for displaying her beautiful jewelry.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer

Sunday, October 19th, 2014.. .What a Day!

Our Altrusa Team joined the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in North Conway at Whitaker Woods on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning.  We had 16 members, including cancer survivors, attend the event as walkers and as workers on the registration and hospitality tables and in directing traffic.  We felt that this was a powerful event to raise awareness and funds to end breast cancer.  Making Strides walkers turn awareness into action and help to raise more than $60 million to save more lives from breast cancer.  What a day!

Making Planters

On Saturday, September 13, Marcia, Kathy, Diane and Marsha gathered in Tamworth with a group from the Bear Camp Valley Garden Club to learn how to construct natural-looking planters from concrete, peatmoss and perlite.  It was a learning process for all of us, but we left with 8 planters some of which we plan to sell at our June plant sale.  It was fun and we had great team work!

Make a Difference Day Plans

October 25, 2014

The fourth Saturday in October is designated as Make a Difference Day.  This is the day when we all come together at the same time to make a difference in our communities on a national day of helping others.  Founded by USA Weekend Magazine and its partners, Make a Difference Day is a national day of doing good... a celebration of neighbors helping neighbors.  Altrusa, as an international organization, has participated in Make a Difference Day activities since 1997 and has been the recipient of a $10,000 cash award on two separate occasions.  By participating in Make a Difference Day we hope to create a community awareness of Altrusa and to show Altrusa's focus on literacy.  This year we are planning potential projects at Children Unlimited in Conway and at Cornerstone Christian Academy in Ossipee.

Summer Fun!

A Day at Wells Beach

Dinner and a cruise on Lake Winnipesaukee

Our group enjoyed many social events over the summer months, including a cruise on the MS. Mt. Washington, a trip to Wells Beach, a cooking class at Stonewall kitchen, and an hilarious play at The Barnstormers.  There were also kayak trips and golf games in between to round out the summer fun.

Plant Sale Fundraiser

On Saturday, May 31st we held a very successful Plant Sale, teaming with the Cook Memorial Library in Tamworth who also held their book sale.  The weather was great and our perennials sold quickly, as did the cement leaf birdbaths made by our members - that is a fun project!  Our profit from this sale was $1,076.00 which will greatly help our literacy projects.  Thank you to the Cook Memorial Library for sharing their space with us!

Year End Cookout!

On Monday, June 9th, we held our annual year-end cookout and initiated 3 new members to Carroll County Altrusa.  The dinner was hosted by Cathy Baybutt at her beautiful home and gardens with delicious dishes provided by all the members.  What a bunch of great cooks!  We were also delighted to welcome Kathy, Marsha, and Betsy as members to our club.  They are bringing exciting new service ideas and energy to our group as we look forward to a new year of service to our communities.

New Officers Inducted

At our dinner meeting on May12th, we inducted our new slate of officers and Board members for the 2014-2015 year.  They are:

• President - Thelma LeBlanc
• Vice President - Kathy Somerville
• Secretary - Cindy Hyatt
• Treasurer - Judy Yeary
• Immediate Past President - Pat Kehoe
• Board Members: Barb Kennett, Terry Packard, Ruth Stevens

Proposed Summer Activities

Our Club is planning many fun activities for the summer and has discussed the following:

• June 30th - Mt. Washington Cruise on Lake Winnipesaukee, 6-9 pm.  Contact Pat
• July 14th - A Day at York Beach, hosted by Lorraine and Barbara.  Contact Lorraine
• July 15th - Stonewall Kitchen Cooking School, York, ME 11:30 - 1:00 $50. Contact Ruth 
• August 13th - Barnstormers production of "Be My Baby", with dinner at Chequers Villa Contact Pat
• August 21st - Stone Mountain Arts Center, dinner followed by a Free Concert. Individual reservations
• Sap House Meadery in Ossipee and Lunch at Mountainview Station. TBA Contact Terry 

Some members will be gathering to play golf.  If interested, call Diane.

Red Sox Tickets Raffle Winner!!

Cathy Sholtanis presents raffle winner, Paul Mattatall, with Red Sox tickets.

Paul Mattatall, of Eidelweiss in Madison, was the winner of our Red Sox Ticket Raffle.  A long-time baseball coach and Red Sox fan, Paul won 2 tickets to seats on the Green Monster for a regular season home game.  Many thanks to Terry and Wendell Packard for donating the tickets to Altrusa of Carroll County.

Women's Build - Habitat for Humanity

     For the 5th year, Altrusa of Carroll County has assisted the MWV Habitat for Humanity with the annual Women's Build held on Saturday, May 10th.  Each year Lowes and Habitat for Humanity encourage women to participate in the building process and Lowes donates $5,000 towards the construction effort.  Our club supports this work by providing coffee, water, pastries baked by members and a full lunch for all the participants.  Big Dave's Bagels provided sandwiches at a generous discount, and both Shaws and Hannafords contributed to the lunch.  After lunch, a couple of our members picked up their hammers and went to work hanging storm doors, shutters and building a storage shed.  Together, a group of women can accomplish great things!

Cement Leaf molding changed to May 22nd

We have decided that it is not going to work out to make cement leaves this Saturday.  Because of the late start to the growing season we do not have any large leaves available.  We are suggesting that we move the date to Thursday, 5/22 at 4:30.  This should still allow us enough time for the cement to cure prior to the Plant Sale.  Also, bring whatever you might have that we can create both cement leaves and flat garden stones.  You might think of different shaped leaves, large and small, flowers, twigs, anything from nature. 

Spring Conference in Bermuda

This year the Altrusa District One Conference was held on the island of Bermuda April 25-26.  Five of our members , Kathy Somerville, Ruth Stevens, Nancy Spaulding, Pat McCoy and Kathy Miller were able to make the trip and added a few days for sightseeing.  The Conference was held at the Fairmont Princess in Hamilton and our group stayed there, enjoying the luxurious hotel for 5 nights.  The Conference provided workshops with lots of information for officers, and for new members.  Literacy projects were shared as were the “ingredients” for a successful club.  As always, the sharing of ideas and projects inspired attendees and we encouraged each other to bring new ideas back home.

One very special event at the Conference was the installation of our new member, Kathy Miller, by the International President Ilona Kirby at the end of the banquet on Saturday night.  Our club also received The Mamie Bass Service Award for our "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" work, a Literacy Award for our "Mail for Me" project, and Second Place for the newsletter award.  

In addition to the Conference, we made sure that we had time to sightsee and explore.  We visited the Masterworks Museum of Art and adjoining Botanical Gardens and enjoyed High Tea at the Hamilton Princess which was delightful and delicious.  We spent an afternoon at the beach but best of all was the 4 hr. private tour of St. George by concierge and former mayor E. Michael Jones.  What a Conference!

Volunteer Luncheon at the Gibson Senior Center

On April 24th several of our members helped the Gibson Senior Center by serving lunch to the many volunteers who deliver Meals on Wheels and who provide help to the seniors in our community.  The Altrusa volunteer servers were Judy Taylor, Judy Yeary, Lorraine Streeter, Rachel Anderson and her granddaughter Ashley and Lisa Maggiolo.  Thank you ladies!

Save these Dates!

Our club has several activities and events over the next few weeks, so you may want to mark your calendar.

• April 14th - Election of officers at our business meeting
• April 15th - Tri-Club Birthday Party (see details below)
• April 25-26 - Altrusa District One Spring Conference, Hamilton, Bermuda
• May 5th - Orientation meeting to share information about Altrusa
• May 10th - Habitat for Humanity Women's Build for which we provide lunch at the job site
• May 31st - Plant Sale fundraiser held in cooperation with the Cook Memorial Library in Tamworth

Guest Speaker from Starting Point

     At our February meeting, Suzette Indelicato, Director, shared with us the program and priorities of Starting Point, which has a purpose of advocating for and supporting victims of domestic and sexual violence.  They provide a place for people to come to a safe place and plan for their future.  Suzette encouraged us to see domestic violence and its victims as a part of the fabric of our community that needs to be addressed and changed.  Our most important service to Starting Point is to influence change in our culture - talk about it, don't accept it, use your voice and take opportunities to change expectations.  As individuals or a group we can deliver kits to local police departments, distribute Starting Point brochures to churches and other community locations, provide childcare for Support Group meetings, donate paper and personal care products, contribute stamps and/or assist with mailings.

CASA Informational Reception

     On Thursday, February 13, 2014 from 5:15 to 7:15 pm an informational meeting and reception will be held at 403 Route 302 in Glen, NH to provide information for those wishing to learn more about Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of NH.  Meet a Family Court Judge, the CASA President Marcia Sink and other volunteers. Light refreshments will be served.  CASA of NH is central to fulfilling society's most fundamental obligation by making sure a qualified, compassionate adult will fight for and protect a child's right to be safe, to be treated with dignity and respect, and to learn and grow in the security of a loving family. This is not a fundraising event.  Please RSVP to Jen by February 4th at jbuteau@casanh.org or 603-752-9670.

    

Christmas Party for Foster Families in Carroll County

   On December 14, 2013 the Madison Elementary School gym was transformed into Christmas Central as Altrusa hosted the Carroll County Foster Family Christmas party.  With over 100 people in attendance it was truly a memorable day!  Altrusans worked alongside DCYF members setting up tables, putting up the tree, placing all the food and creating a cozy spot for Santa Claus..  There were free books for all the children as well as handmade hats and mittens for those who needed them.  Each child got a special gift from DCYF but the best gift of all was watching all those glowing faces as children ran, played and ate.  The big moment, of course, was when Santa Claus arrived and children ran to greet him.  It was a wonderful afternoon for all.