DCYF Foster Family Party a Success!

All the kids, big and little, enjoyed themselves at the DCYF Christmas Party on Saturday, December 8th at the Madison Elementary School.  Co-hosted by the social workers from DCYF and the members of Altrusa of Carroll County, we provided crafts, activities, face-painting, snacks, dessert and lots of hot chocolate to the foster children and their families in Carroll County.  Santa (Rob Owens) came to visit and handed out candy canes and listened to Christmas wishes.  Santa also shared a story from one of the head elves about the magic in the bells from Santa's workshop.  Children of all ages enjoyed the afternoon and many parents commented that this event has become an important tradition in their family.  Thank you to all who contributed their time, goodies and holiday spirit!

Support Altrusa with a Community Care Bag!

For the month of December, Hannaford of North Conway has designated Altrusa of Carroll County as its Community partner with their reusable Community Care bag program.  For each reusable Community Care Bag ("Because you Care" - look for those words) purchased in the month of December, they will donate $1 to Altrusa.  The bags are priced at $2.50 each.

Urge your friends and family to buy new grocery bags, or get some to wrap Christmas presents or to deliver Christmas goodies.  It all goes to our good cause.

Altrusa receives $1,000 Grant

Members Beth Wheatley Dyson, Cathy Baybutt, Cathy Sholtanis, Thelma LeBlanc receiving grant award.

Altrusa International of Carroll County is honored to be the recipient of a $1,000 grant from the Altrusa International Foundation to be used to support the project called "Mail for Me".  With this unique literacy program, Altrusa members work with teachers in the schools to identify children who would benefit from good reading material at home.  A magazine subscription is purchased by Altrusa for these children and they receive the magazine in the mail.  Hence the name "Mail for Me".  The program has grown, providing 62 subscriptions in 2017.  The program has expanded to include pediatricians' offices, domestic violence centers as well as organizations that service children.

To help Altrusa International of Carroll County continue this project, the club has two fund raising activities in December.  Hannaford of North Conway has designated Altrusa of Carroll County as its Community Partner with their reusable Community Care bag program.  For each reusable Community Care Bag pruchased, they will donate $1 to Altrusa.  And then on December 11th, Flatbread Company is hosting Altrusa and will donate a portion of the pizza sales from that evening to Carroll County Altrusa.

The Laura Foundation's "Halloween Town"

Altrusa of Carroll County helps The Laura Foundation for Autism and Epilepsy with the very popular annual Halloween Town at King Pine Ski Area.  We like to support this very worthwhile non-profit by helping as they raise funds to provide support and therapy for local children.  Oooh the fun we had.....  as greeters, set-up, hot chocolate sellers, raffle managers and more.  The weather was clear and the happy smiles were contagious.  And we had some very clever costumes!

Altrusa members "Making Strides"!

On Sunday, October 14th, members of Altrusa of Carroll County joined the effort and 3 mile walk to raiser funds to find a cure for breast cancer.  We did well and had fun, as our team raised $1,730 and placed #6 out of 23 teams who entered the North Conway Walk.  With more than 300 residents joining the Walk, approximately $68,000 was raised for the American Cancer Society research.

Aerial view of the participants gathering to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Walk. 

Helping Valley Promotions at Reach the Beach

Our local non-profit publicist, Lisa Dufault, asked us to help in staffing a station at the Reach the Beach Relay.  The Reach the Beach Relay is a long distance relay race that is run through the picturesque hills of New Hampshire at the start of the foliage season.  It starts at Bretton Woods and ends at Hampton Beach.  This was our first time helping at this event and we directed traffic and runners at Stop 7 at Echo Lake.  It was a fun day with high spirits and beautiful weather.

Welcome Janel!

Our first meeting of the season was held on September 10th following a delicious dinner provided by the Hospitality Committee.  We warmly welcomed Janel to Altrusa of Carroll County with a short presentation ceremony.  During our meeting we also discussed and organized the many service events for the upcoming year.  The calendar on this site has an updated list of events and meetings so be sure to take a look.  We are looking forward to a rewarding and busy year!

Summer Fun at Wells Beach

We enjoyed two fun events over the summer months, with a few of us gathering at Wells Beach for a weekend of fun in the sun.  Later in August,
a large group attended a wonderful Agatha Christie murder mystery at the Barnstormers "And Then There Were None", which had us all stumped.  Before the play, we enjoyed wine and appetizers at Cathy Baybutt's lovely home - thank you Cathy!

Plant Sale at the Cook Library

On June 2nd, Altrusa of Carroll County teamed up with the Friends of the Cook Library to host a Plant and Book Sale fundraiser.  Business was steady all day with this event continuing to be our biggest fundraiser.  Thank you to all our members who contributed plants, time and energy to make this a success!  A special shout of thanks to Diane Robinson who organized and directed our efforts!

Special Meeting at the Laura Foundation Adaptive Sports and Rec Center

Our May meeting was held in Madison at the Laura Foundation's Adaptive Sports and Recreation Center on Eaton Rd.  First, we welcomed our newest member, Teri Cosentino, to our Club. Sponsored by Kathy Miller, Teri has recently moved to Conway from NJ and has eagerly supported our many service projects.  We are delighted to have you join us Teri!

After a delicious dinner prepared by the Literacy Committee, Pat Kehoe described the many programs which have been developed over the past few years to benefit children with autism and epilepsy.  Pat provided a tour of the facilities and the opportunities offered to families.  The barn has been remodeled into a wonderful activity and instruction center.  And of course Lisa tried out the basketball hoop to score a 3-point shot!

Lisa scoring a 3-point shot!

Supporting Habitat for Humanity

Lunch-time providers: Ruth, Kathy, Beth, and Sue Battles, organizer.

On the day before Mother's Day, our Club supported the efforts of Habitat for Humanity at the 11th Annual Women's Build.  Each year, our members provide breakfast and lunch to the 50 hard-working women framing and erecting walls at the newest Habitat for Humanity home in Madison.  Marsha Brown, Kathy Laracy and Sue Battles provided breakfast at the building site, while Kathy Somerville helped with the framing.  Crumb cake was generously provided by Dave's Bagels and lunch was prepared by the Community Market in Madison.

Fun at the Spring Conference

Five of our members attended the Altrusa District One Spring Conference held in Portland, ME.  The enthusiasm of the attendees, the ideas shared, the service projects detailed all added to a wonderful Conference.  So often our energy focuses on our local service projects, but my conversations at the Conference prompt me to step back and see the many projects provided throughout New England and beyond. Learning more about the International Foundation’s service project “Days for Girls” helps me to understand the need for such projects and the simple ways in which we can help girls across many cultures. Altrusa International provides me with an opportunity to easily help in other cultures and continents. It is so rewarding, and just plain fun to be with these women!

Diane, our President-elect, in the parade of banners.

Kathy, Pat and Cathy enjoyed a delicious dinner at Becky's Diner on the waterfront.

Cathy, Beth, Diane and Pat organizing our fundraising table.

We won the Letha H. Brown 2nd Place Award for our
 Mail for Me service project!

We won the Mamie L. Bass 2nd Place Award for our
 Foster Family Christmas Party Project!

Serving Meals On Wheels Volunteers

For the past several years, our members have volunteered to serve the volunteers.  The Gibson Senior Center in North Conway provides a volunteer appreciation luncheon to all the Meals On Wheels drivers every spring.  Altrusa of Carroll County members support this effort by providing the servers for this luncheon.  Thank you to Nancy, Teri, Judy, Barb and Lorraine!

Tri-Club Birthday Party

On April 18th members of the 3 Altrusa Clubs of NH gathered to celebrate with a "Birthday Party" at The Bob House in Moultonboro.  About 40 ladies gathered to enjoy dinner, laugh, share and play a tough trivia game!

Susannah and Beth

100 for 100 Awards and Book Sharing

Pam Lemieux, 1st Vice governor of District One, presented award pins to each of our Club members who volunteered 100 hours of service to our community last year.  In addition, Pam presented Altrusa of Carroll County with a certificate citing our donation last year of over 100 books to children in our community.  The enthusiasm and caring of our members is always inspiring.

A special guest speaker at our last meeting was Laura Cummings, owner of White Birch Books, who brought books to share and suggestions of great new reads.

Wildflower Bookmarks

Some of our members spent a cold winter day making beautiful bookmarks with dried wildflowers pressed by Diane Robinson.  These will be sold as part of our June 2nd Plant Sale/Book Sale fundraiser with the Cook Library in Tamworth.  The bookmarks are beautiful!

Diane, Ellen and Kathy creating bookmarks.

Helping the Laura Foundation for Autism and Epilepsy

On January 27 and 28 many members of our Club worked at the Laura Foundation Pond Hockey Tournament at King Pine assisting with the fundraising.  Our group sold breakfasts, lunches, bagels, coffee and snacks throughout the day helping the Laura Foundation for Autism and Epilepsy raise almost $55,000 toward their programs to help children.  The sun shone brightly, spirits were high and players and their families had a lot of fun at the event.

Nina Monaco, Donna West, Ellen Andreano, Cathy Sholtanis, Kathy Laracy with trays full of sandwiches.

Gifts to Help our Local Non-Profits

As part of the Christmas and Holiday season, our members purchased gifts and raised money to help three of our local non-profit organizations.

We gathered cash, gift cards and gift items for those at Starting Point.

Kathy and Linda presenting volunteer Fran with our donations.

We gathered cash, gift cards and lots of bags of pet food for the Conway Humane Society.

Peg and Nancy presenting our gifts to the shelter. What is most amazing is that neither came home with a puppy!

We made a cash donation to the Laura Foundation for Autism and Epilepsy and members volunteered to work at the Laura Foundation pond hockey fundraiser.

Kathy with Amy Mahoney, Laura Foundation Director

Party for Carroll County Foster Families

Altrusa of Carroll County works with other organizations to support and serve families in our communities.  For 10 years we have partnered with the DCYF to provide a Christmas party and gifts for the foster families in our area.  What a fun day we had on December 9th with about 70 family members and children!  There were activity centers with cookies to decorate, face-painting, nails painted, Lego construction, delicious food, hot chocolate and a visit from Santa.  In addition to all this fun, each child left with a new book and new mittens.  Many thanks to the ladies from DCYF who worked with us, and to Evelyn Ardito who coordinated and organized the event.  This put us all in the Christmas spirit!

Christmas Party

On December 11th Altrusa of Carroll County celebrated with a Christmas party hosted by Vice President Kathy Miller.  It was a wonderful time with over 30 members and guests attending!  In addition to good food and great camaraderie, we also collected items needed by the local women's shelter and for the Conway Humane Society.  Our baskets of gifts were overflowing! In addition, we put together platters of Christmas cookies which were distributed to our local nursing homes, Mineral Springs and Mountain View Nursing home.  As always, giving is the best gift!

Helping to End 68-Hours of Hunger

One day a month our crew of Altrusans helps to pack approximately 150 bags of food for local children in need.  This provides children with enough food to feed them for the 68 hours over the weekend.