Conference 2021!

  🏆   Congratulations to Linda Ring and her team for presenting a remarkable and enjoyable District One Conference on Friday evening, April 23 and part of Saturday, April 24!  A Conference using Zoom to connect was new to all of us - and it worked well!  There were about 82 attendees at each session to hear and share new ideas and service projects.  The International Representative was Jenette Borrell, connecting from New Zealand and sharing an inspirational speech, and the Bermuda Club was also in attendance with one of their members connecting from England (it was after midnight there!)  Many of our friends from Quebec also joined us, and they appreciated the French language subtitles that Zoom can provide.

    A big shout out of Congratulations to our own Cathy Baybutt, recipient of the Governor's Award!  In addition, Altrusa of Carroll County received Third Place for the largest number of new members installed during the past year.  Linda Ring was recipient of the Gabrielle Crepeau Leadership Award for her work under the extra challenges presented by the Covid pandemic.

Make Way for Readers! Prep and program

We are still waiting to hear if we received the grant... but in the meantime we are preparing for our new program " Make Way for Readers".  Launching the program the first week in May, our members are contacting schools and daycare centers to provide book bags and books to encourage the "1000 books before Kindergarten".  A group met on April 21st to pack the bags and prepare for the next step.

Packing the bags to be delivered next week is Nancy Spaulding, Sue Battles, Pay McCoy, Cathy Sholtanis, Lisa Maggiolo.

Items included in the Dr. Seuss bags are a magnetic book mark, introduction letter, list of participating libraries and the 1000 Books tally sheet.

Final boxes all ready to deliver next week, packed by Pat McCoy, Cathy Sholtanis, Nancy Spaulding, Sue Battles, Lisa Maggiolo and Cathy Baybutt (photographer extraordinaire usually behind the camera)

District One Virtual Conference and Auction April 23 and 24

   Our Regional District One Spring Conference will be held virtually on Friday evening, April 23rd and on Saturday, April 24th.  The Zoom sessions will provide information on District activities, service projects, grant awards as well as a silent auction to raise funds for the Altrusa Foundation.  The item we provided for the auction is a Gift Card Extravaganza with a handmade book bag holding more than $250 in gift cards.  The high bidder can go shopping and dining in many wonderful shops!  It will be easy to look at all the items donated by the different clubs and bid from home.

  The Keynote speaker on Saturday at 11:00 am is Joanne Lannin, teacher, author and journalist who writes a monthly column for Maine Women magazine.  Hear her via Zoom.

Soldiers Care Package Outreach Program

 

New Literacy Initiative: Make Way for Readers!

 

 

  Altrusa of Carroll County announces a new literacy project: Make Way for Readers. Partnering with our local libraries and 19 childcare organizations in Carroll County, Altrusa will be distributing materials to promote the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten Program. During the month of May, Altrusa members will deliver over 500 cute Dr. Seuss book bags, each containing a magnetic bookmark as well as information about the 1000 Books before Kindergarten Program, library information and an initial tally sheet to help families get started reading.

Research has shown the importance of daily reading to children as young as newborns and while it might seem daunting to read 1000 books before Kindergarten, simply reading one book a day will easily attain this goal. Altrusa of Carroll County already supports baby book bags for newborns of Tamworth, a Mail for Me magazine subscription program for children in local schools and pre-Covid19, the club provided “libraries” at local Laundromats. This new venture was a next logical step in promoting one of the major aspects of Altrusa which is literacy.

Thanks to a grant received from Altrusa International our club will also present each daycare center with a class book and will provide $200 for each library to use to promote their program. 

Welcome New Members!

 At our Club Business meeting on Tuesday, April 6th, the Zoom attendees happily welcomed new members Marilyn Hughes and Shawn Flanagan-Rogers to Altrusa of Carroll County.  These enthusiastic women have already been helping with our service projects such as Packing for 68-Hours of Hunger and Make Way for Readers as we continue to implement our Community Service Projects.

As a reminder, if you are able to help pack bags of food for End 68-Hours of Hunger on the 4th Thursday of the month, please contact Pat Kehoe as more packers are needed.

Our Book Bin Donation box at Hannafords in North Conway earned our club over $300 for our literacy programs!  Many thanks to Barb and Nancy for keeping the box full and to Hannaford's for sponsoring our club.

Save the dates of June 5th, August 21st, and September 18th for our craft table at the Tamworth Farmers Market.  We will need members to create and sell crafts on those dates.