President's Message - AJLI Connecting to You!

The opportunities for JL members to be “connected” with AJLI (The Association of Junior Leagues International) and other Leagues continue to expand!

Webinar Wednesdays

As one of the many methods to help Junior League women develop as community and civic leaders, AJLI is launching Webinar Wednesdays.  They are designed to appeal to every JL member, regardless of age or current engagement in her community.  Webinar Wednesdays will begin this month and run through May 2012, and will be offered on the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 1pm (Eastern Time Zone). For more details, see page 7 of last month’s Lasso.
Other AJLI Webinars

AJLI has scheduled, and will continue to schedule, other webinars on various issues of importance to the Roadmap for the Future Strategic Plan, such as one on Collaborative League Engagement and Governance Structure. See page 10 of this Lasso for more details.

Quarterly All-Member Emails

By now you should have received the quarterly email that AJLI will send every Junior League member with an email address. These emails are designed to share resources, benefits, opportunities to learn and connect, provide information and demystify what the Association does throughout the year, as well as build a stronger relationship with and among members. It is hoped that these emails will foster a more networked Association whose individual members and Leagues are aware of what their peers are doing and are better equipped to make an impact in the communities they serve through the sharing of ideas and best practices. Naturally, each of you will be able to opt out of the All Member Emails if you so choose.

So, as the quarterly AJLI newsletter is entitled - get “connected”!

First Fall Session of Treasure Trunk Program at Brenda’s House

Our first Treasure Trunk session of this season was delivered on September 28 with the Babies in the Story (BITS), Kids in the Story (KITS) and Kids in the Kitchen (KITK) components delivered by our JLC volunteers to a house full of children.  What a splendid time we had at this Treasure Trunk session!! With 12 children present, it made for a lively night.

BITS, lead by Tammy Figol with Marie Starich as her faithful assistant, engaged both babes and moms in books and song. Toes were tapping and hands were clapping!

Elaine Tsekouras read, "Caps for Sale" for KITS and then the children followed up the story by making their own caps. Glue, stickers and jewels were everywhere!

Yummy yogurt parfaits were on the menu for KITK. Nicole Nodolf & Jessie Seymour had the kids chopping and spooning and eating. Even a few parents joined in.

Fall Provisional Velvet Matheson floated between the parfaits and caps and helped both run smoothly, including a quick save of a leaking sink in the kitchen!

If all this sounds like the splendid but meaningful fun it is, please sign-up to volunteer for Treasure Trunk at Brenda's House. We'd love to see you there!

The 11 future sessions of Treasure Trunk for this year will also be delivered at the Brenda’s House facility located in the SW neighbourhood of Killarney.

MOMS U Matter (MUM) Program at Highbanks Society - Premier Session

Beef Shish Kebobs on the BBQ - yummy!

MUM’s premier session, delivered on September 22, had the theme of Backyard BBQ and was complemented by sunshine and warm weather.  This was the first session held in the brand new kitchen at Highbanks Society and the kitchen layout worked out well for interacting with the moms.  We had five mom participants, four Highbanks Society volunteers and five JLC volunteers.  The 2 D’s (Donna Fan and Deb Vanderberg) ran the session and the third D, Dani Flowerday, helped to plan the menus and nutrition portions of the September, October and November sessions.

The menu for this first session included Beef Shish Kebobs served with Ancient Grains Rice, Greek Salad, Pita and Humus and Apple Crisp. Melanie Tewksbury, Cyndi Cox and Tammy Nazari volunteered for this session, with Cyndi and Tammy  baking  the Apple Crisp Desserts.   Menu adjustments were made for our new Vegetarian participant.

All the moms were given a MUM binder and Cook! by Dietitians of Canada.  All the returning residents were given copies of the day’s menu and the gifts for this session were BBQ tongs and “Fire Wire” skewers.

The seven future MUM sessions scheduled for this year will also be delivered at the newly remodelled kitchen at Highbanks Society.

2011-2012 Community Programs Off to a Great Start!

With MUM participants at the BBQ

Elaine enjoying the Kids in the Story
craft at Brenda's House

The JLC 2011-2012 program year has begun!  Through the MUM program at Highbanks Society, the Treasure Trunk program at Brenda’s House, Teen Totes, Safety Expo on March 20-21, 2012 and the Kids in the Kitchen initiative being delivered May 1, 2012 at Rundle School, we will continue to impact the Calgary community.  Our Future Program Planning Group will be exploring new directions in programming for the JLC.

Donna (L) and Tammy at the MUM program

Jessie, Velvet (back) and Nicole (R) in the kitchen during Treasure Trunk on September 28

Cyndi with tongs and Melanie

Making shish kebabs at the MUM program

Jessie helping at Kids in the Kitchen during the
Treasure Trunk program