Love is in the air

Love is in the air

President's Message

Spring is in the air, and so we will "get out" and do some hands on service.  Please see the general meeting notices for February (Abby's Closet), and March (Children's Center) and plan to attend them.  We are all so blessed, it is really wonderful when we can share our time to help others.  Hope all can attend!

Speaking of sharing time, the nominating committee is in full swing - please, if you have any interest in taking on a board or lead position next year, even if you just want to find out more information about a position, contact DeLoris Scherschligt.  Thank you for seriously considering this.  Personally I have found this level of participation to be rewarding far beyond what I could have ever imagined!

Blessings and wishing all an early spring!

Chris Bonney
President 2014-2015

Abby's Closet

Lake Oswego Women’s Club

General Meeting Reminder

Saturday, February 21

9:30 am -11:00 am

See address and directions below

We will have a short meeting and will present our gift of over 100 custom-made jewelry items, and then will help with sorting, etc.
Clean out your jewelry boxes and donate any sparkly pieces that would be appropriate to wear with a prom dress (earrings, bracelets, necklaces, etc.) They add these to the items in the "Accessories" area at the giveaway event and let the girls each select one item.  The girls love these additional goodies!  Other donations - semi/formal gowns, formal wraps and purses, shoes, unopened make-up and/or personal items – are also welcome and truly appreciated.

Directions

ABBY'S CLOSET CLUBHOUSE

Tualatin Business Center II, Building 4

18201 SW Boones Ferry Road

Portland, OR  97224:

From I-5 South:

• Take EXIT 290 and go towards Bridgeport Village Mall 

• Turn LEFT onto SW LOWER BOONES FERRY RD. (go past The Grand Hotel and Club Sport) 

• Turn LEFT onto SW BOONES FERRY RD. 

• After you turn left on to Boones Ferry Rd., make a RIGHT turn into the first driveway (Tualatin Business Center - look for the large red sign that says "18101-18227 SW Boones Ferry Road"). 
• Once you have turned into the driveway, continue past all of the warehouses until you get to the gated area.  The doorway to the Abby's Closet Clubhouse in the building on the left, just before you get to the gate. 

Lake Run Update

36 people are already registered for the 39th annual lake run!

Its only February!

Get the news out there! Tell your friends, family and anyone you see to support this great charity event! Soon we will have flyers and posters to help spread the details. We will need your help to distribute.

Send people to the Lake Oswego Women's Club website to learn more.  It’s all there……..  Links to register, FAQ, which charities we support, race routes, Kids race and other related details.

Our Volunteer Coordinator,  Kris Coder will be reaching out to you to help support this event.  Please know that your help is greatly appreciated.  It takes all of us to pull together to “make it happen”   Thank you! 

Fran Herbert
Lake Run Chair 2014-2015

Pinwheel Assembly

March 19 General Meeting – Volunteer Opportunity
Location: Children’s Center 1713 Penn Lane, Oregon City

As some of you may recall, Children’s Center participated in a county-wide child abuse awareness campaign last April. This year, as part of the campaign, Children’s Center plans to assemble and distribute 20,000 pinwheels throughout Clackamas County. These pinwheels are special because they are the symbol for National Child Abuse Prevention Month. In addition, each pinwheel will have a card attached with the Clackamas County Child Abuse Hotline with a call to action to report child abuse when it is suspected.

Children’s Center volunteers will be at Clackamas Town Center distributing pinwheels beginning March 13th and continuing through the month of April to support their awareness efforts. BUT, they can’t distribute the pinwheels until they are assembled! This is a wonderful opportunity to lend a helping hand to one of our favorite organizations. We joined LOWC to help local nonprofits, so let’s get to it!

Pinwheel assembly just takes hands and hearts, no brain power. On March 19th at 6:30 pm, we will have a very brief meeting at Children’s Center (located at 1713 Penn Lane Oregon City, OR 97045), the remainder of the evening will be spent chatting, assembling pinwheels, nibbling on tasty snacks, and sipping wine or another beverage of your choice. Feel free to bring a friend or teen to this meeting. It’s a great way to introduce them to LOWC and the Children’s Center!

If you are unable to attend the meeting, but you would like to assemble pinwheels, please contact Lori Malone. I will deliver pinwheel kits to your home (and return them to the center when you’re finished) or we can make arrangements for you to assemble pinwheels at Children’s Center on an alternate date.

If you’re interested in distributing pinwheels at Clackamas Town Center in March or April, please contact Children’s Center Volunteer Coordinator, Andrew Watanatraibhob.

Hope to see you on March 19th!

Lori Malone
Children’s Center Liaison

Book Club - All members are welcome to attend!

Please join us at any or all of the following book club events.

Feb 25th - 5:00 PM 

Happy Hour at Manzana followed by ArtSpace if desired - "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr (LO Reads selection)

April 9th - 7:00 PM

Lauren Retzlaff's residence - "Still Alice" by Lisa Genova

May 14th - 7:00 PM

Pam Helling's residence - "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz

If you can't make it to any of these meetings but are interested in joining the book club, please contact Sharon Mirarchi to be added to the distribution list.

Sharon Mirarchi
Book Club  2014-2015

LO Reads Community Dessert A Success

Thanks to a very able committee (Sheri R., Toniya V., Deloris S., Chris B., Pam H),  LOWC once again hosted a very successful community event for the LO Reads program and the chosen book - "All the Light We Cannot See". 

Author, Anthony Dorr (pictured above), expressed his appreciation to all the LOWC volunteers who decorated and hosted the event.  A couple of the members were not pictured but helped with the event.   Additional thematic touches of bookmarks highlighting LOWC's fashion show and Eiffel Tower cutouts decorating the tables were due to the creative thinking of Sheri and her fashion show committee and Deloris and her amazing crafting skills which really added to the evenings ambiance.

This year's program was well supported by the community with over 600 people attending and expressing their appreciation to LOWC for hosting a lovely dessert.  The coordinated efforts of all who volunteered enabled us to have a fun evening that supported a great community event.  Thank you to all for your help with all of the details including the clean-up!!

Garlinn Story
Vice President 2014-2015

Brunch at the Ronald McDonald House?
  
6 Members said “YES”! 

They all weathered cold and foggy January morning to prepare brunch for the residence at one of Portland's Ronald McDonald houses.  They were energetically preparing two egg casserole, sausage, bacon, fruit salad and pancakes.  And as one of the young residence wrote on the erase board… “”GOOD FOOD”, along with her smiley face.

As delicious as all that sounds, the real treat was watching the families thoroughly enjoy the heartfelt feast.  The care, consideration and love that was baked into each dish equaled in knowledge of knowing that we helped families in their time of need.  Ronald McDonald House Charities of Oregon provides a “home away from home” for families with seriously ill children. 

Thank you Ronald McDonald, as we took away more than we gave.

DeLoris Schscherligt
Membership Chair  2014-2015

Children's Center Receives National Accreditation

Children’s Center in Oregon City received its National Children Alliance accreditation this week following an extensive application and site review process that recognizes the local nonprofit for excellence in effectively responding to allegations of child abuse in ways that are efficient and puts the needs of child victims first.

After submitting a 70-page application in March, Children’s Center achieved the highest level of membership with National Children’s Alliance, which conducted a site visit in November.

“Children’s Center is to be commended for its excellent work serving victims of child abuse,” said Teresa Huizar, executive director of National Children’s Alliance, whose goal is to ensure that every U.S. victim of child abuse has access to “high quality services that result from professional collaboration.”

As an accredited member of National Children’s Alliance, Children’s Center is dedicated to providing comprehensive, coordinated and compassionate services to victims of child abuse, said Executive Director Barbara Peschiera. The cost of $4,000 to apply makes the Children’s Center eligible for a $10,000 grant annually, but that the accreditation wasn't about money, Peschiera said. Children’s Center sought national accreditation to demonstrate to the community, donors and families that it provides the highest level of care.

“Primarily we wanted our families to know that we are following best practices and getting the best care possible,” she said. “We had to update 25 different policies, procedures and protocols, and those were just supporting documents that NCA wanted to know that we had.”

“An additional stamp of scientific credibility” will go with Children’s Center staff who testify in court about abuse cases, Peschiera noted, and the community at large will have an additional reason to trust Children’s Center staff's proper handling of such cases.

Accredited NCA members must utilize a functioning and effective “Multidisciplinary Team approach,” meaning that Children’s Center works collaboratively, with local law-enforcement detectives, Department of Human Services caseworkers and the Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office. NCA also considers standards regarding a center’s cultural competency, diversity, forensic interviews, victim support, medical evaluation and child-focused setting.

“They accredited our entire multidisciplinary team, and we had to agree on a system-wide basis of how we would handle these investigations,” Peschiera said. “We owe a lot of gratitude to the support that they gave us and the quality of work that they do.”

Lori Malone
Children’s Center Liaison

Fabulous Fashion Show

C’est si bon..la joie de vivre!!

Bonjour, mes amis. This year, LOWC’s 15th Annual Fall Luncheon and Fashion Show will take place in Paris! You and your friends are all invited to spend a lovely afternoon strolling though our French Markets at Oswego Lake Country Club on September 24, 2015. You will stroll through the fragrant marche aux fleurs, linger over the lovely desserts in our patisserie, break off pieces of baguettes in our boulangerie as you sample cheese in the aux fromages. 

Since we all have to wait seven months to visit Paris, I thought you might like to start getting ready for the event. Each month I will include a few tips about how to be a true Parisian woman taken from the new book, How To Be a Parisian Wherever you are.. Love, style and Bad Habits by Anne Berest, Audry Diwan, Caroline de Maigret and Sophie Mas. Hopefully, these tips will give you an insight into the quintessentially Parisian art of being a women! I will also include a few French phrases each month so you might enjoy speaking French at our luncheon in September!

Here are a few tips to get you thinking like a French woman.

! ! ! Tip #1 French Women

Cultivating your allure

Remember that the Parisienne never gives too much away because “less is definitely more”. She does have one signature item that she wears when she needs to feel strong and that item is an attitude. What is your signature item?

While you are working on being French you might also need a few French phrases. Please join us for Happy Hours and General Meetings and we can all try to speak French!

! ! ! French Lesson #1

French is often called the language of love and since February is the month of love you might want to practice a few expressions on a loved one!

~Je t'aime is known universally as the French way of saying "I love you," 

~Qu'est-ce que je ferais sans toi? Pronounced: kess kuh zhuh fur ay sahn twah?

Translated: What would I do without you?

~Tu as de très beaux yeux. Pronounced: too ah duh tray bo zyeh Translated: You have beautiful eyes. Flirt away! LOL

~Je ne peux pas vivre sans toi. Pronounced: zhuh nuh puh pah veevr sahn twah. Translated: I can't live without you.

~ Tu me rends fou. Pronounced: too muh rhon foo
Translated: You drive me crazy! This is for that special person that you can't live with or without--again, it's all in how you say it.

~Mangez bien, riez souvent, aimez beaucoup means: "Eat well, laugh often, love abundantly."

~La vie set trop court pour bore du mauvais vin, meaning: "Life is too short to drink bad wine".

~On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. "We see well only with the heart" from Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

~Il n'y a qu'un bonheur dans la vie, c'est d'aimer et d'être aimé. Translates as: "There is only one happiness in life: to love and be loved." from Correspondence à Lina Calmatta by Georges Sand

~Il n'est rien de réel que le rêve et l'amour. "Nothing is real but dreams and love," from Le Cœur innombrable, IV, Chanson du temps opportun by Anna de Noailles

~Aimer, ce n'est pas se regarder l'un l'autre, c'est regarder ensemble dans la même direction. "Love doesn't mean gazing at each other, but looking, together, in the same direction," from Terre des hommes by Antoine de St-Exupéry

~En amour on pardonne mais on n'oublie jamais. "In love, we forgive, but we never forget." (Unknown)

Tendres Baisers (tehn druh behsay). Hugs and Kisses,

Sheri Rathbun 
Fashion Show Chair 2014-2015