Congratulations ladies, on another successful poinsettia sale. On Friday, Carole informed me that we had sold over 520 plants this year. Of course, our net proceeds will depend on what the mix is for those plants, but we can be proud of our success. And, thank you to Carole and Pat for organizing our poinsettia sales again this year.

Our meeting next week will be our holiday celebration. So, please bring guests, and prospective members, but be sure to let Dorothy know for reservations.

Which reminds me. We have fallen out of the habit of letting Dorothy know if we’re NOT planning to attend a meeting, so she doesn’t order a dinner. We are fortunate that the Cherokee is not charging us for a certain number of meals, but at some point during hospitality time we have to tell them how many people we are expecting and if we’re expecting you and order a meal then you don’t come, we end up with an extra meal that we are charged for. So, please remember – if you are NOT coming to dinner to please let Dorothy know. Or, we will have to go back to charging absentee members for meals that we order.

We’re also going to collect items for baskets for the women and children at the Women and Children’s Recovery Community, so look for what we should be bringing next week for that effort.

If we don’t see you at our meeting next week, have a happy holiday season and see you in January!

We're planning to provide holiday treat bags again for the residents at the WCRC. There are 45 residents living there (15 Moms and 25 children) so we'll need to fill 15 bags. Please plan to bring some of the following items to our next meeting. We'll add to this by purchasing some additional items and arrange for delivery in time for the Holidays.

fresh fruit (apples, pears, oranges)

nuts; candy; cider or fruit drink; cookies;

Thank you for helping to make the Holiday Season a little brighter for others.

 Liberty Bank Poinsettia Sale

The bank sale has come and gone successfully. This year our sales totaled $604 versus $691 last year. We had ordered fewer plants but although the "sell" was harder people did buy the plants. Interestingly the sales this year were mainly to younger employed workers where in the past it had been to seniors. The event closed about 5:00 pm and we had just a handful of pixies left (8). Each of us on duty bought a few as we had people we could give them to.  The staff at the bank is so supportive and many of them and bank customers recognized us from previous years.  

Thanks go to Carole Snyder, Marge Neihart, Lauraine Torgerson and Romelle Vanek Helfman for a great team effort and special thanks to Erma McGuire for arranging this once again.

I thought you might enjoy seeing Erma at work on our behalf. This is an announcement she sent to the MN Women’s Press.

ATTENTION: J. TROUT LOWEN, EDITOR, MINNESOTA WOMEN’S PRESS

Zonta Club St. Paul is in its 76^th year of advancing the status of women and girls. This non profit community service club in 2002 through fund raisers sought, selected and supports three groups. The Neighborhood House Girl’s Leadership Program is aimed at multicultural urban girls ages nine to eleven to promote skills and confidence to become engaged students and leaders. The Women and Children’s Recovery Program uses funds to subsidize housing for selected individuals who have completed a recovery program and are working toward self sufficiency. The Hmong Women’s Action Team has collected oral history stories and will publish these to promote positive role models for adolescent Hmong girls. Since 1926 this club has funded at least forty local and fourteen international projects in the support of women and girls.

Erma E. McGuire, Zonta Communications Chair 2002-2003

Please add Jennifer to your roster.

Jennifer Wilkinson Rynbrandt

4931 N. 129th St.

Hugo, MN 55038

Thanks to Marj Neihart and the Program committee, the Lake Country Sweet Adelines will be sharing their holiday program with us on Tuesday evening. I hope you will all join us and bring a guest, spouse or prospective member.

We’ve had a little trouble gathering the Board for a meeting in the last few months. We’ve tried before meetings, but so far that hasn’t worked very well. So, I’m going to ask that you each bring your calendars with you to our December meeting so we can schedule a time for a meeting of the Board prior to our January member meeting. Unfortunately, after the first of the year, Peggy’s schedule gets pretty difficult, so we may be looking at a meeting on a Friday evening or a Saturday morning. So, please bring your calendars next week.