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2007 Sigma Beta of the Year
Nancy Johnson of
Mu Chapter in Dayton, OH
What's in a name? A
person's identity, a term by which a person is known. How do we
describe our candidate for this year's Sigma Beta of the Year? She is
loving, giving, generous, kind and caring. Yes, she fits all these
adjectives. She is that individual who takes the time to make the
effort to care and share.
This year our chapter has
taken on the responsibility of supplying after-school food for the
children served by our local Youth Center. The center is open each
weekday from 2:00 till 5:00pm providing a safe, supervised haven for
children ages 6-15, many of whom are latch-key children. It provides
help with homework, teaching cooking basics, social skills and
counseling when needed. Each month, she arrives at our meeting with her
grocery bag of food, which may consist of cereals, snacks, quick-fix
items, such as mac & cheese, popcorn, applesauce, pudding, juices, etc.
(all at her own personal expense) This past year, she gave 96 items at
a personal expense of both time and money. She also donated homemade
desserts for the Youth Center's annual Chili Supper fund raiser held at
a local church, where the children of the center do the serving and the
clearing of the tables.
The 'Card Lady' is one of
her titles. Each month, she sends out greeting cards to family,
friends, co-workers and to our troops in Iraq. This year she has sent
over 140 cards at a personal expense of over $150. She also sent to the
troops in Iraq four subscriptions to Readers Digest and a $10 gift
certificate. She donated 47 beanie babies to Operation Show Our Love at
a personal cost of $282 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Association. She
sent out 13 letters, paid the postage of $4.68 and sent a $25 donation
and a $35 donation to American Cancer Society. This spring she
personally donated 60 items of clothing, personal and household items
for the Good Neighbor house. These items are distributed to those in
need.
Again our chapter, along
with four other Sigma Beta chapters, gave time to work at the concession
stands of a local university's sports arena. The activities included
basketball, cheerleading competitions, Winter Guard International,
Shrine Circus, Gaither concert, graduation programs and baseball. This
year she again took over the work of time-keeper and paymaster for the
time volunteered by thirty members from 5 chapters of Sigma Beta raising
$15, 699.25 for charity. Since all the checks are made payable to our
chapter, she must record all the pay sheets listing each individual's
hours and each chapter involved and then pro-rate the pay to each
chapter accordingly. The amount of hours she devited to this
book-keeping was too numerous to truly estimate. All this is in
addition to the 178 hours she personally worked at the arena.
Each spring, our chapter has
a Flower Sale. The owners of the garden center allow us to come in and
pull our own orders. After working nine hours, she arrives at the
greenhouse and, along with her husband, pulls all her orders. With the
hanging baskets, single plants and flats, they more than fill their van
and car to overflowing. She is a great sales lady!
She has been a SIgma Beta
for 36 years and is currently serving our chapter as President.
Our nominee is a retired suppervisor and is now working part-time putting in an average of 22.5
hours per week. In this position, she is a receptionist, secretary and
gardener. As with any married woman who is as active as she has always
been, she has the full cooperation of her husband. He has always been
one of her most loyal supporters and has given many hours as a worker on
our fund-raiser projects. She is a mother of two and has two
grandchildren. Their daughter lives in another state, where they spend
time fishing and her handy-man husband lends his hand in many building
and repair jobs. Their son and his family live about an hour's drive
from them and they spend many hours with them and happily baby-sit with
their two grand-daughters when needed.
She lives by her motto: "Take
the time and effort to care and share"
We proudly present our
nominee for Sigma Beta of the Year. She truly lives her life caring and
sharing with her family, with me, with you and with all she meets. We
are so thankful we can call her 'sister'.
Former Girls of the Year and new Sigma Beta of the Year
2007 Olive King Mauer Award
For excellence in Chapter
Service
Epsilon Theta Chapter,
Kettering, OH
Our chapter has
always been pretty active locally, so this year we decided to keep track
of our time. Boy, were we surprised at the totals.
This year we adopted
a family for Thanksgiving. Tammy is 37 years old and has 4 children,
ages 21, 13, 12 and 10. The 21 year old daughter has 3 children, ages
1, 4 and 5 and is pregnant with her 4th. In the 4th
month of her pregnancy, her water broke and Tammy is taking care of 6
children while her daughter is in the hospital. We bought them a
Thanksgiving dinner, consisting of the basics: turkey, green beans,
stuffing, potatoes, milk and pumpkin pie. We also gave them a $50.00
Kroger gift card. Four members spent 6 hours and $87.83.
For Christmas, our
chapter adopted a 22 year old mother, Tamika and her 2 children;
daughter, Ja’Leia, 3 years old and son, Tyree, 2 years old. She wants
to go back to school, get her GED and get her life back on track. We
bought Tamika 2 outfits, one casual and one for business and a Target
gift card. Ja’Leia received Sponge Bob PJ’s, a jogging outfit, and 2
play outfits. We bought Tyree truck themed PJ’s, a jogging outfit, and
2 play outfits. Santa brought Tamika a gift bag of bath and spa
products, Ja’Leia a baby doll and Tyree a big fire truck. He, also,
brought Brother and Sister a Story Reader, read along books that play
cassettes, along with an extra set of books for each. Four members
spent 15 1/2 hours and $321.12.
One of our
communities has a Christmas gathering. This is a place where people
that have no family in the area can go on Christmas Day and have their
picture taken with Santa, eat a light meal, sing carols and visit with
one another. One member spent the day helping. We made and donated 12
½ dozen cookies. We also, made centerpieces for the cookie table. Four
members spent 15 ¼ hours and $56.05.
One member addresses
envelopes for different organizations, such as American Heart
Association, Lung Association and National Children’s Cancer Society.
This takes 3 hours and costs the chapter $17.85 for postage.
A project that our
chapter decided to work on year ‘round was to help a women in need.
Cathy volunteers her time at local hospitals, assisted living facilities
and nursing homes. Her work is different from many others. Cathy is a
clown, literally. Over the past 6 years, Cathy’s good friend and
neighbor, Anita, created and made little gifts for Cathy to pass out
while clowning. In August, 2006, Anita passed away; leaving Cathy with
all of her supplies, but Cathy lacked the artistic ability and time to
create these gifts. One of our sisters has known Cathy for 40 years and
when hearing of Anita’s passing, suggested that our chapter help her.
Some of the gifts that Anita created were out of greeting cards donated
by friends, family and co-workers. Each month, a gift was made to
correspond with a holiday or the season. We made snowmen in January,
hearts in February, pots of gold in March, umbrellas in April, flowers
with pompoms and Mother’s Day hats in May and firecrackers in July out
of greeting cards and cardstock. Cathy delivers these gifts to patients
and employees to display on bulletin boards, door handles and beds. The
patients and employees look forward to new items every month. Helping
Cathy and her clowning have given our chapter a great sense of well
being, knowing that not only are we assisting Cathy, but also, bringing
smiles to patients. Four members worked 61 ¼ hours and spent $31.37.
One member is
involved with an area agency that reaches out to those in need to
provide a lift, bring hope at difficult times and help them “get on
their feet” towards self-sufficiency. Our member works in the food
pantry, where government and donated food and personal hygiene products
are distributed to clients. When there is a large shortage of items
this member goes out and purchases them. One member worked 91 hours and
spent $110.00.
Our chapter is
involved in building a float for our area’s annual Labor Day Parade. We
research what our theme is going to be and shop for supplies. This year
the parade theme was “Dancing Through the Decades” and our float theme
was a scene from the show “Laugh In”. We help saw, drill, staple,
paint, and sew. This year we won the Grand Award, which is First
Place. Two members worked for 98 ¾ hours and spent $23.89. We do have
a sponsor help us out monetarily.
Our chapter
collected and donated money to many local charities, such Alzheimer’s,
ALS, Ronald McDonald House and Bent Finger in the amount of $195.00.
TOTALS: $843.11 contributions; 290 ¾ hours; 4
members
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2007 Charity Award
Mu Chapter, Dayton, OH
This award recognizes the highest
achievement in donations to National Charity. |
Honorary Members:
Left to Right: Edith McBride, Beta Xi Chapter, 2004.; Roberta Blanchard, Epsilon Chapter, 1978;
Rosemary Dick, Alpha Kappa Chapter, 1993,
Also: Jean Gronendyke, Chi Eta Chapter, who was not in
attendance. |
