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2011 Sigma Beta of the Year
Pamela Lowry of Epsilon Alpha Chapter
Too often, we forget to thank the quiet
people - the people who are always there, quietly helping, quietly
supporting, quietly getting things done, making everything easier and
more fun for everyone. So this year, we would like to recognize and
thank our quiet sister for all the ways she is special to our chapter.
With a warm smile and helping hands, she participates in just about
every project our chapter sponsors. She takes on whatever needs doing
and often is the first to volunteer with "I’ll do it."
In addition to our national charity and
scholarship projects, we help out locally by sponsoring a Foster child,
making blankets for children in crisis, supporting and participating in
fundraisers for many groups (March of Dimes, Relay for Life, Hemophilia,
Autism, etc). Our sister embraces them all.
This takes time and money. Time we have,
money is harder to come by. To help fund our projects, we work a
concession stand at a local concert venue. This last year, our quiet
sister worked 15 events (over 150 hours).She even “recruited” her
husband and college aged son to work when we were short handed – driving
an hour to and from the venue. Our sister also organizes and runs
several garage sales each year, collecting donations from friends and
family and soliciting yard sale leftovers, storing them in her garage
and attic, until they are needed.
Every year, we participate in the Secret
Santa program for local foster children. As our quiet sister pointed
out, teenagers, especially boys, are often overlooked at the holidays.
So this year, we requested a teenage boy and got a 15 year-old boy with
Hemophilia. During that hectic time of year, our sister went into
power shopping mode and we were able to fill his entire Christmas list.
Throughout the year, our sister scoured the
stores searching for the best sales on school supplies. She coordinated
our efforts and those of another group to gather enough supplies to
donate 64 backpacks and 48 bags of school supplies to children in one of
the poorest districts in our state.
She orchestrated a chapter project to
support Project Linus, a group that helps children from military
families who have lost a parent. Exercising her shopping skills, she
searched the fabric stores for the best deals on fleece, measured, cut
and tied fleece, enabling us to make and donate 13 fleece blankets
The Drake House is a local organization
dedicated to helping displaced families in crisis. She hand painted
ornaments, which were used to create 7 wreaths that were raffled off to
earn funds for its worthy endeavors. For another group that assists
people dealing with pregnancy and newborn loss, she painted memory boxes
for bereaved parents to hold personal mementoes. She also knit and
lovingly crafted caps for newborns in local hospitals.
Not only does our sister volunteer and work
with charity projects, she embraces our chapter and Sigma Beta. She
holds not only a chapter office but also a province office, helping
guide four other Sigma Beta chapters in the area.
She is equally busy outside our group.
She has volunteered over two hundred hours to a local art museum,
helping to inventory, catalog and organize their art collection. She
helped hand paint 96 Christmas ornaments for hospital dinner trays,
which went to children who were spending their holidays in the
hospital. She regularly donates to the bloodmobile. She also
coaches middle school Science Olympia teams (in our opinion, just
dealing with that many middle-schoolers is worth a medal by itself).
Our sister has also been dealing with
personal challenges. When her mother-in-law became ill, our sister
converted her dining room into a bedroom, enabling her mother-in-law to
spend her last days with her family. Her love and support have been
helping her older sister deal with the doctors, hospital, chemo, and all
the issues that come with a cancer diagnosis.
Is it any
wonder, that we really admire, appreciate and love our quiet sister and
cannot imagine our group without
Former Honorees

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