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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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2011 Olive King Maurer Service Award Epsilon Alpha Chapter Atlanta, GA Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success. Swami Sivananda Looking back over the year, it’s hard to believe how our “small acts” have added up. Sisters, 2010-2011 was a whole hearted success for our chapter! We kicked off our year focusing on children and many of our sisters “went back to school” volunteering one-on-one with children. We worked in classrooms leading group activities, listening and reading with young, struggling readers and provided free after school tutoring. It may seem like a small act but working with a child ½ hour per week over the course of a year can make a difference; several of the students in the reading program “graduated” during the year. One sister was brave enough to work with middle school students to stretch and challenge their brains for the Science Olympiad competition. We have another sister who is passionate about the Arts. She works with children and helps nurture their love for music and drama. She sings, dances, acts and shares with them a creative outlet for expressing themselves. We had five sisters put in over 300 hours assisting children focus not only on academic skills but also artistic ones. Some of our projects, while seeming small, yielded big results. We often hold donation drives, bringing items to our chapter meetings. One month, this small act resulted in over 255 individual servings of instant oatmeal, macaroni & cheese, apple sauce, fruit cups, cereal and snacks for Joshua’s Gift. This organization sends food-filled backpacks home over the weekend with children in need. By bringing in school supplies and working with another group, we collected and donated 64 backpacks and 48 bags of school supplies for children in a rural school district. Another month, the drive was for an urban homeless shelter. Again, we surprised ourselves by collecting 76 pairs of socks along with pudding snacks, toothbrushes, bath towels, toiletries and umbrellas. We used our social time after business meetings to measure, cut and assemble 16 fleece blankets for Project Linus, a group that helps children from military families who have lost a parent. We even found a way to make holiday shopping fun. We enjoyed being the Secret Santa for a young man in a county foster care group home. Several of our sisters shopped for this 16 year old, having fun looking for the best deals on an iPod, size 14 ½ boots, clothes and a camera. We were very happy to secure his entire Christmas list. Our chapter also practices small acts of compassion to families experiencing difficult challenges. We painted memorial boxes for grieving families, worked with an infant loss support group and served lunch to families with hospitalized children undergoing cancer treatment. We decorated holiday ornaments for critically ill kids who spent their holidays in the hospital. One sister went off to summer camp for a week as a counselor for children with hemophilia. Our sisters helped organize and run a charity golf tournament, a fun walk/run and even a wine tasting fundraiser. Not only did we help organize charity events, we were also participants, walking for a vision impaired support group and March of Dimes. We hope these small acts showed others that they aren’t alone and that someone cares. Hopefully, a smile, a hug or just knowing someone is there helps. I’m sure any sister in our chapter would tell you our projects aren’t big and with just 10 members, we’re not a large group. But the little things can make a big difference; our chapter worked over 943 volunteer hours this year and donated $900 dollars locally. Yes, putting your heart, mind and soul into small acts is the secret of success.
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2011 Sigma Beta of the Year
