Palo Alto Auxiliary - President's Blog

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Late breaking news:
Our 2014 directories have been printed. (We owe a huge thanks to Joan Heye and to Stephanie for taking care of them.) Please call Stephanie after June 30th to arrange a time to pick yours up at her home and possibly pick up several for neighboring members. (650-856-0278) We'd like to avoid the cost of mailing as many as possible.

June Newsletter

June 21, 2014

The first day of summer is here and despite the water shortage our gardens are blooming: roses and lavenders, sunflowers and poppies intermingle and sway with the wind. The natural world seems very resilient and reminds us of the bravery of the ill children that our group so ardently supports.

Activities are continuing in PAA. The Restaurants with Heart project had a good turnout for Iron Gate in May and are offering lunch and dinner at Sultana in Menlo Park on this next Monday, June 23^rd. See our website for menus and details. Remember that RwH restaurants give us 50% of the meal price as a donation to LPCH. What a fun way to enjoy a meal with a friend and raise money, too!

In addition, the California Pizza Kitchen in Palo Alto invited us to hold a second fundraiser from July 21^st to July 24^th. With a flyer in hand, we will receive 20% from dine-in or take-out on pizzas, salads, pasta and desserts.

The Restaurants with Heart group is also looking for a kind soul to help with design and electronic distribution of their flyers. Please contact Sarah or Nancy if you can help. Training is available.

We enjoyed the June general meeting last week at Cibo, the local restaurant in Palo Alto where we met for lunch and were joined by several more for a short meeting. It was great to see some faces that we hadn’t seen since January. New directories were handed out to those who came and some to be hand delivered.

One of the announcements at the June meeting was about Beargrams. Gerry Nelson has graciously volunteered to take over Shirley Stites’ job of organizing the Bears and Books project for children who are spending December holidays as inpatients. She has invented a new way to pay for the bears which we make at the Build-a-Bear store. This year, you can buy a Beargram for only $15. You receive a blue card to send to your friend notifying them of the bear given in their honor and we will recruit young people to go to the store and make the bears which are then donated to LPCH.

We can also go in groups or with friends and several former restaurant day groups will be scheduling trips in the fall. As long as the store knows they are for PAA, we receive a special price and an extra bear for every $100 spent. Beargrams are a perfect way to honor someone who is celebrating an event like a birthday or anniversary and doesn’t need yet another scarf or tie. Beargrams are currently available from Gerry or Luisa.

On a somber note, we received notices that member Martha Deacon and former members Phyllis Austin, Jean Groswith, Patricia Phillips and Elizabeth Allen have passed away recently. Call Sarah for details.

Coming in July: Our web page will be updated with details on the American Girl Fashion Show as soon as the graphics are received. The dates will be Saturday and Sunday, November 15 and 16^th, 2014.

Coming in August: We have been invited to join Allied Arts Guild at their celebration of ten years since the reopening after the 1989 earthquake on August 23rd. We’ll have a couple of tables to promote our activities including Restaurants with Heart, Beargrams, Thora’s Thimbles and the American Girl Fashion Show.
Please call or email Sarah if you are able to help out that day. Please come and see what our sister auxiliaries are presenting.

Fun in September: Our general meeting at Lucie Stern Center will feature a workshop to help make decorations for AGFS, items for the Holiday Boutique or possibly Thimbles. We’ll have something everyone can do even if it’s munching cookies, so do come, we’d love to see you.

Wishing you a great summer,

Sarah and Nancy

Saturday, May 17, 2014

May 17,2014

Dear Palo Alto Auxiliary Members,

Here it is May already and one of the busiest months for many families. At school it was always the big-push-to-finish-curriculum month and why-are-there-all-these-extra-activities month rolled into one. For PAA it’s also a busy month. We’ve already attended a meeting of Auxiliary Presidents, held a PAA Board Meeting and Tuesday the 20th will be our May General Membership Meeting at Lucie Stern Center at 1 PM.

We hope to see many of you on Tuesday at our General Meeting. We’ve invited a speaker from the Child and Adolescent Psychology Clinic at LPCH; Grace Gengoux, PhD, will tell us about her practice with Autistic children and their families. Please come and bring a friend. We have invited sister auxiliary members; so if any come, please help us make them feel welcome. To stir things up a bit, we’ll serve lemonade and cookies and share the raffle rickets with everyone who attends.

In June, because we know that Lucie Stern Center is not available and because we are still trying to enliven our meetings, we are planning a luncheon at a restaurant in Palo Alto on Tuesday, June 17^th. You can come for lunch and the meeting or just for the meeting. Details for signing up and the menu will follow shortly in an email.

Restaurants –with-Heart has been extra busy this month. The California Pizza Kitchen fundraiser last week appeared to be very well attended. Sarah and Nancy can vouch that lunch was delicious and that the pasta Sarah took home for supper was very well received. The regular lunch and dinner event at The Iron Gate in Belmont will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 27 and 28^th. Make your reservations now on our website or phoning the PAA number or mailing to our post office box.

From our sister auxiliaries come news of another Rummage Sale by Charter June 20-21. San Mateo-Burlingame is sponsoring a Game Day on June 18^th. Check the LPCH website at www.supportlpch.org/association for more details.

Did you know that our members individually donated more than twice the $75,000 that PAA as a group donated last year? Consider making a direct donation to LPCH by sending it through our treasurer (and get two thank you notes.) However you donate, in cash or in volunteer time, the children of LPCH thank you.

See you on Tuesday,

Sarah and Nancy

Thursday, April 17, 2014

April News

Dear Palo Alto Auxiliary Members,

Even though we don't traditionally hold a general meeting in April, we still have many members working on PAA Projects. Our board met this week and reviewed the ongoing projects as well as the recent meeting of the Association of Auxiliaries . Treasurer June Schiller has offered to update the calendar on our website so that will be a great place to look for event dates, times and locations.

Our next general meeting will be Tuesday, May 20th at Lucie Stern Center in Palo Alto at 1 PM. Our guest speaker will be Grace Gengoux, PhD, BCBA on the subject of Autism in children. Dr. Gengoux is an assistant professor with the Child and Adolescent Psychology Clinic at LPCH. As Autism is something about which we hear much but know little, it should be a fascinating subject. We would love to have a good turnout so please come and bring a friend. Guests are always welcome!

Membership continues to rise as dues are paid. We now have 149 paid members. Mary Koeppen will attempt to contact those missing from last year. Welcome back to Carolyn Roland, a former member.

Our most important current and an ongoing project is Restaurants with Heart ably directed by Marlene Bollhoffer. With the help of Deborah and Roger Potash, Karen Stevens, Audrey Polster and others, they continue to find restaurants and convince them to let us share in their profits. This month the site will be Kabul Afghan Cuisine in San Carlos on Monday and Wednesday, April 28th and 30th. Please look at our website page for the times and menu and how to sign up. It's easy and very profitable to PAA. Why not invite a friend or neighbor to join you for lunch or dinner?

The RwH gang have also started a new trend: the California Pizza Kitchen in Palo Alto is offering to give us 20% of all checks of patrons who come with the flyer naming PAA as the beneficiary from May 12th to May 15th. Just download a flyer (paper color doesn't matter) or pick up one from Marlene and have a pizza for lunch or dinner. Take-out is possible, too, but don't forget the flyer.

Thora's Thimbles and the American Girl Fashion Show committee are not meeting in April but will start up again in May.

Cookbook impresario Luisa Pliska reports a special price for Mother's and Father's Days of $18 a book. We have just under 700 more to sell from the 10,000 published. If you'd like to help Luisa, please let her know. Let's get this job finished!

On a somber note, we were all very sad to hear of the death of our longtime member, Shirlee Stites. We'll miss her willing help in so many areas and her ever cheerful smile very much. Her family is holding a memorial service on May 24th at 12 PM. Gerry Nelson has graciously offered to take over the Bears and Books project next fall. Erika Crowley and Ginny Wilson will take over the photography jobs.

In Affiliate news, Luisa reports that helping with Packard Pantry is now easier as there are helpers to lift boxes at the pick up station at Second Harvest Food Bank and at LPCH where the valets will lift boxes between their regular duties. Packers are needed at LPCH for a short time every second and fourth Thursday morning. The Teen Van group would like help writing grants as well as toiletries. Hearts and Hands continues to coordinate donations.

We have been asked to list events of our sister auxiliaries:

Allied Arts has a new vintage gift area if you have any treasures you'd like to donate or purchase.

Charter's next sale is this weekend: April 18 and 19th

San Francisco has sent a save the date for their Jewel Ball next November 1st.

San Jose has Half-Price Days on April 24 and 25 and new window displays with LPCH patient photos.

San Mateo-Burlingame has a Game Day scheduled for June 18th.

In Association news: Nancy, Sarah and Luisa attended the April 7 meeting of the Association of Auxiliaries, we heard about new "branding" for LPCH - logo and symbolic colors, a new special project proposal and endowment updates and proposals. We can explain these much better in person so come to the general meeting. LPCH has a new website at www.stanfordchildrens.org.

Please remember to check our own website at www.paloaltoauxiliary.com. It has everything from news in the President's Blog, Restaurants- with-Heart menus, to event dates and times and great photos.

We wish each of you a happy and healthy spring,

Sarah and Nancy

Sunday, March 16, 2014

March News

Spring is here! We are halfway through March and it feels like summer. Our gardens are blooming and we are busy planning a new year for PAA.

This week is our March general meeting and as we don’t meet in April, we’re hoping that many of you will attend. We’ll be at Lucie Stern Center in Palo Alto on Tuesday, March 18^th at 1:00 PM.

We’ve invited several members of our sister auxiliaries to tell us about the Affiliates program and show us what they do. Anna Henderson will explain the current Teen Van program and the Beads of Courage project. Louise Scott will talk about the several Hearts and Hands projects and Reading Buddies. Our own Luisa Pliska will describe Packard Pantry.

While some of you have already participated in these projects, we’d like to present an overview of all of them and what they mean to the hospital.

Last month we had a delightful talk by Kristen Beckler from Child Life Services on how children are helped through the traumatic experiences in Emergency. Unfortunately only fourteen of us were able to hear her talk. Let’s aim for a better turn out this month!

We did have a great turnout at the Association of Auxiliaries annual luncheon on March 3^rd. We filled four tables with members and enjoyed the delightful lunch and inspiring speakers, especially a four year old patient and his grateful mother.

Remember to sign up for lunch or dinner at Quinto Sol in Redwood City next week on March 24^th and 25^th. The Restaurants with Heart group could use help both prior to the events and by you coming and bringing a friend. We all like to eat, so why not try this distinctive cuisine in a charming restaurant? See our website for more details.

Also, if you are on Facebook, on your own page go to the box at the top (with the words “search for people, places and things”)and type in PAA and hit the space bar. Go to our page and “like” it….the more ‘likes’ the more viral our information goes. It’s all free advertising!

Our fall fundraiser, the American Girl Fashion Show, has already started with a committee meeting of old and new volunteers. Several minor changes are being considered but the dates are settled for the weekend of November 15 and 16, 2014 so mark your calendars.

Luisa has reactivated the cookbook project and hopes to sell the last ones this year. If you have stored any and have not been contacted by her, please let her know. If you’d like to help out, let her know that, too!!

Please watch this space for updates on events both for PAA and for our sister auxiliaries. We won’t be sending out a paper calendar soon as so many dates are in flux.

We hope to see everyone on Tuesday! Happy Spring.

Sarah and Nancy

Sunday, February 9, 2014

February News for PAA

February, 9, 2014

Welcome to the New Year from your new PAA Presidents! We will be serving as co-presidents this year, a new idea for PAA but one used by other auxiliaries. We hope to share the burden and share the number of meetings we attend so you won’t always see us together.

We welcome back several former members, Stephanie Beach as Vice-President, June Schiller as treasurer, Susan Kirtley now as Corresponding Secretary, Dallas Manning as Social Chair and our not quite yet retiring president, Luisa Pliska as Parliamentarian. New on the board is Ellen Smith as Recording Secretary. Ellen is a long time member who took over the coordination of Thora’s Thimbles last year.

You can read more about the board members on our PAA website, www.paloaltoauxiliary.com. Our blogs, newsletters and events will also be listed on the website and updated frequently.

Together we hope to carry on PAA’s fine tradition of service to LPCH, but we would also like to look to the future in hopes of increasing contributions from our auxiliary in both time and money probably by increasing events and membership.

Our general meetings will be listed on the website but are planned as in the past on the third Tuesdays. The next is February 18^th at 1 PM at Lucie Stern Center in Palo Alto. We will welcome Kristen Beckler, a Child Life Specialist at LPCH as our speaker. If you haven’t been in a while why not come and hear what she has to say. Bring a friend, all are welcome.

We want to welcome new members but also to welcome new ideas as our auxiliary changes and grows. We are proud of the long tradition but know that pride is not enough to carry us forward. Let’s see if all of us can find a spirit of renewal and make this a year to remember.

Sarah and Nancy

Friday, January 31, 2014

We have embraced and enhanced the art of giving....

January 13, 2014

Good morning, Dear Members,

Because the flu and subsequent illness had taken "the wind out of my sails" I was unable to post a blog for awhile. However, I would like to share some news with you all in this my last blog as your president and report on how we have met our goals for 2013.

First, I must tell you how thrilled I am that we will have two young, extremely talented and capable women as our co-presidents in 2014, Nancy Larssen and Sarah Beetem. It will be a grand year!

I don't have words adequate enough to thank my incredible Board. Each one has joyfully given so much time and energy not only in their duties as Board members but in taking on major roles in our fund raising efforts and our hearts and hands projects. Some have been on my Board for the past three years and I can't thank them enough.

Also, thank you, dear members, for the fine work you have done. 3 years ago I said we were an ageless, vibrant, undaunted and fun group. We still are - even more so. Often I have told you what an outstanding group of women you are and how I wish you could see yourselves through my eyes. Yes, I am a positive thinker but I am not a Pollyanna. I know our strengths and weaknesses. And our skills and abilities in so many areas along with our work ethic and true dedication far outweigh our weaknesses.

As I review this past year and the accomplishments, changes and transitions we have made you will see how we, although small in number, have grown and continue to be a strong and dedicated PAA.

RECRUIT MEMBERS: Cathy Murphy, Haydee Navarro-Marshall and Ginger Wilson have joined us this past year. We are so fortunate to have them.
SELL REMAINING COOKBOOKS: We have sold and will continue to sell.
SUPPORT EXISTING FUND RAISING PROJECTS: We did this and despite higher expenses had success in each endeavor.
WORK TOGETHER WITH SISTER AUXILIARIES ON AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:
- Our pilot program with the Teen Van Kits was so successful it has become the Teen Health Van Affiliate supported by all auxiliaries.
- We have become involved with the:
- Beads of Courage Affiliate,
- the Reach Out and Read Affiliate (now known as Reading Buddies) and
- the Packard Pantry Affiliate of which I am co-chair.
SCHEDULE SPEAKERS & SPECIAL EVENTS FOR GENERAL MEETINGS:
- The Tour of the outstanding Medical Mock up building
- Dr. Ammerman from the Teen Health Van
- Kevin Danie from the Hospital School
- Jack Komejan from the Transplant Camp (unfortunately, he had to cancel at the last minute)
- Social Services representative to speak about Packard Pantry's service to families (we ran out of meeting days to schedule him. Perhaps next year)
POST BLOG TWICE A MONTH: This I did not accomplish - Could only find time to do once a month.
COMPLETE REVISIONS OF BYLAWS AND STANDING RULES:
This we did complete and they are now in the hands of the Association for review.

You know it's a poor sort of memory that only looks backward. We have taken the best of our memories to build a strong presence and ensure a grand future. With our new younger members this year we developed a cross-generational panorama of exceptional women and I am so proud to have been your president these past three years.

When all is said and done, you have embraced and enhanced the art of giving and I thank you for that.

Luisa
P.S.

Because I have a plethora of delightful photos from several of our recent meetings- more than enough photos to fill several blogs, I will have in this blog only some from our Tea. Over these past three years, we have had talented paparazzi. Many thank you's to Erika Crowley, Stephanie Beach, Shirlee Stites and Deborah Potash. Photos will be organized and placed in Shirlee's photo gallery to become part of our archives.

Our lovely buffet Roger Potash (aka) Mr. Deborah Potash & Nancy Bronstein Cathy Murphy - new member