December News

Dear Members,

 With the American Girl Fashion Show now behind us, we know the end of 2014 is fast approaching!  

 Our next event is The Holiday Boutique at Allied Arts Guild's Christmas Market this Saturday, December 6th from 10 AM to 3PM, 75 Arbor Road, Menlo Park.

 Please join us at the Boutique to browse and buy some of the fabulous handmade items that our very talented members have made throughout the year. We know you are among our best customers so bring a friend or your whole family. Other shops and vendors will also be set up and a prize is often given to those who visit many stalls. It's a fun and lo-key way to start the holiday season.

 
The American Girl committee is about to wrap up for this year with a final meeting on Thursday the 4th. Despite lower ticket sales, we made a profit of about $30,000… which will greatly help our annual donation to LPCH.

 At our November general meeting at the Cibo Restaurant, members voted to donate to three favorite areas chosen from the LPCH Holiday Gift List: the Hospital School for games and books, the Packard Pantry for grocery bags and the Teen Van for gift cards and movie tickets for youths. 

 These Holiday gifts form only a part of our annual gift to LPCH.  Our much larger donation goes to unrestricted funds and will be sent by the Board in December. The ceremonial “presentation’ will be at our Annual Meeting & Luncheon on Wednesday, January 21 at the University Club, Palo Alto.

 Members also voted unanimously to approve the slate of officers for 2015 as presented by the nominating committee: President Nancy Larsson, Vice-President Stephanie Beach, Treasurer June Schiller, Recording Secretary Cathy Murphy, and Corresponding Secretary Mary Anne York.

Dallas Manning will remain as Social Chairman and Sarah Beetem will become Past President.

 Don't forget that you can buy Bear Grams from Gerry Nelson (dongerry3@att.net) for all your upcoming gift-giving events and throughout the year. They are perfect for a hostess gift or that difficult to buy for friend or relative. Gerry has members, teen groups and PAA children building bears and collecting new children's books for LPCH in patients at the holidays.

 

In other Association news, Charter Auxiliary will hold a rummage sale December 5 and 6 in Redwood City. Allied Arts Guild will hold a Children's Party on December 14th, and Roth Auxiliary has specials based on the 12 Days of Christmas and Letters to Santa. More information is available at www.supportLPCH.org/Association.

 
See you at the Boutique; we'll be the ones buying baby gifts.

Sarah and Nancy

November News

Dear Members,

November is full of activities to get us all into gear for the Holiday season. This weekend we will be holding our big fundraiser, the American Girl Fashion Show and Tea. Many of you have volunteered to help, starting with decorating at 1 PM on Friday, and serving and selling on Saturday and Sunday but more help would be great, particularly strong backs for cleanup both Saturday and Sunday nights at 6 PM. Call or email Sarah if you can come or send a husband, son or grandson.

The Sunday at 1:30 show is sold out and the others are doing well but we will have room for some walkup patrons at the other shows if anyone asks. We also have many souvenirs unique to the show which make great holiday and birthday gifts. Photos are available at our website at www.paloaltoauxiliary.com.

Many of our members have donated tickets that we are giving to Operation Care and Comfort, a support group for families of active servicemen. They were delighted to receive tickets for many girls and their moms.

The November General Meeting will be held at Cibo Restaurant, 3398 El Camino Real, Palo Alto where we met in June. We’ll have lunch at 12 with a choice of salads or sandwiches for $20. Members may also come at 1 for the meeting and a coffee. We will need to vote to ratify our Holiday gift to LPCH and on our slate of officers for next year.

Coming in December on Saturday the 6^th  from 10 to 3:30 is the annual Holiday Boutique at Allied Arts. We have several very talented ladies who have made an amazing number of handmade items to sell. We will also sell our cookbooks, wrapped and unwrapped.  Sharon Brugos our chairman could use more help for the afternoon shift from 12:30 to 3:30.  If you have made things, please get them to Sharon by November 30^th. Tell your friends to stop by and get a start on gifts and decorations.

Gerry Nelson reports that Bears and Books has been greatly enlarged with her Bear-Grams. Beargrams make great hostess and easy to mail gifts. Or your group can go to make bears and have lunch, too. We could also each ask our book clubs or other groups to donate new children’s books to go with those darling bears.

Check on your January calendars that you have written down our annual meeting which will be held on WEDNESDAY, January 21^st at the University Club. (All Tuesdays were full so this has been moved to Wednesday.)

October was our month to honor members, especially those who have worked for PAA for many years. This year at a lovely garden party in Nancy’s back yard, we presented roses to those who attended from our list of Carole Goldie, Donna Jones and Nancy Larsson for 15 years of service; Marie Ferrero and Mary Koeppen for 20 years; Kay Morris and Barbara Stark for 25 years; Lauren Bailard, Ellen Latour and Elizabeth Modena for 30 years; Fritzie Andrews, Pam Castle, Carolee Petterson, Sue Gates and Norma Cance for 35 years. Truly amazing service has been given by Betsy Bullard, Helen Ernst, Janet Ross, Elizabeth Wiggins, Pat Davis, Pat Ogle and Joanne Rutter for 40 years; Barbara Cole and Molly Meschke for 45 years, Janet Miller and Shirley Steele for 50 years; Marilyn Ellis and Louise Thursby for 55 years and our amazing Margaret Robinson for 60 years.  At the tea we welcomed Dr. Neville Golden from the LPCH Center for Adolescent Health.  The Board has received some comments about our Tea in the Garden and you are welcome to forward others to Sarah or Nancy.

In news from other Auxiliaries: Charter’s next rummage sales are November 21 and  22^nd, and a special holiday Boutique and sale will be held on December 5^th in Redwood City. Roth offers free personalization of gifts at the LPC Hospital gift shop on November 20^th and don’t forget our table at the Holiday Boutique at Allied Arts on December 6^th. See more information at www.supportLPCH.org/Association

Happy thanksgiving to all, see you soon!

Sarah

October News

As the native grape vines out in front turn to red and gold, we think of fall. For PAA that always brings the October Tea. This year we will celebrate our many long-time members and our twenty-three newest members with an outdoor tea party in Nancy’s back yard. If you haven’t replied to Dallas yet, please do so immediately.  We will also announce the board member nominees for next year and hear from our featured speaker, Dr. Neville Golden, Chairman of the Department of Adolescent Medicine at Packard. Dr Golden is active with the teen van as well as Packard at El Camino, right up the street from Nancy’s.

Remember the annual Membership Tea is Tuesday, October 21^st at 2 PM.  We will be parking diagonally along the street on Richardson. If you need a ride, please call Sarah.

Restaurants with Heart had a good showing at Sakura Teppanyaki in Redwood City in September and those of us who went were treated to a great show!  We will celebrate this month with dinner on Tuesday and Wednesday the 28^th and 29^th of October at Creola in San Carlos for the delicious cuisine of New Orleans.  As the RwH team will take a break for November and December, don’t miss out on the October event.

Planning for the American Girl Fashion Show on November 15^th and 16^th is well underway. You can sign up to help during the tea or by calling Sarah. Probably because of the new store at Stanford Mall, ticket orders have been very slow coming in. We would love to have every member come and bring a young relative or neighbor. If you don’t know anyone, we are looking for generous souls to sponsor some tickets for the children of active military families. They were thrilled last year to be able to attend and we would be thrilled to fill the seats.

Many of our new members are hardworking moms from the American Girl project. Some have already spent hours working, especially with publicity and model assignments. We think that they will be the future of PAA so please welcome them graciously and help introduce them to others.

Our November general meeting will be held at the Cibo Restaurant in Palo Alto, which proved very popular in June. It’s located at 3398 El Camino in Palo Alto. As in June, we’ll have lunch at 12 and a meeting at 1. You can come for lunch and the meeting or just the meeting. The cost for the set menu with choices is $20 but reservations are not necessary. We will vote on the slate of officers for next year and on our holiday gift to LPCH

Once we survive American Girl, our next big event is the Holiday Boutique on Saturday, December 6^th from 11 AM to 4 PM in the Sunset Room at Allied Arts in Menlo Park.. If you are making treasures to sell, please get them to Sharon Brugos by November 30^th.  Also please let Sharon know if you can help sell at the boutique and don’t forget to come and shop.

Gerry Nelson reports tremendous interest in her Bears and Books project as she has sold many Beargrams. Some former restaurant days are forming groups to make bears but she has also used teens to help and set up a Kids for Packard group.  We’re hoping some of you with book clubs might also like to donate new children’s books to go into the tote bags with the bears. Dallas and friends have completed 100 tote bags for the inpatients during the holidays.

Our sister auxiliaries have many activities, too.  San Francisco will hold their Jewel Ball on Saturday November 1^st at the Four Seasons. See sfjewellball.org.   Charter has their monthly Rummage Sale in Redwood City including this Friday and Saturday.

Affiliates are busy, too. Our Luisa Pliska requests a few more volunteers for Packard Pantry which usually works on Thursdays but will change to Tuesday on some holiday weeks. Reading Buddies could use a few more volunteers and Teen Van needs body wash, hand sanitizer, tissues, and movie tickets.

We hope to see many of you at the tea on Tuesday.

Sarah and Nancy

Don't Forget (like we did):

Books and Bears, lead by Gerry Nelson is recruiting "Bear Builders" or "Kids for Packard"...grandchildren, neighbors, scout troops, teenagers who need community service hours to build the bears. She will give each group a gift card to take to Build-a-Bear (at Hillsdale, Stoneridge or Valley Fair) to make at least 10 bears and return them to her to store for Christmas at LPCH. It's a fun activity for the teens and helps us get them made...call Gerry for details.

September 2014

Dear Members,

Suddenly it's September.  Life has become busy again as we prepare for several big events this fall.

First our general meeting on Tuesday, September 16th at the Lucie Stern Center in Palo Alto, will consist of a short meeting and a workshop to help prepare the 30 table centerpieces and 1500 popcorn bag ties for the upcoming American Girl Fashion Show in November.  Everyone can participate as we'll have a variety of jobs.   We'll see you there at One PM.

At the same time we hope to announce the Nominating Committee and have them meet next door perhaps saving them from attending one more meeting.

Have you signed on to Amazon Smile? If you or members of your family order from Amazon, it's very easy to sign on via Amazon Smile and sign up for Palo Alto Auxiliary for Children to receive a percentage and it doesn't cost you a thing. Also the eScript that supports the Association of Auxiliaries now is accepted by Safeway!

On Tuesday, please welcome new members: Nancy Bess, Elizabeth (Betsy) Scroggs, Melissa Riley and Laura Whitman. Betsy is a long time Palo Alto resident;  Nancy, Melissa and Laura  come to us via the American Girl show. Our membership form is now available on line at our website and we will be actively recruiting from the moms who volunteer at American Girl.

We've lost a few members, too. We were notified this week of the death of former Wednesday morning cook, Neilda Sussman. In July we learned of the death of Barbara Trainer, who had been a Tuesday server.

Restaurants with Heart had four successful events this summer; in June at Sultana, July at California Pizza Kitchen and at the Iron Gate Restaurant and in August at Scott's Seafood Restaurant. Marlene proudly reports that the profits are ahead of schedule.

Please help support  RwH at their next venue, Sakura Teppanyaki and Sushi in Redwood City on September 22 and 23 for lunch or dinner. It's our first time at this restaurant and it sounds like a fun adventure.

October will bring our traditional Member Tea to be held this year in the garden of Nancy Larsson's home in Los Altos on Tuesday the 21st at 2 PM. Invitations will be sent later this month.

The American Girl committee is now selling tickets, contacting models and generally very busy planning the events for November 15 and 16. We are looking for a volunteer coordinator to help organize the staff needed that weekend. Call Sarah or Nancy if you can help.  

Luisa reported on the Association of Auxiliaries project, Packard Pantry. They pack food for families at Packard and McDonald House two Thursdays a month. She would love to have you sign up to help.

A head's up to all members, Our annual luncheon and meeting in January will be on WEDNESDAY, January 21, 2015 not on a Tuesday as the University Club is very popular.

In other Association news: Charter's Rummage Sale is September 19 and 20.  The new Men's Affiliate is celebrating on October 4th with Beer and Brats (sausages not children), San Jose's Pumpkin Patch Boutique will be held October 11 and we will sell cookbooks there. More information on all of these can be found at www.supportLPCH.org/Association.

Thanks for all your support for LPCH.
Sarah and Nancy

July News

Dear Members,

The very hot weather this week lets us know that summer is here with a vengeance. Vacations do, too; Sarah was away for a couple of weeks and Nancy is leaving soon. In between we’ve been working steadily to launch the American Girl Fashion Show ticket sales by the beginning of August. We’re hoping that by starting earlier and by using more electronic communication, we can earn more for our contribution to LPCH. Our website will be up later this week and yesterday we launched our Facebook page. Please visit www.facebook.com/agfashionshow  and “Like” it and “Share” it with friends and relations. Information spreads geometrically on Facebook as each friend shares with her friends.

We have had several committee meetings at Nancy’s and have women working in many areas. We’re hoping that many of our members will come to the September General Meeting at Lucie Stern Center in Palo Alto on Tuesday, September 16^th at 1 PM and help with some of the AG projects like labeling and cutting the centerpiece skirts. We will have something for everyone to help with.

Before that, on Saturday, August 23^rd, we have been invited to participate in a special day at Allied Arts. We will have tables with our cookbooks, pillows, Restaurant with Heart information, Beargrams and  tickets for AGFS. We’ll need several shifts of helpers so please call us if you can help. Many other guilds will participate and it will be fun to see what they are doing.

This week Restaurants is at the Iron Gate in Belmont, a favorite and great supporter of LPCH. As it’s today and tomorrow, check our website for more details. While you are on the website, look for the wonderful photos that Erika Crowley has posted. It’s fun to see all of our friends and activities. Also under membership, we finally have a new form for new members and have already recruited some from the American Girl project.

See you in August!

Sarah and Nancy

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.