GRANDPARENTS FOR EDUCATION
July Newsletter
Appreciation Luncheon
We had a wonderful time at our Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon on June 9 at Trinity Lutheran Church.
Our luncheon consisted of chicken salad sandwiches (prepared and served by Nan Elsbecker and Sondra von Arb), vegetable tray (provided by Marsha Christiansen), potato chips, and cake with ice cream. Thanks, also, to Sharon Krohnberg for serving, setting tales, dishes, and helping with clean-up, Ron von Arb who did all our miscellaneous things in the kitchen. Mary Larson and Cory Peters greeted volunteers at the door, LuAnn Lafky took pictures and helped where needed. My grand-daughter helped with decorations, setting and clearing tables for the event. Amy Baker, our coordinator at thechurch, contri-buted by helping with set up,dishes, and clean-up.
A magician was our entertainment for the event, Greg Skillestadt, from Blooming Prairie. He kept us smil-ing throughout the performance.
Peter Grant, School Superintendent, stopped by for a few minutes and spoke to the group on how much we are all appreciated in the schools throughout the year.
Volunteer of the Year is awarded to individual volunteers voted on bythe teachers, who in their view, has given so much to the students during the year. This year’s winners were Dorothy Lee and Kay Schuster. Dorothy spends most of her days at Wilson working with two kinder-garden classes practicing their reading. Kay works with 2nd graders at Wilson and volunteers at OJHS with ELL students. Cyndee Trenda, Mary Overlee-Olson, Grace Hosfield, and Carol Raetz received certificates of appreciation for their hours of volunteering.
Several door prizes were given away provided by Souba, Pizza Ranch, The Kitchen, Cashwise, and Fairway Foods.
Hopefully everyone had a chance to see the front page write up in the Owatonna Peoples Press about our Appreciation Luncheon. It was great coverage.
“What children need most are the essentials that Grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies!” – Rudy Giuliani
Russell Stovers Candy Sale
I want to thank the 3 volunteers who helped with this fundraiser, Mary Kruger, Kay Schuster,and Delores Seykora. Without their help, I wouldn’t have made the 9 hours. The Russell Stovers’ corporate office will notify us on how we did for the day in a couple of weeks.
Cashwise Food Booth
GFE has the Cashwise food booth on Monday and Tuesday, July 25 and 26 from 9:00 to 6:00. If any of you are home grillers we need help in that area. Between the hours of 11:00 - 1:00 and 4:00 - 6:00 we like 4 people working, 1 griller, 1 taking orders and money handler, 1 preparing sandwiches, and 1 moving items from grill to booth. The other hours we would like 3 people if possible. If you would like to help, please contact me at 507-390-4468 or email: .
July Birthdays
We would like to wish the following volunteers a Happy Birthday in the month of July:
Jerry Ganfield
Melanie Knutson
Dorothy Lee
Cory Peters
If you know of anyone we have missed, please let us know.
July Orientation Workshop
The workshop will be held August 17, Wednesday, at Willow Creek School between 10:00 – 12:00. More information will be coming in the weeks to come. Please set the date aside to attend this very informative workshop.
New Board Members
GFE has added two new board members to our ranks. If you happen to run into them, please welcome them.
Eric Eischenbach
Nan Elsbecker
Year End Surveys
We have received the year-end surveys and will be going through, reading and analyzing them. They are used for our year-end report and help us identify areas of concern or confusion for individual volunteers in the organization. We will try and cover these areas at the workshop or get back to you on an individual basis.
Background Checks
Background checks should be almost complete. If anyone is having problems, please let me know and I can get someone to check on it for you. Call me at 507-390-4468 or
Website
Don’t forget to checkout our Facebook page. It lists all our activities and has some articles on fun things we’ve done in the past year. Let us know if you want other things out there.
2015-2016 Year-end Report
The 2015-2016 Yean-end Report is complete. If any member wants a copy of it, please let me know and I can get a copy off to you.
“To become a Grandparent is to enjoy one of the few pleasures in life for which the consequences have already been paid.” – Robert Brault