AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN

Lewis County Branch November 2017

OFFICERS 2017-2018

President ................................. Kerry Serl

Program Vice-Presidents .........................

................... Kristi Nelson and Jan Snider

Membership Vice-President ....................

........................................... Kristi Nelson

Secretary ....................... Nancy Leventon

Treasurer .......................... Donna Loucks

EYH Chair ................................. Jan Leth

Book Sale ......................... Donna Loucks

Directory Editor .............. Jeanne Nygard

Early Morning Discussion ......................

........................................... Norma Green

EF Program Chair ..................... not filled

Art Group ........................... Bonnie Blake

Book Group. ................. Nancy Leventon

Travel Group ................... Donna Loucks

Historian ........................... Priscilla Tiller

Hostess Coordinator ........... Marja Lentz

Legal Advocacy Fund .............. not filled

Newsletter Editor ................. Peggy Barth

Profiles ............................... Kristi Nelson

Scholarship Committee Chair ..................

.......................................... Priscilla Tiller

Sunshine Chair ................. Jeanne Gordon

BRANCH MEETING Thursday, November 2, 2017

6:45 p.m.

“Food for Our Future: Feeding Hungry Children in

Lewis County”

Speakers: Gracie Anderson,

Keri Anderson and Cathy Cavness

The Gathering Place (Community Room) at Stillwaters Estates

Hostesses: Peggy Barth (chair), Ann Tuning and Sharon Winningham

MEETING ACCESS: The gate to Stillwaters

Estates from the Scammon Creek Road (near the

Colonial Residence) is open until 7:00 p.m.

Remember that the front gate on Cooks Hill Road

still closes at 6:00 p.m.

PRESIDENT’S CORNER

Kerry Serl

Thank you everyone for your tireless efforts to

bring off a successful Expanding Your Horizons!

As Luana and I peeked into every workshop to

take some photos, I could tell the girls enjoyed the

experience. Smiles and laughter and girls helping

each other.

From Facebook the moms said, “The girls had

such a great time.” and “My daughter really

wanted to attend but it was the last day of cheer.”

and “How did you get both girls photographed?”

reply, “I know Kerry Serl.”

Maria Carter wrote on Facebook Expanding Your

Horizons page,

“Very cool pic of the girls! I like the swagger! :) Love seeing them happy as it brings me back to the school each time. It's the energy that fuels us for the next year!”

She reposted this photo saying, “This is one of the

most rewarding programs I have ever been part of

and am happy to continue my support all the

way!”

Kerry

NOVEMBER PROGRAM

“Food for Our Future: Feeding Hungry Children in Lewis County”

There are hungry children in Lewis County and a

group of dedicated people who are trying to do

something about it. Learn about “Food for Our

Future” from Gracie Anderson, who established

the program in Chehalis three years ago at the age

of 15. Gracie’s mom, Kerri Anderson, a

counselor at RE Bennett, and Cathy Cavness, a

recently retired teacher and new AAUW member,

will also discuss their roles in the program.

AAUW

HOLIDAY BANQUET

Thursday, December 7

See article for details.

EXPANDING YOUR HORIZONS

Jan Leth

ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL YEAR!

Although the day was wet and blustery, our

AAUW members warmly welcomed over 300

young women to the Centralia College Campus on

Saturday, October 21.

In this, our 24th year of presenting EYH in

conjunction with the college TRIO program, we

were pleased to expand our girls' snack time

location to the new TransAlta Conference Center,

which allowed the girls to sit at tables. We, also,

were fortunate to partner with Twin Star Credit

Union who provided pens and bags for each

attendee.

Per usual, major thank you's go to the following

chairpersons: Kristi Nelson and Sharon

Winningham, whose talents and hard work

produced both a lovely Hospitality Room and a

sumptuous Presenters' Luncheon; Ceci Hauer and

JoAnn Watson, who planned and executed the

girls' Snack Break; Sharon Lyons, who used her

practiced skill in not only securing presenters, but

also signing up hostess/facilitators to help and

critique them; and Peggy Barth, who makes

registering over 300 girls look easy!!! Kerry Serl

and Cindy Mund did a fantastic job of publicizing

our event through all media avenues. THANK

YOU! THANK YOU!

Of course, without all our sister AAUW members,

who volunteered their time and talents, this year's

endeavor would not have been possible. You

were here, there, and everywhere...talking to girls

and parents, decorating tables, putting food on

platters, directing traffic, and answering questions.

You are all, indeed, the engine that runs the event!

This year, at Snack Break, we were fortunate to

have Morgan Lakey, Lexi Akins, and Zi Chen,

who are all Centralia College student body

officers and biology and pre-med majors, speak to

the girls about their STEM course backgrounds

and encourage them to always seek challenges in

their choices of public school coursework. What

great role models they are! The three young

women were there to assist us with anything and

everything EYH.

It goes without saying that our yearly Expanding

Your Horizons event is well known throughout

not only our county, but those which adjoin us!

This event gives us such a great “face” in the area

and exemplifies our mission statement. We all

can be proud to belong to an organization that

gives back so much to the community.

Donations have been made to the

Lewis County AAUW Branch

Endowment Fund

In honor of

Luana Graves 50th Year in AAUW

Priscilla Tiller

Sandy Godsey

Drusilla Heidar

Jan Leth

Kristi Nelson

Kerry Serl

Donna Loucks

Ann Tuning

Marian Osterby

Jan Snider

Karen McInturff

Nancy Leventon

Patricia Zimmerman

Judith Bell

Peggy Barth

Corene-Jones Litteer

Sharon Winningham

Mary Metzger

Cecilia Hauer

Janet Lyon

Donations in Luana’s name totaled $790!

ART GROUP Bonnie Blake

Art Group will meeting on

Thursday, November 16, from

10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Details

will be sent via email. If you

want to be added to the email

list, please contact Bonnie

Blake.

EARLY MORNING DISCUSSION

Norma Green

On Thursday, November 9, at 7:30 a.m., the

Early Morning Discussion Group will try another

new meeting place – The Centerville Café at

111 Tower Street in Centralia. It’s across the

street from the Olympic Club. We will have a

room in the back.

Continuing with our Art topic

for this year, Jeanne Nygard

will lead the discussion on

“Graffiti & Street Art.” Some of the fun subtopics to

be covered will be Yarn Bombing, 3D Street Art,

and Rock Balancing Art just to name a few. For

more information, contact Jeanne.

All AAUW members are welcome to join us on

Thursday, November 9. Along with the breakfast

of your choice, you will enjoy our informative

discussions and warm, friendly, sometimes

humorous conversations.

If you are not on our e-mail list and would like to

be, please contact Norma.

RAVENOUS READERS

BOOK GROUP Nancy Leventon

The November meeting of the Ravenous Readers

will be on Tuesday, November 21 at 7:00 p.m.

We will be meeting at Bonnie Blake’s house.

Please let Bonnie know that you will be coming.

The book for discussion is The Little Paris

Bookshop by Nina George. Cindy Mund will be

leading that discussion. Copies of our books for

the year are available at Book n Brush in Chehalis.

Planning Ahead: Ravenous

Readers will not meet in

December. The book for January

is A Gentleman in Moscow by

Amor Towles.

.

SUNSHINE REPORT

Jeanne Gordon

Please call or email Jeanne to let

her know of any members and their

families whom we want to keep in

our thoughts.

“Happy November Birthday” to:

M. Penny Abnet (04)

Drusilla Heidar (04)

Cathy Cavness (07)

Amy White (21)

MEMBERSHIP Kristi Nelson

Please add Donna La Lond's cell phone number to

your directory: 360-388-8957

SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE AND

ENDOWMENT FUND

Priscilla Tiller

Our Kate Gregg Scholarship winner, Hannah

Schneider, is excelling in Media Studies courses at

Centralia College. She is working at the Live 95.1

radio station and has been elected Media Club

President. To us she says, "I can't thank you all

enough for everything you all have done."

"You're welcome, Hannah. Keep up the good

work."

Donations to the Lewis County Branch

Endowment fund are applied to academic

scholarships for women from the area. All

donations are tax exempt. All endowment fund

investments are insured. For further information,

contact Donna Loucks.

HOLIDAY BANQUET

Kristi Nelson and Jan Snider

Preparations are

underway for the Winter

Holiday Banquet on

Thursday, December 7

at Once Upon a Thyme,

in Chehalis. The plans

are not yet finalized.

Details and the reservation form will be sent in a

separate email after the November Branch

meeting.

TRAVEL GROUP

Donna Loucks

Travel Group will not meet in

November or December because

our meeting day of the 4th

Thursday falls too close to the

holidays. We will look forward

to hearing from Jeanne Nygard in

January, Kerry Serl in February and Gail Gibbard

in April. We usually skip March because we are

busy with the book sale.

BOOK SALE

Donna Loucks

Books are already

flooding in for next

spring’s sale, which

will be held March 22-

24, 2018. Make sure

that all your friends

know that we collect books, and if you can’t pick

them up, contact Donna Loucks, Peggy Barth, or

Marja Lentz for pick-up. In the Members Only

section of our web page under Book Sale is a

“thank you” letter that you can print to give to

people who donate books. You can use it as a

receipt – just hand-write the number of boxes,

date, and your signature on the top. Also at the

web page is additional information on sorting and

what to discard. We will start getting serious

about book sale tasks after the first of the year.

BITS ‘n PIECES

Dedication of an area in the new TransAlta

building at Centralia College in honor of Alice

Forth will take place on Tuesday, November 28,

2017, at 3:00 p.m. The Student Center Area

where the event will take place is located on the

second floor of the TransAlta building. Alice was

a former faculty member and Dean of Students at

the college.

The Centralia College Lyceum is a series of

public conversations presented Wednesdays, 1:00-

1:50 p.m. in the TransAlta Commons room 122,

and is free and open to the public. The November

programs are:

Nov. 1 - American Muslims: History, Culture,

and Politics: This presentation is sponsored in

part by Humanities Washington.

Nov. 8 - What Your Teachers Never Told You

About the American Revolution: Author, Don

Glickstein This presentation is sponsored in part

by Humanities Washington.

Nov. 15 - International Student Panel

Nov. 29 - The Artistic Process: Centralia

College Graphic Arts instructor Alex Solomon.

BRANCH WEB PAGE and

FACEBOOK

Donna Loucks and Kerry Serl

Have you ever visited our Branch web page?

You can enter the full URL: http://lewiscounty-

wa.aauw.net/ or if that is too clumsy, just Google

“Lewis County AAUW.” Then bookmark it so it

is easy to go to in the future! It is our “face” to the

public, but it also is a place where Members can

access information they might need. After you

click the “Members Only” tab, you’ll need to enter

the password which is in the directory. If your

browser allows it, just save the password so you

don’t have to enter it each time. Once you’ve

logged in, you will need to go back to the tab to

see the choices on the drop-down list. They

include: Book Sale (including a “Thank You”

letter you can hand out when you pick up books, a

list of the Categories we use to sort, and other

information); Bylaws; Directory (in case you

misplace your printed one); Past Branch

Newsletters; Profiles (of people who have joined

in about the last 5 years); Sharing; and Sunshine.

We are always open for contributions to Sharing

and Sunshine.

Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/American-

Association-of-University-Women-Lewis-County-

1594584720774399/timeline/

AAUW NEW MEMBER PROFILE by Kristi Nelson

Sarah White was born in Centralia, at home, by midwife delivery. She says her mom, Amy White, was

auditing hospitals at the time and decided a home birth was the way to go. Everything worked out great!

Her mom delivered her brother at home a few years later.

Sarah attended Centralia schools, graduated from The Evergreen State College with a B.A. in Social Work,

and in 2015 earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Washington. Her graduate

work required taking many classes including two practicums: one involved working with teenagers in an

alternative school; the other, an advanced practicum, was connected with little kids in a preschool at Pike’s

Place Market in Seattle.

After graduation, Sarah got a job in Olympia dealing with young children who had severe behavioral and

emotional issues. For months at a time, she would be on call 24/7 with only a few days off, which was

extremely tiring and stressful.

Since then, Sarah changed jobs and now works for Triple AAA: Area Agency on Aging, which serves

Lewis, Thurston and Mason counties. She has a caseload of 90 clients consisting of the elderly and the

younger disabled, works from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and says she got her life back! Her job is to help

people stay in their homes for as long as they can, making sure they are safe and get the assistance they need.

Not only is it more cost effective to maintain people at home, but also they are usually more comfortable

when surrounded by their family, pets and familiar things.

Sarah enjoys her clients and loves listening to them tell about their backgrounds and personal experiences.

She says she encounters some really amusing people – truck drivers and veterans have the best stories!

Sarah considers herself a “crafty” person and enjoys sewing, jewelry making and crocheting. She is

currently crocheting a beautiful starburst patterned blanket in vivid blue, chartreuse and pink yarn. She likes

hiking, cooking, reads a lot and is a pop culture nerd, following such television shows as “Arrested

Development” and “Game of Thrones.”

A progressive at heart, Sarah cares about women’s rights in general. Working at the Human Response

Network when she was 20 influenced her a lot. She says attitudes that make violence toward women and

children acceptable must change and that it is time for misogyny to end: “we’re done with misogyny.” She

feels people in power are a barometer of the culture and should be obligated to set a good example.

It is a pleasure to welcome you to AAUW, Sarah!!

CALENDAR

Thursday, November 2 ........................... Branch Meeting

Thursday, November 9 ........................... Early Morning Discussion

Thursday, November 16 ......................... Art Group

Tuesday, November 21 .......................... Ravenous Readers Book Group

Friday, November 24 .............................. December Newsletter Deadline

Thursday, December 7 ........................... Holiday Banquet