May - 2012

Soroptimist International - Ashland Page 1

SOROPTIMISTINTERNATIONAL OF ASHLAND

CALENDARMay 2Noon*

Business Meeting

May 3 Lunch Buddy W1May 9Noon*

Dr. Bruce Johnson, Hospice Resources

May 11 Lunch Buddy W2

May 149am-12:30

Laundry Party

May 1611:30 am

AWARDS LUN-CHEON @ Ashland Springs Hotel

May 17 Lunch Buddy W3

May 215:30 pm

Board Meeting @ Ashand YMCA

May 23Noon

Pillow Booth Orien-tation at OSF

May 245:00 pm

SSGSW wrap-up meeting at Polly’s

May 30 Blue Moontba

* La Casa del Pueblo

Coming Events:June 5, Tuesday OSF Pillow Booth BeginsJune 6, Wednesday Business meeting & New

Member installationJune 13, Wednesday GardenWay ParkJune 18, Monday Installation Banquet

BESTfor Women

Looking at the flowering of Ashland as we move into full Spring, I realize that our Club year is reaching the flowering time as well: the

time of completion of projects, of giving of scholarships, of celebrating our accomplishments.

Our two main celebrations coming up are the Awards Luncheon on May 16, where we get to see the people to whom we have given Awards, Grants, and Scholarships this year. It always brings home to me the scope and the value of what we do in Club.

Then we have our Installation Banquet on June 18, where we will install our new President Georgina and her Board. This is truly a celebratory evening at the Ashland Springs Hotel where we can congratulate ourselves for all we’ve done this year, take some time to socialize, and look forward to our new year beginning in September.

During the summer months we will take a holiday from weekly Wednesday meetings, but not from working towards our goals, as it will be the time for our major money-raising project of the year: the Pillow Booth at the Elizabethan Theater at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It is now time to sign up for your six shifts if you have not done so already, and to plan to help with the first Laundry Party on May 14.

Committees are finishing up their year’s work, and new committees are being formed for next year. It’s time to think about how you want to serve next year: perhaps take on something new that you haven’t thought of doing before?

All in all, it’s an exciting time and a fulfilling one. See you at Club!

President Kay Lynne

Cookin’ with

Kay Lynnev v

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Get to know ourLong-time Members

Judy Faulkner 10/3/01

by Sue Kurth

Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, was the birthplace of Judy Faulkner; August 25, 1947 was the date. Judy has two sisters and one brother. Although born in Japan, Judy lived in Berlin, Germany, from age 10 to 15. Her family left Berlin a month before the wall was put up. Judy said, “As a kid growing up on a foreign Army base, we mostly interacted with American kids or foreign ambassadors’ kids. My best friend was Hanayo Hogan whose dad was the Japanese ambassador to Berlin. We lived in American housing, but the Hogans lived in an old German mansion. Hanayo and I loved to get in the ‘dumb waiter’ and ride up and down.”

Judy describes herself as an “army brat.” She said, “I wear my mom’s engagement ring which is a miniature of my dad’s West Point class ring.”

Judy was married from 1968-1974. She said, “I have no human kids but have two cats from the pound: Tony and Otto. They treat me to relaxing purring, and soft velvety fur. Great for stress reduction!”

Judy received a BA Degree in English from Cal State Fullerton and a BS Degree in Business Admin/Accounting from SOU.

In January, 1984, Judy moved to Ashland from southern California because her family had relocated to the area. Judy’s youngest sister and her family were the first to move to Ashland. Judy’s parents followed so they could be near their grandkids. Judy (and her 4 cats, at the time,) came up to visit and never left.

Judy has been a committed volunteer

at Shakespeare since 1984. She has done a myriad of jobs: first female red coat usher, ticket taker, first back stage nanny, prop room, and mailroom. Of course, Judy’s favorite volunteer job is working the pillow booth, but definitely high on her list of favorites was an OSF job as a back stage nanny for “Merry Wives of Windsor” in 1995 (96?). She was able to see how a play works from behind the scene which, according to Judy, is incredibly different than being in the audience.

Judy currently works at SOU in the Admissions office. She said, “I do transfer articulation which means that any admitted student who transfers to SOU has to send in all their transcripts from prior colleges. I take those transcripts, find the course descriptions, read them and compare them to SOU’s, and then input the classes into the SOU student records so the students don’t have to keep taking the same courses over and over.”

How I came to be a Soroptimists? Judy said, “My friend, Wendy Ray, was asked to join. I said, ‘Do it and then you can ask me to join.’ I had done volunteer work for OSF everywhere but the pillow booth. The evening after my first SIA luncheon, I went to Mavis’ and re-stuffed pillows.” As a club member, Judy has served on a variety of committees as well as being SIA secretary. She also did the newsletter; “This was long before the high tech world entered our club,” shared Judy…“because the newsletter was snail mailed to other clubs, district, etc. and members had to come to club meetings to pick up a copy.”

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Grant of Friendship Guest: Margaret Syekonyo Kiundiby Sue Kurth

When asked what her dream was for the Kenyan women, Maggie responded “To have every woman empowered to be her own woman.”

Margaret, aka Maggie, Syekonyo Kiundi, arrived from Brookings on April 16, and Mel delivered her to the Klamath Falls club on April 19. During her two and a half days in Ashland Maggie was busy. She and Kathy Mooney were on the Jefferson Exchange—both were fantastic. She planted bulbs in the rain with the SSGSW program. She toured Radio

Medford and KTVL Television. She laughed through Animal Crackers. And she really appreciated, and enjoyed, the pot luck. Maggie’s final Ashland outing was a trip to the Yogurt Hut. Maggie said frozen yogurt is very expensive in Nairobi and

such yogurt stores are only located in the ex-pat area.

When Maggie was one year old, her father died, leaving her mother, a widow, with two young daughters. Sons are important in her culture both then and still today. Despite family and friends pressuring the widowed mother to remarry and try for son, Maggie’s mother chose to remain a single mom. Today, Maggie’s mother, in her 70’s, manages a farm, mostly harvesting mangoes, and continues to be self-sufficient. Maggie said her mother has been

an inspiration and a role model—her mother demonstrates what an empowered woman can do.

Maggie lives and functions in the 21st Century, being both an iPhone and iPad user. Maggie and her husband have advanced degrees. Maggie taught school for a while then began doing commercials because they were very lucrative. Today, Maggie is an actress on a soap opera.

Maggie’s four children still live at home which, she says, is not typical in her culture. Her grandson also lives with them during the week. Maggie’s oldest daughter works during the day while taking courses in the evening, working toward a PhD in media communications. One son is a musician. another is studying to be a pilot, and the youngest daughter is still in high school. Her family lives on two acres, located “slightly out of town.” They have a vegetable garden which helps feed the family.

On Wednesday, April 18, Maggie presented a power point presentation to our club. Maggie’s command of the English language, her wit, and her ease in front of a group of women were transparent as she mesmerized us with her club’s activities. Her “15-minute presentation” pretty much consumed the entire hour.

continued p4

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Maggie is a member of SI Milimani - Nairobi, Kenya, which has 22 members. It is one of three clubs in Nairobi. They have two white members, both married to Kenyan men. SI Millimani is part of the Kenya Union (which is like our Region), which was formed in 1979. There are 11 clubs in their Union, with 300 women. They do a lot of work together and have a Union project. Maggie knows 98 percent of the women in her Union. Their Union partnered with SI/Denmark and won the SI Europe Best Practices Award in 2011. It was based on “Women and Climate Change” and had many elements. It began with a training symposium for all 300 members. Two projects Maggie shared involved an LED Lamp and a fireless cooker. The LED Lamps are given to women after they plant and maintain 53 seedlings; the trees will later be sold for income. The LED Lamps replace the kerosene lamps, which give off toxic fumes, creating breathing problems for children and family members, and the lamps have no financial expense associated with them. The LED lamps can light women’s way home after dark, a safety factor; they can easily be carried; they can charge phones; and they are solar charged. A fireless cooker was also invented, which eliminates the use of firewood, so trees are not cut down. Boiling water is put in the cooker basket and food cooks or stays hot all day. The cooker is quite portable.

SI Milimani is very involved with the children and families living at the dump. The children scavenge through the dump waste, finding sellable items. From their profits, the children give some money to their family, but keep some of the money to support their “glue sniffing” habit. Maggie’s club helps the parents create businesses with a system of micro loans so they are no longer dependent on their children’s income, freeing up the children to go to school.

SI Milimani has built bathrooms and dormitories. They assist in finding funds for the education of young girls. They have started a program related to supplying sanitary napkins, which otherwise cause a deterrent to girls going to school. They also run an annual Medical Camp, and a German Soroptimist club sends volunteer doctors to staff it. They do a career mentoring program for girls. They have another project to provide one meal a day for children, seven days a week. They do tree planting and plan to have a “Soroptimist Forest.” They also have another plant growing program using recycled water to grow vegetables.

Having Maggie share her club’s activities and their challenges is one of the purposes of the Grant of Friendship program. Maggie also appreciated hearing what SIA was doing. Members of SI Ashland were so moved they donated $355 to SI Milimani. The money was presented to Maggie at the Regional Conference.

Grant of Friendship Guest: Maggie, cont.

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Northwestern Region ConferenceBy Georgina Holderness CELEBRATION OF LIFE

Every year Soroptimist Northwest-ern Region honors members who have passed away during the past year. Our Peggy Cossolias was honored at the annual Celebration of Life ceremony. This year Region lost 31 members with a combined total of 975 years of service to So-roptimist International. The event began Sunday morning, April 29 at 9 am, a yellow rose which repre-senting the member was placed in a sterling silver loving cup on stage while music played and a photograph of the member was displayed on the screen. Peggy’s yellow rose was placed in the lov-ing cup by President Elect Geor-gina Holderness who represented our Club at the ceremony.

SIA TAKES CENTER STAGEFriday night after dinner, the Waaaayy Off Broadway Revue began. The conference theme was “Do you hear the people Sing?” Our Club preformed a number from “Chicago:” Razzle Dazzle. We

were all excited when Maggie, our Grant of Friendship visitor, wanted to be a part of our little troupe. She even rented a costume in Eugene.

Kathy was lifted onto the stage by some strong young men and Carol

was assisted on to the stage too. We all decided to just have fun with our dance. At the end of our perfor-mance, we received lots of applause from our sister soroptimst and soroptomis-ters. We had done it. We had fun and the audience had fun too.

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by Janet Leifur

Let’s continue to lend our support to HELMAN SCHOOL by clipping Box Tops for Education. Look for these coupons on your favorite products of Avery, Betty Crocker, General Mills, Hefty, Pillsbury, Ziploc and many more. Check out this website for more information on this wonderful program: www.boxtops4education.com

from Kathy Mooney

For unconventional, out-spoken young women who would rather stay at school than marry, the first half of the 20th Century could be perilous. With just the signature of the family doctor and a few tales of ‘abnormal behaviour,’ it was possible to be committed to an asylum, and then forgotten about for decades.

This story is set in Britain where, until as recently as the 1950s, women could be interred on such grounds only to be released when the institutions were closed in the 1990s. Elderly

patients, most often women, would find themselves released, sane but institutionalised, into a world very different to the one they left all those years before. This is the story of one such woman, Esme Lennox, and her relationship with her sister and betrayer, Kitty. Flicking between modern day Edinburgh and the 1930s when the Lennox family returned to Scotland from India, the narrative is both compelling and shocking. A great read for a book club and a story that leaves you wishing for a sequel! - Anna Aiken, SI Programme Officer.

Announcements:

from Linda Anderson

We are 77% signed up for Pillow Booth! If you haven’t yet signed up, Go To: http://www.soroptimistrv.org/siashland/pillowbooth2012.html Check the calendar for available dates where there are not already 2 signed up. Scroll down to the signup form, fill it out, and <Send>. I will confirm your choices or let you know of any conflicts. The Calendar & reports will be updated.SUBSTITUTION: Scroll further down on the same page for the Substitution Form—fill in and send—after you have arranged for your sub.

Pillow Booth

FIRST LAUNDRY PARTY: Monday, May 14th, beginning at 9:00 am—finished by 12:30 pm. We will be using a different laundramat—behind Ashland Cinema on Ashland Street.

Box Tops 4 Helman

Global Book Corner: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell

—ef—

—ef—

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Soroptimist International - Ashland Page 7

Art for the Garden - Art for the HomeMarch winds and April showers (and sometimes snow) bring forth May flowers! Just keep telling yourself that – over and over again – like a mantra – and that is how you will survive this spring. Last year Ashland set records for rain in March, April, and May, which is why the Ashland AAUW (American Association of University Women) 17th Annual Spring Garden Tour has been moved ahead one week to Sunday, June 10, 2012 from 11:00a.m. To 5:00p.m!Changing the date meant infringing on the “Art for the Garden/Art for the Home” event which traditionally has run Friday, Saturday and Sunday the same weekend, so in a true spirit of cooperation we asked them if we could combinethe two events. And they said yes!It is going to be a stunning weekend full of wonderful garden adven-tures! This year’s Spring Garden Tour willfeature six gardens all within the city of Ashland. The gardens are a delightful variety of “do it yourself,” professionally landscaped, reclaiming nature, com-munity gardens, small gardens, and deck gardens! There is literally something for everyone! In addition to the sounds of cascading waterfalls and songbirds, the sweet sounds of music performed by a number of local musicians, will entertain you at two of our gardens. When you visit the “Railroad District” garden you can partake of pastries and liquid refreshments while enjoying these gifted musicians.AAUW’s mission, “To advance equity for women and girls through advocacy, education and research.” is made possible bythe money we make from the Spring Garden Tour, our largest fund-raiser of the year.

SIA 2012-13 Program Survey...

...COMING SOON in your personal e mail. In a continued effort to present programs that are interesting, inspir-ing, and relevant to our mission and program goals, I would like to hear from you before putting together our 2012-2013 program schedule. I am especially interested in tapping into the expertise of our members with programs that increase our knowledge of the local community or are de-signed to build the skills that increase our effectiveness and efficiency as a club.

Thanks, Joy Dobson Way, VP, Programs 2012-2013

All members who complete and return a signed survey to me by 5/20/12 will be entered in a drawing for a special gift!

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Page 8 Soroptimist International - Ashland

Empty Bowls SupperFriday, May 11, 2012

Enjoy a Simple Meal-

Feed your family and others.

A Benefit for Food Angels,

Uncle Foods Diner* and ACCESS

BUY TICKETS$25.00 per person(children under 12 are free)

Make checks payable to:

PEACE HOUSEAll contributions are tax deductible.

Paypal or credit card

www.peacehouse.net/empty-bowls/

Purchase at Ticket Outlets

~Paddington Station

~Northwest Nature Shop

Buy at the Door

Door ticket sales begin at 5 p.m.

Sponsors

~Peace House

~Ashland Emergency Food Bank

~Ashland Food Co-op

Generous Donors

~First United Methodist Church

~Mix

~Clay Folks

~SOU Ceramics Dept.

~Ashland Art Center

Musician

~Tye Austin, guitarist & composer

Surprise Celebrity Waiters & Servers

You are invited to a supper of delicious

soup, fun, conversation AND to take home a

lovely handmade bowl crafted by a local

potter.

The bowl goes home as a gift as well as an

unspoken reminder that somewhere

someone’s bowl is empty.

We could not have this event without the

many talented artists in our valley who

donate pottery bowls for our guests.

If you would like to donate pottery bowls

for this event or volunteer, please contact

PEACE HOUSE for more information.

541-482-9625

To be assured of a bowl of your choice, buy

your ticket in advance. You will be given

early entry (4-5 p.m.) to select your bowl.

*Uncle Foods Diner is a Program of Peace House.

First United Methodist ChurchWesley Hall, 4 to 7 p.m.

175 N. Main St., Ashland

~ Feed your body and soul Fill anothers’ bowl~

At Uncle Foods Diner there has been a 30%

increase this last year in people served with

50% more children and families

.

www.peacehouse.net/empty-bowls/

These are the remaining Party of Par-ties. The signup list will be passed around at club. Please mark your cal-endar and plan a wonderful day with Soroptimist friends. Bring your spouse, friends or anyone you want to marga-rita with ..............Payment due prior to Party! See Yolan-da or the Hosts for more information. Wildflower walk with Mel & Mavis Wednesday, May 16th at 5 p.m. $15 Stepping Stone / Tile building Party Amanda & WendySaturday, June 2 at 9:30 a.m. $15

Morel Mushroom Hunting Laurie & Julie Sunday, June 3 “Maybe” - at noon $15This party may move to Sunday May 6, May 19 or May 27th depends on Mo-rels! Payment to this party will be due the Wednesday before the party. Be spontaneous! Life is there to en-joy......Eat mushrooms! Surprise Party! The date is still a sur-prise, $15. However, we can’t go wrong with Barbara S & Barbara O! They know how to throw a party. Taco & Margarita Pool Party Georgina & SusanSaturday, June 23 at 2 p.m. $20

Party or Parties

May - 2012

Soroptimist International - Ashland Page 9

RAYMOND JAMESFINANCIAL SERVICES, INC.

Me m b e r F I N R A / S I P C

BARBARA M. OLDFIELD, ChFCFINANCIAL CONSULTANT/BRANCH MANAGER

108 E. Hersey - Suite 3Ashland, OR 97520barbara.oldfield@raymondjames.comwww.raymondjames.com

541.488.6768888.549.9672

Fax: 541.482.1460

A·S·H·L ·A ·N·D H·O·M·E·S

R E A L E S T A T E I n c .

MARILYN BAILEYBROKER

150 EAST MAIN STREETASHLAND, OR 97520e-mail: mbailey@mind.net

(541) 482-0044 ext. 103(800) 334-7499

FAX (541) 482-0046

Cynthia Bennett 20Marilyn Bailey 20Kay Lynne Sherman 28Karen Machen 28

There are no May Anni-versaries of SIA members

(Number Years Soroptimist member)

Soroptimist International of Ashland

meets at noon on Wednesdaysfrom September through June.

Please contact Kay Lynne Sherman at 541-951-2763 for additional meeting or club details

or send us an email at siashland@gmail.com.Our mailing address is:

P.O.Box 544, Ashland, OR 97520.

Editor: Linda Andersonlanderson77@mind.net

Advertising: $50 for 1 year—contact Linda Anderson and provide her with your business card or other art work.

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