The Children's Advocacy Center

We would like to thank Donnie Carter from our local Children's Advocacy Center for coming to our September general meeting and visiting with us a little.

She gave a very informative talk about what the C.A.C. does in our community and provided us with some useful and practical knowledge about what we can do as individuals to help prevent child abuse and neglect in our community.

We also discussed the Angels' Autumn Fest, a fundraising event that the C.A.C. is hosting in October. We have been asked to help with the serving duties at the event and we are very excited that we've been given the opportunity to help the C.A.C. in any way that we can. Tennessee's first lady, Andrea Conte (pictured above, during another children's advocacy event), is the speaker and with her at the helm, it looks to be a very prestigious event and a great opportunity for our community to come together to help a really worthy cause.

You can learn more about the event or reserve your tickets by contacting the Children's Advocacy Center at 507-2386.

Congratulations Yankee Doodle Winners!

Our Yankee Doodle Parade winners were listed today in the Southern Standard on the front page of the Lifestyles section. A couple of our adorable winners, Brownie Johnson and Kataen Shockley, even had their pictures featured on the page!

Go pick up a newspaper or check them out online at http://www.southernstandard.com/. Go into the archives and it will be listed on July 9th.

Thanks, once again, to all who participated in the parade this year! We'll see you next year!

Happy 200th Warren County!

All four of our princesses were in the Bicentennial Parade on Saturday.

Junior Miss Warren County Caitlin McClain, J.A. Little Sister Merissa Chapman, Miss Snow Princess Madison Taylor, and Little Miss Snow Princess Elena Holder all rode in a couple of really cool convertibles - they threw candy to the kids, waved to the crowds and charmed everyone.

President Natalie Miller and Vice President Brooke Totherow also rode along in the passenger seats of the cars making it a complete J.A. event!

Thanks to Jodi McAbee and Jeff Vance for lending us their vehicles to use in the parade.
A BIG thank you goes out also to Seth Wright with the Southern Standard for making the lovely signs for the sides of the convertibles! They really made us 'pop'!

The parade was a lot of fun...here are some pictures from the day:

I loved the sheep and the Australian shepherd! They were popular with the whole crowd!

After the parade we found a Junior Miss fan in the crowd...none other than our very own Jackie Matheney!

The Yankee Doodle Parade

This past Saturday, as a part of Warren County's Bicentennial Celebration, we hosted our annual Yankee Doodle Children's Parade. It was free to all ages up to 4th grade and we really had a great turnout this year!

Winners were as follows:

Preschool Division:
1st - Brownie Johnson
2nd - Gracie Lynn Hancock
3rd - Kataen Shockley

Kindergarten - 1st Division:
1st - Carter Cantrell
2nd - Jakob Shockley
3rd - Brianna Simmons

2nd -4th Division:
1st - Livia Brewer
2nd - Bethany Porter
3rd - Justin Menninger

Group Division:
1st - Grant & Ethan Hitchcock
2nd - A Tie - group#3:Justice Woodside, Mattie Wilson, Jake Toney, Karly Wilson
group#4:Katie Toney, J.P. Toney, Lydia Wilson, not pictured Mia Grace Cantrell
3rd - Jalyn, Noah, Hanna and Maya Mart

Here are some of the pictures from the day...

Here is a picture of our lovely judges for the event. Our three oldest princesses; Caitlin McClain - Junior Miss Warren County 2008, Merissa Chapman - J.A. Little Sister 2008, and Madison Taylor - Miss Snow Princess 2008. They did a great job...when they first showed up to do the judging they all told me something to the effect of, "How are we suppose to pick between all these cute kids?"...they all were very professional about the judging process though and I think everyone was pleased with their choices! Thanks so much for helping out ladies!

Shauna Wiley was the chair of the event. She made sure to keep us all busy and made sure the parade ran as smoothly as possible. Here is one of the very cooperative daddies during the parade! Some of our contestants not old enough to even walk yet, while other contestants chose to "ride" in the parade on a "float" pulled or pushed by a helpful parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin or other likewise helpful adult - sometimes in costume! Steve Sliger here is the husband of one of Junior Auxiliary's former presidents and current associate members - Danielle Sliger. Steve pulled their two girls, Maggie and Marlie, in a decorated wagon for the group division...doesn't he look thrilled? LOL. Here are a few details from some of the parade's "floats". The day's theme was "our roots run deep" and some of the kids decided to express that theme with their parade entry. Others celebrated our county's birthday and did "support our troops" themed entries while others decided to keep it simple with just classic red, white and blue!

Thanks to all who spent hours decorating and putting together these wonderful works of art! Thanks to the kids who wanted to be in the parade, to the parents who allowed them to be, helped them with their entry and got them to the parade on Saturday! Thank you so much to everyone who came out, participated and helped J.A. to celebrate America's and Warren County's birthday!

T-shirts

The Yankee Doodle Shirts are back from the printer! Aren't they cute?!

Come by the shop (Ashley's Attic) and get yours

or call me and I'll bring it to you.

If I'm not at the shop when you come by, the box is in front of the register. Inside the box with the shirts there will be a list of your names with the sizes you ordered...just check your name off the list when you get your shirt.

If you haven't paid me, just leave a check or cash with whoever is running the shop.

Each shirt is $11.

I'll also have in the box some schedules for the Junior Auxiliary events on July 5th...pick one of those up too.

As always, call me if you have any questions: 607-6599

Yankee Doodle Children's Parade

We're in the News!

Wednesday's Style Page in the Southern Standard had a story about our mural that was painted by J.A. Life Member Pat Bigbee. Go check it out at http://www.southernstandard.com/ or use this link!

The Bicentennial Committee is using the mural for the L. Virginia French Ball on Saturday night. Go to this link to learn about the details for this event.

Yankee Doodle Children's Parade T-Shirts

Any member interested in getting a Yankee Doodle Children's Parade T-shirt for July 5th, get in touch with me, Ashley Gillentine. You can get shirts for your kids too...we like to deck out our J.A. kids as much as we do ourselves! Just email or call me with sizes. The shirts will be regular cotton t-shirts, so order accordingly.

The design will be a play on Warren County's Bicentennial Logo with a Junior Auxiliary twist - on J.A. blue with white and red details.

You don't have to be working the Yankee Doodle Parade to have one. It will look good for as many J.A. members as possible to be in them on July 4th and 5th both! I believe that these will be nice to wear to any community event - not just in July - since it also has a Warren County and a bicentennial theme. Just consider this a J.A. shirt with a patriotic theme...not specifically a Yankee Doodle Parade shirt.

The shirts will be $11.oo each and the deadline for ordering them is Monday June 9th. I'd like to be able to get them to everyone well before July 5th.

We'd like to give a big thanks to Helen at Ashley's Attic and Pat Zechman of the Southern Standard for providing the shirts for this year's Little Miss Snow Princess, Miss Snow Princess, Junior Auxiliary Little Sister and Junior Miss Warren County for the event.

It's almost time!

As I mentioned in the notes to the left, J.A. has been asked to help decorate and set up for the Bicentennial Event, The L. Virginia French Ball.

Friday afternoon President Natalie Miller, her son Aiden and I (Ashley Gillentine) got together with Carla King from Main Street McMinnville, Jimmy Haley from the McMinnville Preservation Council, and Jimmy's daughter Laura Kate Haley (who was our J.A. Little Sister last year) to begin making plans for the decorations.

One decoration in particular is a GIANT mural that belongs to our club (in the pictures). This mural, painted by Mrs. Pat Bigbee over 25 years ago, has been used in countless Junior Auxiliary pageants as well as other J.A. events and it was also used during Warren County's Quartoseptcentennial (our town's 175th anniversary).

So, once again, we have pulled it out of storage to serve our community. Jimmy had it cleaned and touched up early last week and now it is ready to be used as a backdrop during the L. Virginia French Ball!

Here are some pictures from our meeting. We'll be seeing you at the L. Virginia French Ball on Saturday night. Check out this post for details about the ball and where to find tickets!

(I love this photo! Jimmy seems calm, collected and, literally, in focus while everything around him is blurry, busy and rushed looking. That's how he always strikes me! I did not mean for it to be so art-y and symbolic but I'll definitely take credit for it!)

The Lucy Virginia French Ball - A Bicentennial Celebration

The L. Virginia French Ball is less than two weeks away.

Have you bought your tickets yet?

This will be a formal dance/community social put on by the Bicentennial Executive Committee in honor of one of Warren County's former citizens; Lucy Virginia French.

The L. Virginia French Ball

will be held

at 7:00 pm

on June 7th

at the McMinnville Civic Center

Tickets are $12.50 each

Tickets can be purchased at

- Warren County Executive Building
- Warren County / McMinnville Chamber of Commerce
- McMinnville Civic Center
- Magness Library

-On the night of the event, tickets can be purchased at the door

This will be a great way for the community to come together!

Ladies, It's an excuse to get really dressed up and go out dancing....How often do you get to do that in McMinnville? Guys, this is the perfect idea for a date with your girlfriend/wife...

she'll think you're so romantic for thinking of it!

Bring the kids, bring your parents and grandparents....

It'll be a great event - a chance to hang out with your friends and/or family in a different

setting than the usual Saturday night,

you'll get a little history while you're there maybe,

and on top of all that - you're supporting your community!

We'll see you there!

Check the Warren County 200 Web site for more information on Lucy Virginia French, this event or any of the other upcoming Warren County Bicentennial events.

Who was L. Virginia French?

Lucy Virginia French (1825-1881) was a writer, poet and magazine editor of the Old South. Reared in Virginia and Pennsylvania, she met Col. John Hopkins French at a book store in Memphis, later moving to McMinnville after a whirlwind romance. They settled at the French Plantation Forest Home and Colonel and Mrs. French became the pillars of society as they lavishly entertained local folk as well as dignitaries who visited the town.
Mrs. French was a writer for several popular magazines of the time and became famous across the south and was recognized in national literary circles. When the Civil War erupted in 1861, she was supportive of the Confederacy and "refuged" at nearby Beersheba Springs where she kept diaries that she later became famous for.
That journal remains as a chronicle of the life in McMinnville during the Federal and Confederate occupations of the city.
After the war, French continued to write and publish until her death in 1881. She is buried in Riverside Cemetery in McMinnville. A Tennessee Historical Marker is now located at the sight of the Forest Home on Main Street here in the city.