Christmas in the Park

The date for our 24th annual Christmas in the Park has been set.

Join us in beautiful Downtown McMinnville on Tuesday December 1st for a night of caroling, cider, games, fun and other Christmas treats - all with friends, family and the ladies of Junior Auxiliary of McMinnville!

Stay tuned to the blog for more news about this wonderful community tradition.

Christmas Luminaries

It’s that time of year again! Christmas is just around the corner and we’re in the process of planning Christmas in the Park. Last year, as a separate project, we began selling luminaries in the weeks building up to Christmas in the Park to decorate downtown during the event.

We’ve already begun selling the luminaries to decorate at this year’s Christmas in the Park and we’re really excited about the potential to raise lots of funds to help meet the needs of the children in Warren County!

Here’s what you need to know:

· Luminaries are $5 each – or more if a donor feels so inclined.

· Each member is encouraged to sell at least 20 luminaries.

• The deadline to turn in names is the November General Meeting on November 17^th.
  

· Contact your family members, friends, fellow church members, boss, children’s teachers & coaches, coworkers, in-laws, hairdresser….you get the picture!

· We’re selling luminaries in memory of and in honor of …for anyone that they want to buy a luminary (or several!) for.

· Businesses can also purchase luminaries in honor of their employees or just with the name of the business on them.

· We’re also focusing this year on selling luminaries in honor and memory of our local veterans and also for those currently serving our country. We will have a special section for these luminaries.

· Emails have been sent out with notes, sales sheets and receipts.

· If you have any questions feel free to contact Project Chair Ashley Wright at (931) 607-6599 or jamcminnville@yahoo.com.

For the Public:

Contact your favorite Junior Auxiliary member or Ashley Wright if you’re reading this and would like to purchase a luminary (or several!).

All donations to Junior Auxiliary are tax-deductible (receipts are available).

Coats for the Community - This Weekend

COATS FOR THE COMMUNITY

- COAT GIVEAWAY -

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17th

THREE STAR MALL

(In the old Bookland)

9:30 AM - 11:30 AM

Coat & winter weather gear giveaway for all ages

All sizes will be available - baby to adult

for more information contact project chair Lori Womack or call Ashley Wright (931) 607-6599.

Vanderbilt Children's Hospital's Queen for a Day

Our Junior Auxiliary Princess, Leslie Moulton, recently participated in a very special event at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville.

Queen for a Day is a program that offers quality of life services through play therapy programs at no charge to pediatric cancer patients (ages 1 to 21) in hospitals around the nation.

Each Queen for a Day event consists of make-overs, manicures and rhinestone tiaras in an upbeat setting. These events provide a distraction from the strain of treatment that these children are having to go through at the hospitals. Queen for a Day measures their success in smiles, laughter and personality transformation in their patients.

The organization is completely volunteer based, relying upon the generosity to give their time, resources and money to fulfill their mission. Queen for a Day strives to create an atmosphere where kids can feel like kids again. Each child that participates gets to keep their tiara from the event as a tangible reminder of how good it feels to reign as "Queen for a Day".

Vanderbilt Children's Hospital recently held a Queen for a Day event for some of the little girls who are patients there to get an opportunity to meet with and be pampered by local pageant queens and princesses!

Not wanting to leave the boys out, Vanderbilt also created a special Hero for a Day program for them! Much like the Queen for a Day program, Hero for a Day gave little boys who are patients at Vandy a chance to meet real life heroes! Nashville firefighters came out to let the little guys know that they, too, are heroes for enduring what they have to face every day at the hospital! Instead of tiaras, the guys get fire hats and fire gear to dress up in.

This is such a cool program and we're so happy that Leslie chose to represent us and to volunteer her time for this worthy cause! She got the opportunity to crown and pamper several of the patients who participated in the event as the official nail painter! She got to spend time with Miss Tennessee USA, Kristen Motil and Miss Southern Tennessee, Katie Hoppel while she was there for what I'm sure was a wonderful experience. Leslie and her mom were both incredibly touched by the children that they met and the stories that they heard while they helped out with this event.

Thank you Connie for sharing this information and the photos with me! I know that you're so proud of Leslie and, you should definitely know; so is Junior Auxiliary! She has an incredibly big heart for such a young girl!

In other Leslie news; She recently won the title of Warren County Princess 2009 in the pageant held by the WCHS Pioneerettes! Congratulations Leslie!

We are thrilled to have such poised, beautiful, sweet and all-around-great girls representing our organization this year!

To learn more about Queen for a Day, visit their website at www.qfad.org.

Congratulations!

We are very excited that our very own Junior Miss Warren County, Laura Caroline Carter, competed in and won the 2009 Fairest of the Fair Pageant at the Warren County Agriculture and Livestock Fair!

She did a wonderful job in the pageant. She was graceful, beautiful and she totally kicked butt on her top five question! Congratulations Caroline (and thanks for letting me borrow some of these photos)!

Here Caroline is after being crowned by Victoria Woods, 2008 Warren County Fairest of the Fair and 2009 State Fairest of the Fair!

Here is Caroline posing with the Fairest of the Fair Emcee, Miss Emily Hobbs (who just so happens to be a past Junior Miss Warren County).

Here she is with her court - left to right; Megan Boren 1st runner up, Caroline, Victoria, Caitlin McClain 2nd runner up and KayAnn Moore 3rd runner up.

Caitlin just happens to be a former Junior Miss Warren County too. She did an awesome job as well and we love that we had not one, but two Junior Misses represented in the Fairest of the Fair court.

All of the girls did wonderful in the pageant but we're especially proud of all of "our" girls that participated! Congratulations ladies!

Did you know?

*Each school day, 46 children are diagnosed with cancer.

*On the average 12,500 children and teens will be diagnosed with some form of cancer each year in this country.

*One in 330 children will develop cancer by age 20.

*Although the 5 year survival rate is steadily increasing, one quarter of children will die 5 years from the time of diagnosis.

*Cancer remains the #1 disease killer of America's children - more than Cystic Fibrosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Asthma and AIDS combined.

*In the U.S. almost 3,000 children do not survive cancer each year.

*Over the past two decades, only ONE new cancer drug has been approved for pediatric use.

*Currently there are between 30-40,000 children undergoing cancer treatment in the U.S.

*As a nation, we spend over $14 BILLION per year on the space program, but only $35 MILLION on Childhood Cancer Research each year.

*There are 15 children diagnosed with cancer for every one child diagnosed with pediatric AIDS. Yet, the U.S. invests approximately $595,000 for research per victim of pediatric AIDS and only $20,000 for each victim of childhood cancer.

*Research funds are scarce as most money is diverted to well-publicized adult forms of cancer, such as breast and prostate.

*Right now, this second, somewhere in America, there are 7 children fighting for their lives who won't live through the day.

Junior Auxiliary of McMinnville wears gold for Andy, Morgan, Riley, Lauren, Jackson, Hunter & all the other children affected by cancer.

Who do YOU wear gold for?

Pencil Pals

It's back to school time again and many families don't have the resources to go buy the supplies that they need. Through our Pencil Pals project we try to provide at least some of those supplies for the school kids that are really in need.

Items that are needed:

pencils

ruled paper

folders

crayons

glue/glue sticks

new or gently used backpacks

UPDATE 8/24: Irving College Elementary needs pencils, wide-ruled paper, stick glue & scissors.

It will be determined at Executive Board how many items will make up a service hour.

UPDATE:

10 items = 1 hour

1 backpack = 1 hour

Feel free to go ahead and pick the supplies up (while they're on sale) and bring them to the August General Meeting.

Items can still be brought to the September General Meeting.

Contact Project Chair Sheila Boyd or Co-chair Jessica Higgins if you have any questions about the project, additional items that you can donate or if you have information about a child in need.

Make sure to spread the word about the upcoming Warren County Schools' Back to School Kickoff at the Three Star Mall on Saturday August 8th. They give out free school supplies to the school-age children in attendance so make sure to encourage the families of children that you think might need the assistance to attend...but tell them to be there early...the supplies go fast!

OH! And don't forget about the Tax-Free Holiday August 7th, 8th & 9th. It's the perfect time to shop for Pencil Pals!