Scholarship opportunity from NAJA

The National Association of Junior Auxiliaries, Inc. was established in 1941 with the purpose of uniting members "to render charitable services which are beneficial to the general public, with particular emphasis on children, and to cooperate with other organizations performing similar services." Our slogan is "Care Today - Character Tomorrow". 

It is only natural that we wish to support those individuals that also believe in supporting the special needs of children and who are in professions that do just that.

The NAJA scholarship program was established in 1962 and since then has awarded more than 429 grants totaling over $881,865.00 for graduate study in fields which address the special needs of children and youth. 

Scholarships are awarded each April. The applications are available only from September 1 through February 1 and only through the NAJA website. 

Applicants must be:

• Working or planning to work directly with children. 
  
• Pursuing graduate level studies for one year in fields which address the special needs of children and youth. Graduate fields of study include, but are not limited to: Counseling, Psychology, Mental Health, Special Education, Speech Pathology, Exceptional Children, Remedial Skills Development, Hearing Impaired, Gifted and Talented, etc. Scholarships are NOT awarded for graduate work in administration or general education.
  
• A U.S. citizen and permanent resident of a state with a Junior Auxiliary Chapter:Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas.
  
• Planning to attend a U.S. college or university for full-time or part-time study.
  

To members:

Spread the word about this scholarship. We have a lot of folks in Warren County taking on their Masters in fields catering to the special needs of children...and free money is always helpful! Talk to M.A. if you have any questions.

To the public: 

If you are interested in learning more about this scholarship please feel free to contact us at  jamcminnville@yahoo.com  or visit NAJA online and click on the scholarship link on the left-hand side. We would love to see some Warren County applicants (and scholarship recipients!) this year!

Pencil Pals

Susan is still accepting Pencil Pal items for those of you who still want to help out.

Packs of pencils, paper, crayons, backpacks, school boxes, safety scissors, etc. etc. etc.

Gently used back packs and certain other school accessories are also being accepted...a great use for those "old" backpacks and school things from last year, don't you think?

Just drop any items off on her porch, at Ashley's Attic, or you can call and speak with her about setting up an alternative drop-off/pick-up plan.

Please help with this project...it's an easy way to get hours but you'll be helping out a lot by making a child's back-to-school special!

How to count your hours? 5 items = 1 hour OR $10.00 = 1 hour.

Pencil Pals

A note from Susan...

Hey Guys! I’m the chair of pencil pals this year and we need lots of supplies!

We don't have enough supplies right now to cover all the schools and kids that depend on our donations. Some kids will need everything… backpacks, calculators, markers, paint, paper, scissors, folders, glue, etc.

My goal is to have the supplies to the schools before the first day of school, August 7th.

So we need to stock up now!

Please help with this project...it's an easy way to get hours but you'll be helping out a lot by making a child's back-to-school special!

How to count your hours? 5 items = 1 hour OR $10.00 = 1 hour.

As soon as you can email or call me and I will arrange a pick up for you or drop it off on my front porch.

Since this is tax-free weekend, it's a great time to take advantage of the back-to-school deals out there to get these supplies. Shopping for good deals and helping out kids AT THE SAME TIME...what fun!

Thanks!

Back to School Book Giveaway

Come join us

this Saturday,

August 2nd

for our 2nd annual J.A. Book Giveaway during

Warren County School System's Back-to-School Kickoff

at Three Star Mall from 9am until noon.

Through this project, we are able to distribute hundreds of books to children from all over the community. Each child that visits our booth can pick out one book that they like to take home with them.

Last year, for our first time around, we collected and distributed over 300 books free to kids who came by our booth at the event...this year we have over 1,000 to give away!

We see this as an opportunity for the kids to pick out books that they would like to read...not just a book that they've been assigned to read. We hope that through this project we are able to encourage kids to learn to love reading...and maybe give them an appreciation for charity and giving along the way.

We'll see you there!

Also check us out in today's Southern Standard on page 5-A for the story about our book giveaway!

County Wide PJ Day

This whole town has been hit hard with the news of so many of our kids having been diagnosed with cancer. We love to support the American Cancer Society and Vanderbilt Children's Hospital whenever we can, but since kids are our "thing", we wanted to do something to help out those kids in our community and their families with their day-to-day needs - gas to and from Vandy, eating out, bills, etc. etc. etc.

This idea to raise and distribute money to local families battling cancer was presented at a meeting several months ago and all of us wanted to help so we began brainstorming.

Jamie Lorance came up with the idea to raise money by sponsoring a pajama day for all of the schools. Each child, teacher or school staff member who wanted to participate and wear their pajamas to school on that day only had to make a donation to the fundraiser.

On Friday, May 8th, the plan went into action! The schools that participated were Bobby Ray, West Elementary, Eastside, Centertown, Morrison and Covenant Academy.

$996.00 was raised for the cause!

This was a great opportunity, not only to raise the money for a great cause, but to talk to the students about giving and about really making a difference in the community and the world. Kids really get a kick out of getting to help out others, especially other kids, when given the chance...so this was the perfect project to really get them involved!

Thank you to EVERYONE who participated! To all of the kids who wanted to help and gave change from their pockets, to all the parents who sent money from home, to the teachers and school staff who gave what they could...

THANK YOU THANK YOU!

A special thanks goes out to all of the teachers for taking care of the donations and organizing of their individual classes; especially to Monty Childers at Morrison, Stephanie George at Eastside, Natalie Miller at West, and Pam Gross at Covenant Academy. Also thank you to all of the principals for allowing us to do this project at your schools.

We've gotten the chance to give out some of the money already and it is such a blessing to be able to help out a family with at least some of their financial burdens. We will continue to raise money for this fund throughout the year so that we can keep it replenished and be able to give monetary help when it is needed the most. Watch the blog for details about this fund and the projects we have planned to continue raising money for it.

Jaime, way to go! Congrats on the success of this project!

Back to School Kickoff and J.A. Book Giveaway

A note from Kristy:

I hope everyone is having a GREAT summer!

It has been confirmed that Warren County School System's "Back to School Kick Off"
will be held this Saturday, August 2nd
from 9 am-12 pm at Three Star Mall.

We have over 1,000 books to give away this year!

We'll be handing the books out to the children who come to our booth at the Back to School Kickoff and we need several members to work the booth to make sure that everyone who visits the booth gets some individual attention.
If you are available to work, please let me know ASAP.

Schedule:
8am - 9am Set up
9am - 12pm Hand out books
12pm - ? Pack up and tear down (this shouldn't take long)
Please let me know if you can work and for how long.

This project is an easy way to receive hours and it's fun!

I'll be emailing everyone with details about the event as I hear them and about the location of our booth.

Thanks for your help!

P.S. It's not too late to bring in or collect books for this giveaway! Contact Kristy if you have any age-appropriate books for children and/or young adults to add to our supply or bring them to the Junior Auxiliary booth on August 2nd to Three Star Mall.

Provisional Applications

A Note From Brooke:

Just a reminder that it is time for provisional applications to be getting out.

We've already had a great response this year so I'm really excited about this year's provisional class!

I will need all applications turned to me by the August chapter meeting. If anyone needs an application just call or email me and I'll get one to you.

Also remember that each member is only allowed to propose two names so if anyone has invited more than two women to apply for membership, just make sure that you ask around and find someone who isn't over their limit to propose them (this is a NAJA rule).

I hope everyone is having a great summer and I'll see ya in August!

Thanks!

P.S. If you are not a member of Junior Auxiliary of McMinnville and would like to know more about becoming a member; Brooke is the woman you need to talk to. Feel free to contact us at jamcminnville@yahoo.com or Brooke personally at jbtotherow@yahoo.com.