10th Annual Coats for the Community

We held our 10th annual Coats for the Community this past Saturday and it was a huge success! We had a ton of coats to give away and nobody left empty-handed!

We also gave out hats, shoes, snowsuits, sweat shirts, sweaters, windbreakers, gloves and other items of clothing.

Coats for the Community Chairperson Stephanie Ward wishes to thank everyone in the community who donated and all of the members that helped with cleaning, collecting and giving out the coats.

Something to think about

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."
-Leo Buscaglia

Ladies,
There is so much potential for us, through the work we do, to really make a difference. I hope that in everything you do that you remember this. When you're out in the community, whether it is with Junior Auxiliary or just in your daily life, I hope you realize the impact that you can make in someone's life...and you might not even realize it when you do. We've been given such a wonderful opportunity through J.A. to do a lot of good in Warren County...so let's keep up the great work and keep on making a difference in this community!

Welcome Provisionals!

We are pleased to announce that all of this year's proposed Provisional members were voted into the club at our September general meeting and were welcomed at our October general meeting with a social held in their honor!

We'd like to welcome the following ladies into our Junior Auxiliary family:
-Marcy Bolding
-Kimberly Chisam
-Nicole Chisam
-Tiffany Gannon
-Lacey Jones
-Tiffany Keeton
Ashley Moore
-Pamela Shelton
-Rosie Shirley
-Veronica Stepien
-Anne Vance
-Kelly Wood

From their applications we learned that they are a very hard-working, passionate and dedicated group of women and we're very excited to have them join our group!

We hope that in the next few months that they take opportunities to get to know the other members of the club and that they learn a great deal about J.A. and what this organization is all about. The work that we do is not always easy but it's always rewarding and we're happy to have these ladies to join our cause!

Print Cartridges for Boyd

Because we believe in helping the schools in our community to achieve their goals; we are currently collecting empty print cartridges for Boyd Christian School.

If you have access to any empty print cartridges please consider donating them to this project. You can get them to Susan any time or you can hang on to them until and bring them to one of the October meetings.

If you know of a school that is doing a similar collection, feel free to share it with the group...we might just be able to help out! We're always excited to help out the kids in our community in any way that we can.

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.

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.