Operation Smile 2014

This year's Operation Smile Event that took place on January 16th was epic!  We had a record number of volunteers:  20 Brentwood Woman Club members and 54 volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We had a record number of service hours - well over 250 hours!  We also made a record number of items to donate and send to Operation Smile: 70 gowns, 100 no-no armbands, and 100 dolls.  The total donation was valued at $1050.00.  The club also donated a check for $600.00 to go towards cleft palate surgeries.

Click here if you would like to make a private donation.  Click here if you would like to check into volunteering opportunities for your club or group.

These dolls and the arrangement of them kind of sums up what the event is all about - lots of women working together to help others.

Here's the only picture that we have of Kathy (on left above), who organized the event with the help of Jean (not pictured).

 

 

Terri is a return volunteer and she is a machine!  She sewed the entire four hours and we're not sure that she even took a lunch break.  Then she asked if we would mind if she took a 'few things' home to finish.  A few weeks later she returned to us a bag of finished items: 8 gowns and 55 armbands!  She made more than half of the total armbands that we sent to Operation Smile!  We had no idea she had taken so many things home, and we have no idea how many hours she worked on those things.  Wow!

This year we added a pre-event preparation day.  Mary, our former President, helped cut out dolls and then took a bunch of them home to sew them up so they would be ready for stuffing.  She also made additional gowns after the event.  We're not sure that she took a lunch break during the event either!

Liz, our dedicated president.

Genma was a big hit with the kiddies.  We provide childcare so that the moms can focus on their sewing and socializing while at the event.

 Piles of finished gowns

A new banner for next year?

Clean a Mile

What a beautiful day we had last Saturday, "cleaning our mile."  Nineteen Brentwood High School Honor Society students and club members Liz Martin, Jan Huffman, and Pat Grove were able to not only clean our mile from Franklin Road to Granny White Pike, but were also able to collect all the litter from Brentwood High School's front campus and parking lot.  Thanks to Krispy Kreme Donuts, we all enjoyed a treat after a job well done.

VA Commissioner of TN to Speak to Brentwood Woman’s Club

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Many-Bears Grinder, the first female selected to head the Tennessee Department of Veterans’ Affairs, will address the Brentwood Woman’s Club at the Brentwood Library, November 5 @ 11am. Members of the public are invited to hear her speak and learn about veterans’ issues in our state. 

Commissioner Grinder retired from the Tennessee Army National Guard as a Colonel with over 35 years of service in order to serve in Governor Haslam’s cabinet. She is an Operation Enduring Freedom combat veteran, having served as the Head of Secretariat for the International Police Coordination Board. She traveled throughout Afghanistan, working with international diplomats and police as well as the Afghan leaders and local police officers, to ensure standardized training and equipment for the Afghan Police. 

This program, part of the The Brentwood Woman’s Club regularly scheduled monthly meeting, will begin @ 11am. Those who would like to learn more about the Brentwood Woman’s Club are invited to attend its business meeting starting @ 9:30am. Information of the club’s activities can be found on its web- site: www.bwctn.org

Wartburg Donations and Trip

This is a reminder to bring your donations for the Unicorn Boutique (in Wartburg, TN) to our October 1st meeting next Tuesday.  We will "store" the donations in the vehicles that will be making the trip to Wartburg.  If you do have donations, please contact Jacqui to let her know what you have so that she can determine how many vehicles will be needed for the trip.  Also, please remember to put your clothing items on hangers!!!

Go here to see learn more about our trip in April.  Go here to learn more about the Unicorn Fund, the organization that runs the Unicorn Boutique.

Ruby Tuesday Fundraiser

Next Tuesday, July 23rd, is our first Ruby Tuesday Fundraiser.  It will take place at the Ruby Tuesday in Brentwood at 279 Franklin Road. The Ruby Tuesday Community GiveBack Program will contribute to our club 20% of the net sales from guests who bring in the GiveBack flyer.

There will be no flyers available at the restaurant the day of the event, so make sure that you and each of your friends bring your/their own flyers. The money raised will go towards scholarships.  A big thanks to Liz for finding out about this and making it happen.

Click here to download the flyer.

BWC Members Help Raise $18,000 for Morning Star Sanctuary

Mary Phillips, Mary Marble, Carol Glasgow, and Marcella Harrison (left to right)

These ladies represented the GFWC Brentwood Woman's Club well yesterday in the 4th Annual Brentwood Country Club Ladies Golf Tournament.  The tournament is a fundraiser for Morning Star Sanctuary, a Christian refuge for victims of domestic violence.  Their team won 1st Place with a score of 67 in the second flight.  A total of $18,000 was raised to help fund the shelter.

The women of the GFWC Brentwood Woman's Club help to save our sisters from domestic violence in many ways, such as golfing in fundraising tournaments, awarding scholarships, and donating supplies for families in crisis.  Our purpose as a club is to raise awareness and to help prevent domestic violence.  Domestic violence knows know ZIP code and unfortunately Tennessee ranks third in the number of domestic violence cases.
 

Please help support families of domestic violence.  We invite you to make donations to Morning Star Sanctuary and Bridges Domestic Violence Center, two of the organizations that we support as a club.

Women's Issues - Domestic Violence

"What do 1 in 4 women have in common?  One in four women will experience some form of domestic violence in her lifetime."   Grammy Award-winning executive producer, Gretta Requierme. and Nashville Public Television (NPT) go inside Tennessee's domestic violence epidemic.

Liz, our BWC president, recently attended a special viewing of this NPT documentary titled "Domestic Violence Living in Fear".  She highly recommends watching it (see below) and has suggested that we might want to host a special event that would bring more awareness to domestic violence issues.

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If unacceptable behavior is happening in your relationship or the relationship of someone you know, contact the YWCA Crisis & information line @ (615) 242-1199 in Nashville.  In Williamson County, contact BRIDGES @ (615) 599-5777.