The Brentwood Angels

The Brentwood Angels - that's what the volunteers at the Unicorn Boutique call us now.  Doesn't that have a nice ring to it?  Liz, Kathy and Helen (one of our newest members) filled up their vehicles with lots of donations from our club members and made the 3-hour drive to Wartburg, Tennessee.  Jacqui coordinated the event but wasn't able to make the trek.

Helen, Liz and Bob unloading the goods.

Our donations filled up the kitchen.

Helen, getting the full-on initiation into the club.

 It takes a village...

Shelby Melhorn, founder of Unicorn Fund, Inc.

Kodak moment with Shelby

Below are a few photos of the Unicorn Boutique.  If you haven't been yet, you really ought to go.  In addition to being well-organized and totally cute, the boutique provides a wonderful service to the town of Wartburg.  There are lots of people in Wartburg who struggle financially and at the boutique they are able to buy needed items for around $1.00 or less.  The proceeds are used to help fund many Unicorn Fund projects, such as scholarships.  Check out the Unicorn Fund blog to see some of the other great things they're doing.

Projects for 2012-2013

In preparation for our April 2^nd General Meeting, please review our list of projects for 2012-2013 and come prepared with any questions you might have about them.

CSA - ARTS

• Celebration of Youth – Short Story, Poetry and Art Contest and Reception for winners
• Music Department Donations – Donations to high school choral departments (Brentwood High and Ravenwood High)

CSA - CONSERVATION

• Keep Williamson Beautiful – A $150 donation that helps them with their mission to partner with volunteers to keep our community clean, green and environmentally aware.
• Owl's Hill – A $350 donation that helps protect and preserve 160 acres of green space (and the wildlife that live there) in northwestern Williamson County.
• Beautification Project – A $100 donation to the Brentwood Garden Club for the Owen’s Chapel Garden Fund.
• Kind News Subscriptions for Smyrna Elementary School – A subscription ($75) to Kind News, an 8-page, bimonthly magazine for elementary school-age children published by the Humane Society.
• GFWC 1734 Society – A $174 donation to preserve and maintain the GFWC Headquarters building in Washington, D.C. as a National Historic Landmark.
• Living Green Expo – In Augusts past BWC members have supplied and served snacks and drinks for vendors at AG Expo Park in Franklin as our sponsorship of Keep Williamson Beautiful’s environmental expo.  No longer will be held as a separate expo.
• Environmental Reading Program – In April volunteers read to elementary classes.
• Adopt a Mile – Twice a year we pick up litter on Murray Lane between Granny White Pike and Franklin Road on our designated “Adopt-a-Mile”.
• Brentwood Tree Commission – Once a year we help with the annual bagging of tree saplings for distribution to school children in recognition of Brentwood’s designation as a “Tree City” and Arbor Day.

CSA - EDUCATION

• School Library Donations – Donations of $100 each to eleven school libraries in Brentwood.
• Library Books on Women – A $150 donation to Brentwood Library for books on women.
• Literacy Council of Williamson County – A $300 donation to support the mission to enrich and transform the lives of adults by teaching them how to read.
• Scholarships – Three $1000 college scholarships for female high school graduates.
• Unicorn Fund Scholarship – A $1000 donation for scholarships to the Unicorn Fund in Wartburg, TN.

 

CSA - HOME LIFE

• Bingo at Grace Health Care – The 2^nd Monday of each month BWC members host a Bingo game for nursing home residents.  Prizes are supplied through a $500 budget and through in-kind donations from the members.
• Canine Companions – A $300 donation to provide highly trained assistance dogs for children and adults with disabilities.
• Women's Health Issues – A $1000 donation to an annually designated charity that promotes an area of women’s health, for example the American Heart Association.
• School Supplies for Unicorn Fund – A $165 donation to buy school supplies for the needy children in Morgan and Scott Counties.
• Snoopy’s Closet – We make in-kind donations to Williamson Medical Center for low-income mothers to go home with baby supplies.

CSA - INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH

• Operation Smile Surgery – A $600 donation for cleft palate surgeries.
• Operation Smile Sewing Event – BWC members organize and supply materials for a sewing event, and partner with women of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in sewing hospital gowns, smile dolls, and smile bags.
• Heifer Project – A $200 donation to help end poverty and hunger around the world.

CSA - PUBLIC ISSUES

• World Food Day – In October we buy food for the GraceWorks Ministries Food Pantry with member donations and $150 from the budget.
• Camp Hope – A $400 donation to sponsor campers who are burn victims.
• Fisher House – A $300 donation to support America’s military veterans.  The Fisher House is being built in Murfreesboro to provide housing for veterans’ family members in their time of need - much like the Ronald McDonald House houses families of hospitalized children.
• Sew Much Comfort – A $300 donation to help provide free adaptive clothing to support the unique needs of wounded and disabled service members.
• TN Valley Healthcare – A $275 donation to support our women veterans in their healthcare.
• Happy Tales Humane – A $150 donation to help improve the quality of life of animals in Middle Tennessee by rescuing, caring for, and finding adoptive homes for unwanted pets.
• Candidate Forum – Every other year, we present the candidates running for the Brentwood City Commission in a press question/answer forum for the public’s education and provide a reception afterwards for one-on-one discussions.
• Women's Legislative Forum – Each year women’s groups present their non-partisan issues to the Tennessee Legislature.  We have not participated before.
• Unicorn Boutique – Twice a year we donate household goods and clothing for resale in the Unicorn Boutique in Wartburg, TN (run by Unicorn Fund, Inc.), assisting them in raising funds to benefit Wartburg area residents in need.
• Ronald McDonald House – We collect and donate pop tabs that are converted to cash and used for fundraising.
• Veteran’s Hospital – We collect and deliver magazines and books to Veterans’ Hospital in Nashville.

SP - Domestic Violence

• Save Our Sisters – A $100 donation to GFWC’s Music City District “Save our Sisters” fund to be accessed by women in dire need.
• Purple Education & Job Training Grant – For the past four years we have given at least a $1000 grant to a domestic violence survivor who is enrolled in an approved education program.
• Bridges Domestic Violence Center – Each December we “adopt” a surviving domestic violence family and provide them with their Christmas presents.

SP - Advocacy for Children

• Davis House – A $500 donation to help combat abuse by coordinating services to children and their families in crisis and providing community education focused on early intervention.
• Williamson County CASA – A $500 donation to advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children within the court system.

CSA = Community Service Area
SP    = Special Project

March 2013 Fundraiser

We had a wonderful fundraiser this year, held at the Brentwood Country Club.  There were about 100 women who joined in the festivities to help us raise money for our 2013-2014 budget.  Lots of club members pitched in to help pull off this huge event.  A special thanks goes to Paula for heading up the event for the 4th year in a row!

Of course, there was a silent auction.  Lots of members put together fun baskets or brought lovely things from their homes to be auctioned off.

There was lots of serious bidding going on.  There was one intense bidding war going on over a Bluebird Cafe hatch print.

The tables looked gorgeous and the meal was delicious.  There was lots of socializing with long-time friends and new acquaintances.

The Redd Hot Mamas energized us with their enthusiasm and talent.  Paula really knows how to throw a party!

Wait, a dude!?  What's he doing in here!?  Paula wisely suggested that we needed a sound guy to help pull this thing off.

Dillard's sponsored a fashion show and our club members and their friends strutted their 'stuff' down the runway weaved through filled-to-capacity tables.  Check out all these cute ladies in their very well-coordinated outfits.

Of course we had to invite the press.  Our former and new publicity people, Nora and Mary, are really on the ball when it comes to publicity.

Take a look at a few more shots of just a fraction of the women who came out and supported our fundraiser.  Thank you so much!  We really appreciate all your support.

A special thanks goes to Lawrence Taylor for taking all these wonderful pictures for us!  For more pictures of the event go here.

Operation Smile 2013

One of our most well attended projects for the last few years has been our Operation Smile sewing extravaganza.  We organize the event by providing the fabric, notions, a light lunch, and childcare.  We partner with the women of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who provide the space, and together we sew hospital gowns, smile dolls, and smile bags for young cleft palate surgery patients.

Before, during and after our January 17th event, we've logged about 250 service hours provided by 22 club members, 4 friends of club members, and 26 women from the church group.  It's interesting that many new club members mention Operation Smile as the first BWC event they ever attended.

Here's a glimpse of what it takes to pull off an event like this.

It starts with lots of shopping, buying yards and yards of bargain fabrics.  Then you have to find women who enjoy are willing to iron.  Liz and Janet spent many hours pressing fabric, gowns and bags.  Janet also proved to be a very efficient quality control gown inspector.  From now on she will be known as Inspector #8.

Then you need expert gown cutters like Wanda and Nora.  They love doing this together.  Nora, we're going to miss you!  Wanda, we expect you to come next year to train the next generation of gown cutters.

You need lots of people with sewing machines, especially people like Valeri and Brenda, who love to sew and are fast!  They each took things home to finish too.

You need women of all ages helping out, like Chelsea and Lucia, because it's just more fun that way!

You need enthusiastic people like Maura-Lee to rally the sewing troops and make things way more fun.  She even helped with clean up and it wasn't even 'her' event.

With all of those things in place you can make 54 hospital gowns.  Okay, truth be told, we made 38 gowns this year, we finished 5 from last year, and 11 gowns mysteriously appeared out of nowhere.

To make smile dolls you need lots of skin tone fabrics and lots of volunteers who are willing to trace the doll pattern onto the fabric and cut them out.

You need women like Jean and Pam who are willing to cut out these dolls even if it gives them creepy doll nightmares.

You need women like Barbara and Kristin who are willing to sew the tiny curvy seams on these dolls.  I hope we didn't scare them away for next year!

Pat and Gail

Jackie and Betty

You definitely need a big table of BWC members and their friends like Marcie and Jan, who enjoy being together, to stuff and sew up the dolls.

We also needed Mary who wasn't able to attend the event due to a surgery.  After the event she stuffed and sewed up 16 of these dolls and made a few gowns too.  We ended up with a total of 77 dolls.

We also made 46 smile bags.  It's unfortunate that we don't have a picture of Diane who spent the entire four hours cutting out all 46 of these bags by herself.  What a trooper!

We owe a HUGE thanks to Liz Allman, who watched all the wee ones while their moms sewed.  She was completely exhausted at the end of the four hours.  Thank you Liz!

It's hard to believe that all that effort was squished into two medium sized boxes, which were sent off to the Operation Smile headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia.  According to their donation inventory forms, here's the value of our donation:

• 54 hospital gowns valued at $270.00
• 77 smile dolls valued at $385.00
• 46 smile bags valued at $92.00

Total donation:  177 items valued at $747.00

We also sent a check for $600.00 to go towards cleft palate surgeries.  That should cover 2.5 surgeries.  Go here if you'd like to make a personal donation.

NICE WORK LADIES!

Christmas Holiday Luncheon

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We're so excited to announce that Tennessee's First Lady, Crissy Haslam, will be the guest speaker at our Christmas Holiday Luncheon on December 4th.  Go here for more details on what promises to be a memorable event.