March Assembled

Thank you all for the great response for casserole ingredient donations and assembly volunteers! We had a wonderful turnout and 10 casseroles were prepared and are ready for delivery.

In the meeting following, we discussed this month's meeting, our church volunteer project, cleaning up the nursery rooms on Monday, April 15th at 7pm. We decided to divide up the duties into "committees" and then we can each volunteer for a committee and discuss any necessary items to bring. Look for more information soon on our Facebook page.

We decided to tweak our May mission project to collect items to assemble into kits needed for the Cunningham Children's Home. The "Newcomer Kit" and "Independent Living Start-up Kit" each have a long list of items ranging in price. We discussed using a church-wide "scavenger hunt-like" system in which we would have a sign up sheet of all items needed available in between church services for both our members and general church members to sign up and commit to donate said item. We will then provide a collection drop-off the next couple of Sundays leading up to our May meeting when we will hopefully have 2 complete kits.

Finally, many of you received the Cunningham donation letter, and many will be receiving these in the mail. As I have stressed and as our February presenter explained, the expansion planned for Cunningham Children's Home is massive and so so very much needed. The donation drive, specifically among our UMW is for a committed monetary donation. I encourage discussion and prayerful consideration for this very meaningful, very crucial organization.

From Cunningham to casseroles, wrapping up the winter!

We had a great presentation by Linda Myette from the Cunningham Children's Home. Their plans for the school expansions are incredible. If you missed our meeting but are interested in this important UMW mission and their fundraising campaign, please let Claire or Michelle know. We are hoping to discuss assembling some "kits" for the residents sometime this Spring.

For our March 18th meeting, we will be assembling casseroles for distribution to our church members, friends or neighbors in need. Just as we did last year, we plan to make 8 casseroles;  2 baked zitis with meat, 2 without, and 2 macaroni and cheese casseroles with ham, and 2 without. Here is the list of ingredients that we need to be brought to the meeting. If you can attend (or even plan to send), please comment to this post with the ingredient(s) you have chosen and we'll update the list. Also, we can ALWAYS use donations of foil pans of all sizes, heavy duty aluminum foil, and 2 gallon size freezer ziploc bags. Thanks ladies!

Ingredients list:

Elbow Macaroni, 2lbs- Janet
Eggs, 1 dozen- Michelle
Butter, 2 sticks- Julie
Sour cream, 5 cups- Julie
Milk, 4 cups- Heather
Diced ham, 2 cups- Heather
Ziti/penne pasta, 2lbs- Janet
Colby Jack shredded cheese, 8 cups- Erin
Mozzarella cheese shredded, 2 cups- Erin
Onions, 2 small white, chopped- Sarah
Lean ground beef, browned, 1lb- Sarah
Parmesan cheese, 1 cup- Erin
Provolone cheese, 24 slices- Claire
Red pasta sauce, 4 jars (26 oz each)- Erica

2013 Planning Tea Wrap-Up

What a great meeting! Our Spring & Fall are now filled with great mission-projects for our group to benefit our church, our community and our planet. I'm so excited! February's meeting host's a speaker from the Cunningham Children's Home, in March we will assemble casseroles for donation to our church members, in April we will do some "spring cleaning" in our church nursery and pre-school rooms, and in May we will combine and assemble donations for the Midwest Distribution Center. Be sure to check our blog's calendar for all UMW events for the calendar year, and ask us if you'd like more details.

We had some great brain-storming sessions with Barb Todd regarding our thoughts on First Fest (maybe a picnic on June 9th to kick-off VBS?) and also with Carol Morgan about cutting costs for childcare during the Attic Sale (consider cutting childcare completely during sorting and finding youth/adult volunteers for sale days?)

We gathered hostess volunteers and donations for the upcoming February UMW Unit program "Stepping Outside of Our Comfort Zone." We hope many of you will consider attending to hear speakers from The Baby Fold and the Children's Home and Aid Society. The meeting is at 7pm on Tuesday, February 5th in the church lounge.

We are saddened to lose Sally Hawkins, one of our most valuable, involved UMW members to an upcoming move to KS. A send-off celebration in the next week or two is in the works!

Finally, our meeting concluded with the sharing of the joys and concerns that filled our prayer bowl. Many prayers are lifted up to those members, family, and friends.

Hey Ruth'ers! Our January meeting has been pushed back a week to Monday the 28th, due to the holiday weekend. This meeting will be a "planning tea" where we'll plot out the rest of the meetings, snack hostesses, speakers, mission projects, seasonal activities, and fun for 2013. 

Our secondary goal for this night is to invite NEW women who have not been to UMW before! Make an effort to reach out to other ladies that you've met at church - or outside of our church that might be interested in learning what our Ruth Circle is all about! Invite them and offer to drive them too. Please let me know if you need childcare so I can make arrangements. Thanks, and happy new year to you all!