2008-09 - Our Diary

QUOTA PRESENTS ANNUAL AWARDS - INSTALLS NEW BOARD GULFPORT, MISSISSIPPI (May 8, 2008) Quota International of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, a service organization dedicated to disadvantaged women and children and the speech and hearing impaired, awarded its highest honor, Quotarian of the Year, to Sarah Morrison, at the organization’s annual Awards Night and Installation of Officers. Ms. Morrison is a former Colleen for the Quota Shenanigan’s Parade and served on the ’07-’08 Board of Directors as secretary. She was also the organizations liaison to CASA where she serves as a Court Appointed Special Advocate. The award was presented by Betty Shaw, past president of Quota. “This award goes to the member who exemplifies what it means to be a Quotarian,” Shaw said just prior to handing out the award.

First year member, Mike Reader, was awarded the Rookie of the Year Award and the highly coveted Service Award went to Nancy Fobes of Gulfport. As the service award recipient, Ms. Fobes will serve as the QIMSGC’s Service All Star at the District Level and will be recognized by Quota International during the organization’s international convention in San Jose, California in July.

A plaque of appreciation was presented to Tamara Morrison, who served as the organization’s president during the ’07-’08 year.

The newly installed Board of Directors will be headed by Lois West, who will serve as President of the organization for the ’08-’09 term. Mrs. West, a resident of Long Beach, Mississippi, has served as Captain of Quota’s Shenanigans Parade for more than 20 years and is a past recipient of both the Quotarian of the Year and the Career Woman of the Year awards.

Serving with Mrs. West on the Board of Directors is First Vice President, Programs, Paula April of Biloxi; Second VP, Membership, Leigh Coleman of Ocean Springs; Third VP, Ways and Means, Mike Reader of Gulfport; Treasurer, Mary Foretich of Gulfport; Secretary, Patty Price of Biloxi; Corresponding Secretary, Sherry Shackleton of Gulfport; Directors Vicki Miller and Mona Allen, both of Gulfport and Parliamentarian and Immediate Past President, Tamara Morrison, also of Gulfport.

The Awards Presentation and Installation of Officers were held at the Gulfport home of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Shell. The evening affair had a hot air balloon theme in keeping with Mrs. West’s theme for her upcoming year, “Come Fly with Quota…the Sky’s the Limit.”

Congratulations Nancy Fobes, for being recognized as our Club "All Star". As such, she was recognized at District Conference with an All Star pin. The club also presented her with a special Service Plaque. Nancy does so much more than donate her time to Quota, and we are very blessed to have her on our team!

Paula started our year in Programs by sharing her passion for stamp collecting. As Program Chair, she will looking for interesting stories and programs from a variety of sources.

Ditte Holland gave a very interesting and heartwarming program during the July meeting, in which she shared her collection of drawings that her Father did for her over the years. Many were pencil sketches that he included on the letters that he wrote to her. Some were greeting cards. They were all breathtaking! Thank you for sharing this with us, Ditte!

Back to school fun!

We purchased school supplies for 200 goodie bags, which we donated to the CASA Back to School Fair. The link for details and more photos can be found on our home page.

Interpretors Dawn Altman, Samantha Fish and Jill Hagler proudly demonstrate their new GPS units, donated by QI MS Gulf Coast!

3 GPS units were delivered to the DeLepee Deaf Center's interpretors. Greg reports that they have them in place, and are using them already! We also delivered Pizza to the Summer Camp kids, and paid for all of them to attend the Summer Fair. Photos of the Pizza Party on the home page.

EagleToo(our own website designer/host)has designed a brand new "homepage" for the Deaf Center, and has donated the hosting to the Center. To visit the center's website, click on the link located on the navigation bar of this page.

Kristian Clark, Program Coordinator for the South MS Child Advocacy Center accepts special dolls from Vicki Miller, Service Chairman

The Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse put in an urgent plea for anatomically correct dolls used in investigations of sexual abuse. Our club ordered the dolls immediately, and they were delivered to the Child Advocacy Center June 12th. Kristian says that they will become invaluable tools in helping children express their feelings during their interviews, which sometimes can be very traumatic and frightening for children. She and Michelle Shows (Executive Dr. CPCA) were on hand to accept the dolls, and to express their gratitude to Quota!

In addition, our own Mike Reader, who is (as most of you know) the Chief Meteorologist for WLOX TV, gave us an update on Hurricane Gustav. We're very lucky to have Mike on our team... and on the Gulf Coast!

Our 5th Thursday event found us playing Trivia at Marig's! See more photos and the details by clicking on the link found on the home page. It was a fun and "challenging" evening!

SHOEBOXES OF LOVE - 60 gift wrapped boxes of toys and gifts donated by Quotarians and friends, were delivered to the Jackson County Youth Shelter on Monday, December 8th. Frances Allsup, Executive Director of CASA, said that this may be the only gift these children recieve this Christmas! In addition to the shoeboxes, 10 children with the Harrison County Youth Shelter will be "adopted" with $10 gift cards.

Here’s how it worked: Quotarians filled a gift box (about the size of a shoebox) with $10 worth of goodies. Some good items are: books, crayons, pens & pencils, hand-held games, gift cards, small stuffed animals, barrettes and hair clips, novelty flashlights, toys, gloves, stationery. They were delivered to the Jackson County and Harrison County Youth Courts. Nearly 100 boxes and gifts were donated to this cause. Thanks to all who participated!

CHRISTMAS AT PASS ROAD ELEMENTARY: The Service Committee has been learning more and more about the students at Pass Road Elementary. Like all schools, their budgets have been cut to the bone, and extracurricular activities are left to the responsibility of the teachers and parents. 95% of their 315 children are on some sort of public assistance. And at a recent meeting with the principal and guidance counselor, we learned that their budget is being cut another 4%. We thought these kids should have a fun Christmas, and wanted to “throw them a party”. The club voted to donate $500 for gifts and refreshments for these children. (Note: although inclement weather prevented the Winter Wonderland event outside, the children still had a great time during the day inside the warm school.

VISIT TO BILOXI COMMUNITY LIVING CENTER Sunday, Dec. 22ND: It was a brisk day when we arrived with nearly 60 goodie bags of gifts, Santa, Jingles and friends at the Biloxi Community Living Center. "Tribute" played a variety of music for the residents, while Quotarians and friends served refreshments and Santa delivered gifts donated by Quotarians in special bags made by the Deaf Center Sewing Club. Check out the photo album located on the home page! It truly was a Merry Quota Christmas!

Well, Mike and his committee really did it this time. Of course with the help of many of our Quota Members. He said he wanted to do $3000.00 and we did.

My hats off to Mike for coordinating this great activity. If you did not get a chance to come by our booth, you really missed a treat. There was always a line to see one of our two great santa's the teen members of Delta Sigma Theta were kept busy non stop doing face painting, and honestly I don't see how Vicki sat there continuously with her hand crimped over her hand painted ornament balls. Her work is fabulous!

Many thanks to Walgreen's who handled the entire photo program - Mike singlehandedly brought them to the table.

Thanks to these Quota members who came out to work:
Mike Reader and wife Delores
Vicki Miller
Lois West
Nancy Fobes
Mary Foretich and granddaughter
Patti Price and daughter Heather
Rosetta Richards
Sandy Denham
Ditte Holland
Angela Bellman
Barbara Brewer
Betty Shaw
Bridgett Logan
Tamara Morrison
Daphne Kelly
Chuck Young
and thanks to our other Santa and his wife - Bill and Dee Lawson (past member)

So here are the totals
Saturday
Santa Pictures $1250.00
Face Painting $153.00
Ornaments $ 500.00
Sunday
Santa Pictures $905.00
Face Painting $178.50
Ornaments $349.00

Total for both days $3335.50. The ornament money will be credited to Vicki's Pig for the Hog Killing Event. She provided all the supplies and of course did all the painting

Fabulous event!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!thanks to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Ron Meyers wants us to do it again next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was an absolutely wonderful event! We had about 10 guests, and many have expressed an interest in joining! Thanks a MILLION to the Beau Rivage for their generous hospitality! Great work Leigh and her committee, putting this together! It was a memorable event!

Our guest speaker was Becky Ginn, from the American Heart Association. She spoke on the importance of living a healthy lifestyle.

We presented our Community Champion, Helen Margiotta, with a commemorative framed copy of her International Certificate, along with some photos. Helen is known as the "Matriarch" of the d'Lepee Deaf Center, and very deserving of this recognition!

We also presented Amy Corchis with a thank you gift for helping us with our Membership Event at the Beau Rivage.

We also met our Scholarship recipients (photos to come), Anita Johnson and her daughter, Becky. They are both going to school in the speech and hearing field. Anita is an interpreter, and Becky (who has cochlear implants) will be attending USM and entering the deaf education program. We awarded them $1,500.00 in scholarships. Congratulations to these very special women!

Other guests attending were Jill Hagler, Interpreter Coordinator, d'Lepee Deaf Center(shown interpreting for the meeting), Greg Crapo,Executive Director-Catholic Charities, Diocese of Biloxi, Becky Gaitan, MS Gulf Coast Community College, and friends and family of Helen.

What a fun Program Meeting! We installed 4 new members, and Paula led everyone in a rousing game of "What's My Line?" We welcomed a special guest - Lydia Webb (a potential member. She works for the Sun Herald) There was door prizes and a special report on Shenanigan's!

The Harrison County Youth Shelter is experiencing an unusual number of children, and sent out a plea for clothes, toiletries, brushes, diapers, sippy cups. Members donated a "carload" of items, and we delivered them to the shelter. The group voted to donate $1,000 towards new clothes for the children, and the Service Committee "Shopping Team" made up of Darlene Duffano, Sherry Balius, Amy Corchis and Ditte Holland did an OUTSTANDING JOB shopping for these clothes! Way to go ladies! Shelter Supervisor, Dianna Kuns is shown here, accepting the badly needed clothing.

Mike reported that our local Food Kitchens are also in desparate need of money to help feed the homeless. The club voted to donate $1,500.00 to that cause. Mike will report which Food Kitchens are in the most need.

ADOPTION GIFTS - We were present for a total of 20 beautiful children, ages infant to teenager, when they were adopted in Harrison and Jackson County on November 7th and 14th. After the judge officially declared them members of their new families, we snapped their family photo, and gave a framed copy to their new Mothers and Fathers as a commemorative gift. This was a very special moment for these families, and it came after long journeys and many court hearings. Congratulations to all! We were proud to be a part of this very special event, as part of National Adoption Month.

"SOMETHING TO CALL THEIR OWN"...500 of these specially imprinted bags, have now been delivered to Hope Haven for Children, The Harrison County Youth Shelter, and the Department of Human Services. This was a special project, suggested by our Service Committee, when Sarah Morrison, in her work with CASA, learned that when abused, abandoned or neglected children and women arrive at these shelters, they have little more than the clothes on their backs, and often leave with a few belongings in a plastic bag. These convertible backpack/gymbag/drawstring totes, imprinted with a special Quota message of love,are large enough for a change of clothes, towel, washcloth and toiletries. Just how much these bags are needed and appreciated, was confirmed, when we delivered the last of them to DHS. Gwenn Beck told us that it was far better than the garbage bags that they often resort to using when the children are taken out of their homes. All of these agencies have been asked to keep us informed of their inventory, and we hope to be able to replenish these as they are needed

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS: (lft to right: Tamara Morrison, Membership Chair; Jan Hiles, Vickie Williams, Chuck Young, Lois Young (Chuck's Mom) and President