It's a Good Thing

You've often heard me talk about things that I've done with the Woman's Club, of which I am a member.  I've been on numerous trips to various museums, New York City, points of interest, and many other things and many lunches.  What you may not realize is that our club, the Woman's Club of Danbury/New Fairfield, is part of the General Federation of Woman's Clubs of Connecticut. We are basically a service organization dedicated to uniting women in the community by promoting educational, philanthropic and fellowship activities. We also have a lot of fun in the various fellowship groups such as hiking, bridge, canasta, Lunch Bunch, golf, bowling, Flick Chicks, book club and many more.

Our club's biggest fundraiser is our poinsettia sale, where we presell plants in November and then deliver the plants in early December.  It is a huge undertaking and this year we sold over 3,000 plants or $50,000 worth.  All of the profits are donated to local charities and given to five local high schools for scholarships.  Every year we get better and better.  More that $460,000 had been raised for the organizations in the Danbury area since the club was founded in 1982.

This past Tuesday was our distribution day.  The plants are delivered at 6AM in two huge delivery trucks.  We always hope for decent weather and this year was pretty good, cold, with no snow, ice or rain.  We have a cadre of husbands who unload the trucks and then the members empty the boxes and set them in rows according to size and color.  There are five different sizes and three colors and prices range from $10 to $30 apiece.  The empty boxes are filled with orders to be delivered.  It is a masterpiece of organization.  All the orders are usually filled and delivered by 1PM.  It's hard to tell in this picture, but there are many, many volunteers, each with a specific job.

Then there is the food.  I like to help out in the kitchen.  We start with breakfast food and coffee, lots of coffee, to feed the hungry workers.  About 10:30 lunch is set out in the form of sandwiches, pizza and desserts.  All the food is donated by members, too.

It's a busy day, but very rewarding.  In April we have our Celebration of Giving, where we invite representatives of the various charities to our luncheon meeting and hand out the checks.  It's a good thing!