Member Spotlight: What's in Your Bag, Group 5

This week get to know...

Andrea Loffink-Saito
2011-12 Placement: Project READ
 
What’s in your bag? Pink Kate Spade wallet, planner, 3 different shades of pink lip gloss, android phone, gym ID card and sun glasses.

What has been one of your favorite league events? Family Giving Tree – great project of service to our community.

Describe the League in 3 words: Community, sisterhood, inspirational.

Name a fear you’ve overcome and how you did it: I had a fear of heights as a child, which was quickly overcome after I took up pole vaulting while on my high school’s track team.

Did you meet any new league members last year? Yes! Meredith Pfeffer and I met at the Provisional retreat and have become good friends.



Calla Griffith

2011-12 Placement: Membership Enrichment Co Chair

What’s in your bag? Agenda, cosmetic bag, lipstick, wallet, Mountain View Performing Arts Center brochure, fruit crusher and apple sauce.

What has been one of your favorite league events? The General Membership Meeting with Community Advisory Panel – inspiring, educational and amazing!

Describe the League in 3 words: Connect, inspire, belong.

Name a fear you’ve overcome and how you did it: Public speaking… hee hee hee… just kidding.

Did you meet any new league members last year? Regine Nelson and now we are working together on Membership Enrichment.



Ellen Dempsey
2011-12 Placement: The Shop

What’s in your bag? My son’s baby socks, 2 pairs of sunglasses and headphones.

What has been one of your favorite league events? The Shop Anniversary Party

Describe the League in 3 words: Welcoming, fun, hard work.

Name a fear you’ve overcome: Asking for donations.

Did you meet any new league members last year? Rachel Crawford.

Junior Giants Event

By Ana White, Communications Team

1500 youth baseball players, 24 community baseball leagues across Northern California, 20 Junior League volunteers, plus additional community support and sponsorships made for another successful and impactful event for the league to take part in last Sunday. The Junior Giants program not only emphasizes many of the league’s own goals such as leadership, integrity, and teamwork, but it also impacts one of the league’s most sought after groups to work with, kids! The program’s overall goal is to provide an alternative to drugs, gangs, and violence.

So, considering the weather gods don’t always cooperate with summertime plans in beautiful San Francisco, last Sunday was exceptional at AT&T Park. Teams of youth baseball players, 5-18 year old boys and girls, had the greatest opportunity to play one of our country’s favorite pastimes on the World Champion San Francisco Giant’s field. While our lovely ladies of the Peninsula "womanned" the home dugout at the yogurt parfait station, players rotated throughout the field to play games, participated in bike races to blend smoothies, and learned about important violence prevention programs.

Now, while "womanning" a parfait station isn’t uber glamorous, the staff and director of the Junior Giant’s greatly appreciated the support of our leaguers. This provided a smooth working operation, an extra fun environment with the enthusiasm of our volunteers, and a little less stress in executing the event! Thanks again to all who participated.

Member Resources is Here for You!

By Ansley Jentz, MRC Member

What a great League year ahead it will be! The eight ladies of the 2011-12 Member Resources Committee have met twice already (mid-July and again in mid-August) for nights of high energy and early focus on the coming League year.

In July, Gabriella Cirelli, Chair of Member Resources, facilitated an efficient agenda, including “get-to-know-you” time, a discussion of goals/expectations/norms, a review of our roles and liaison responsibilities, and of course, delicious dinner and dessert! In August, Gabriella did it again, with a terrific meal from Leticia Gonzalez. As we prepare to learn the ins and outs of our roles as mentors to League members, I came up with a simple list of the things we will do for you this year.

Here it is:

• Advise you – we are the Human Resource element in the League. We can describe differences in committees, obligations, stages of membership, etc. Please use us!
• Recognize you – we love this part! It’s our job to gather the good news about what our members are doing in the community or in the committee and celebrate them – look for our fun announcements at the General Membership Meetings this year.
• Assist you – we are your assistant when it comes to your League experience. If you cannot fulfill your current commitments, or your current experience is not meeting your needs, please reach out to your MRC liaison. We will work to find a solution for you.
• Remind you – we are very interested in seeing you maintain your good member status. We sometimes serve as the gentle messenger with regard to your membership obligations. Have you met your Shop donation or your volunteer commitments for the year? We will check in and remind you as needed.
• Advocate for you – this is another big part that we love! When it comes to committee or leadership placement, we are YOUR ADVOCATES! We want to hear from you as to what you might want to do in the League. As Placement Night happens (each year in April), we represent you and speak up on your behalf. However, if we don’t know what you’re interested in, we cannot speak up for your interests.

Please stay in touch – we want you to be happy with all aspects of your League experience. So this blog entry became longer than I expected… my very simple message is this: We are here for you and look forward to enhancing the JL-PAMP experience for everyone this year!

Member Resources Committee Members, July 2011 - Photo (L-R): Miriam Huntley, Gabriella (and Donatella) Cirelli, Liz Wood, Stephanie Pearson-Phillips, Marissa Levy, Ansley Jentz, Mary Grundy, and Leticia Gonzalez

JLPA-MP Voluteer for Junior Giants Festival

By Ann-Christel Graham, Community VP

Crystal Galliher, Beth Greenberg, Brenna Preston, Alyse Benham, Alyse's friend, Lisa, Jen Baker

On August 14, JLPA-MP volunteers participated in The Junior Giants Festival which celebrates Junior  Giants teams that successfully completed the Home Run Level of the Round the Bases Reading Program, a campaign designed by the Giants Community Fund to encourage reading throughout the summer. Once all of the players on a team account for 12 hours of reading and reach the Home Run level, their team earns the chance to visit AT&T Park for the festival. These kids also committed to a healthy summer, giving up things like soda and focusing on healthy eating habits. To encourage healthy eating habits, JLPA-MP volunteers manned a parfait station where the Junior Giants teams could build their own parfaits using vanilla yogurt, blueberries and granola.

Laura Rogers (Sustainer) and Brenna Preston

Going into the event, we weren't sure which parfait ingredient we'd run out of first: yogurt, blueberries or  granola. We all had our own opinion on what the kids would like the most. We saw multiple kids first respond "no thank you" to blueberries, then change their mind and give it a try, and another kid who really wasn't sure about the parfait concept at all only to see him come and ask for seconds about 5 minutes later. Though I wasn't there at the end to determine what the kids liked the most based on what was eaten, I can certainly say the parfaits were well received.

The excitement wasn't all about the parfaits, however. As a young boy was finishing his while sitting in the SF Giants dugout, he exclaimed: "This is my first time on the field and in the Giants dugout. I am so excited!" That sentiment was shared by all the kids and JLPA-MP volunteers alike.

Meaux Costello and Michelle Bilafer

The Junior Giants event was a great opportunity to serve our community, get hands-on with kids, and partner with a non-profit that we hadn't worked with previously. I heard Vanessa Roach say: "Now this is what I call hands-on!" and another volunteer comment: "Seeing and hearing how appreciative these kids were made this event extra special." I think we'd all like to see this event become a repeatable DIAD for years to come.

Open House at the Gatehouse

By Michelle Hostrup, Communications Team

This past Wednesday 8/17/2011 was the first time I have ever been to a JLPA-MP Open House. It’s embarrassing to even admit! But after 2 years as an active member, I finally made it to one. I decided to go to the Open House because my friend Jen is interested in joining the league. I know she’d be a great member, and I really want her to join, so I wanted to go with her to make sure she had a good time.

There were so many league members socializing and meeting all the women. It was great. They made her feel so welcome! We were greeted and offered drinks and dinner food (including the most amazing taquito’s I have ever had), and even Sprinkles cupcakes for dessert! Calla Griffith kicked off the meeting, followed by a few words from Meaux Costello, Joy Peacock, Lauren Case and Angie Klein, and Summer Brill. The entire Open House was short and sweet, with equal amounts of time spent on socializing and then educating the prospective members about the league.

The fact of the matter is, I probably didn’t need to go – Jen would have had an equally great time even if I wasn’t there. But I’m glad I did go. It made me so proud to hear the leaders talk about our league with such enthusiasm and pride. Whether you’re an active member or prospective, I highly encourage you to go to an Open House.

There is one more this year on Saturday August 20, so don’t miss out and sign up today! www.thejuniorleague.org