Soroptimist International of Los Angeles
ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS
June/July 2015                                                                    Vol. 6, Issue 7

RISE AND SHINE!
by Jeri Durham

On Saturday, May 9, 10 SILA members met at 6:30 a.m. at the Downtown Women's Center to prepare breakfast for their clients.

We fixed French toast, sausage, scrambled eggs and fruit for an enthusiastic crowd of 128 women. If you have never scrambled 8 dozen eggs, just know it was a feat!

SILA members brought flowers to decorate the tables and had a great time interacting with the clients.

Many thanks to President Joyce Jacob and members Amy Poulos, Bev Johnson, Jessica Washington, Diane Vernon, Lessie Caballero, Jeri Durham, Sheila Tatum, Pam Smith and Teresa Harvey.

Another great time was had by all.

Love the hairnets!
 

TECH UPDATE...AND MORE
by Carole Oglesby, Program Chair

The May 6 dinner meeting at Taix was our next-to-last program meeting for the 2014-2015 year. There were two delicious “morsels” presented.

The primary speaker was our resident friend and tech genius Jim Henderson with his annual "Techno Update". Jim gave us more than we could handle about possible dangers lurking in free games and apps for smart phones and laptops. “Whatever you get for free, you pay for in your privacy” was his watchword for the night. There was a LOT more for him to say but really…you just had to be there. We hope to see him next year for another installment.

Before Jim spoke, member Diane Vernon gave us a brief “verbal selfie” as a part of our continuing series “Spotlight on Members”. Diane shared the events of her life including being the nurse assigned to the first intensive care unit in Los Angeles AND a little known fact that she has an adopted child (now grown up) and multiple grandkids. She had kept this news pretty quiet!
 

CLEARER AND SHARPER
by Carole Oglesby, Program Chair

The closing of the program portion of the 2014-2015 year was provided on May 20 in an enthusiastic and timely presentation from Kimberly (Kim) Kenny, Associate Vice President of Institutional Advancement at Mount Saint Mary’s University.
 
Kim shared information about her work and challenges at MSMU, including the recently issued MSMU report Status of Women in California. She discussed fundraising challenges faced by almost all non-profits today. For greatest success, we can and must become much clearer and sharper concerning the projects we regard as “signature” to SILA as well as the individuals we want to recruit as the next generation of the Club.

It was an enjoyable and thought provoking ending program meeting.

The Camino Real Region Spring Conference was held April 24-26 at the Long Beach Marriott Hotel.
 
We had 10 SILA Members attending: Governor-Elect Ginger Cole, Conference Coordinator, Sheila Tatum, Joyce Jacob, Daphyne Howell, Bev Johnson, Diane Vernon, Jessica Washington and new members Lessie Caballero, Amy Poulos and Sunny-Kim Barden.
 
We attended interesting workshops on Friday. Saturday was our Camino Real Region Business Meeting. Our three delegates were Joyce Jacob, Bev Johnson and Jessica Washington.
  
And SILA was a winner – several times!

• We won 3rd place for the Governor’s Award. It was very special to receive this award out of 25 Clubs.
• The Celebrating Success Award was presented to SILA for the award winning project “Bringing Anti-Violence Message to Teens”. Bev Johnson wrote on this project for the Celebrating Success Award.
• 5 SILA members won Distinguished Soroptimist Recognition: Daphyne Howell, Sheila Tatum, Emily Dell, Barbara Jury and Carole Oglesby
• And finally we won a large gift basket in the Club drawing for Fund Raising Giving Program.

Everyone had a wonderful time in a beautiful setting and meeting wonderful women working on the same mission.

FIRST STUDENT IN NEED
by Joyce Jacob

SILA Members have lots of special days and going to present a gift certificate to a student at Poly Tech High School proved to be such a day.
  
Barbara Jury, Diane Vernon and Joyce Jacob met our exceptional student who requested a clothing gift card for her summer internship at a Research Center at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. We were very impressed with this young woman. Let me tell you about her:
 
Kimberly is 17 years old and will be a senior at Poly Tech High School Magnet School. She is in the foster care system since both of her parents have passed away. At present, she is living in a foster care transition home and has her own room. Jay Longo, her Foster Youth Achievement Program Counselor, states she accomplished her life style on her own by working within the system. She gets up at 4:30 a.m. to get to school by public bus because she lives in Los Angeles. Kimberly was very excited to receive SILA’s gift because this is the first time she has money to choose and buy her own clothes. She needs work attire to dress appropriately for her prestigious internship at Children’s Hospital's Research Center this summer. She loves science and math and she wants to do research. We plan to have Kimberly meet all SILA Members and inform us of her future plans.
 
Jay was very grateful for our gift of a $300 gift card to Kimberly. He explained that his position is new with LAUSD as a counselor for foster students. At present there are counselors throughout the district working with foster students and he covers eight schools. He appreciated our quick response and a gift that she really needed. He explained that several groups want extensive paper work and were not as generous as SILA. He knows we want to support young women and will keep in contact. I agree!
 
Thanks to Barbara and Diane for coming to the school for the presentation and to Jay Longo, Counselor, and to Jayne Couchois, Administrator of Poly High Magnet School. The Magnet School has four hundred students and Jayne knows our own Dr. Ginger Cole!

Finally, thank you all SILA Members who supported this special day.

FRIENDSHIP, FOOD, FUN!
 

FRIENDSHIP, FOOD, and FUN, were the words for the SILA Installation of Officers on Wednesday, June 17, 2015 at Caffe Concerto, in Los Angeles. What a great evening!
 
Donna Pope, President of SILAWSM (SI of Los Angeles West-Santa Monica) conducted the installation of SILA 2015-2016 Officers. She encouraged the growth of each new officer by presenting MIRACLE GROW to the President and to each new officer a plant or seeds to demonstrate the connection of growing plants together with the vision and mission of Soroptimist.
 
The food and drinks were served family style at the Korean Restaurant, with many members taking food home. It was a beautiful evening in Los Angeles and the environment provided a great opportunity to extend our friendship with everyone. Donna brought three SILAWSM guests with her from her club: Elza Ruhman, Suzanne Peckels, and Margarita DeLaPena. There are plans to have another meeting with the two clubs, SILA and SILAWSM.
 
SILA 2015-2016 Board and Delegates:
President                     Joyce Jacob
1st VP                          Carole Oglesby
2nd VP                         Daphyne Howell
Secretary                     Bev Johnson
Treasurer                    Jeri Durham
Director 2014-2016     Barbara Jury
Director 2015-2017     Diane Vernon
Delegate 2014-2016   Joan Johnson
Delegate 2015-2017   Leslie Caballero
Alternate Delegate
2014-2016                   Jeri Durham
Alternate Delegate
2015-2017                   Amy Poulos
 
The SILA Officers and Board Members are committed to the mission of Soroptimist:
To improve the lives of women and girls through programs leading to social and economic empowerment.