Planned by Evelyn LeVasseur and Marie Gartley, our chapter’s 2008 annual meeting at the Mission Valley Country Club in Laurel with lunch (and a delicious key-lime cheesecake for dessert) was a fun-filled event! Our Community Service chairperson gave each of us a list of items needed by Hospice and SPARCC. Folders from our speaker were handed to everyone.  Everything, from the members’ parade of beautiful and inventive, very old to newly sewn aprons, to our gift exchange, to the highlight of the meeting: our guest speaker, Image and Wardrobe Consultant, Nancy Nix-Rice, made this an event to remember!

I hope all of you went home as I did and took your wardrobe mirrors off the wall and set them on the floor with the guarantee from Nancy that it would make us look ten pounds thinner!  With Nancy’s valuable and intuitive information on how to gain “wardrobe wisdom” and “dress like a million bucks on a shoestring”, revamp our closets, learn whether we were “shiny” or “matte” and what colors and patterns were best for us, we all discovered a way to look and feel better, younger and thinner without visiting the fountain of youth or eating one stick of celery! Nancy’s humorous warmth and candor had us in stitches (no pun intended) which really made the day “enter-training” as Nancy put it.. She also brought along plenty of information, jewelry, and beautiful scarves for us to purchase at reasonable prices to take home to begin our new wardrobe adventure.

Even though she spoke to a very diverse group of women in size, shape and age, she made us feel like we had just received a private and very detailed make-over. So if you missed this, we who were present will fill you in on whether you are “Shiny or Matte”. Shhh, I’ll tell you a secret: Dolly and I are “Shiny”! ! !

Annie Thomassen, New Member

Advisory Board members for the year 2009 installed at the annual meeting 2008.

President Dolly Haerr seated, standing l to r, Treasurer Judy Gries, Secretary Donna Lundquist, 2nd Vice President Kathleen Heinicke and 1st Vice President Evelyn LeVasseur (photo by Eva Winter)