JA Has Busy June, Planning For Carnival
Junior Auxiliary members attending the National Association of Junior Auxiliary’s annual conference were (from left) Monique Horan, Whitney Crow, Katherine Montague, Krista Nicholas, Hilary Howell, Constance Griffin, Chasity Logsdon, Ashley Avent, Chasity McLuskey and Becky Morris.
A Monthly Report
From The JA Of WV
By Katherine Montague
This month been productive and busy for the Junior Auxiliary of Water Valley. Firstly, we are celebrating a lifetime member of our chapter being added to the National Association of Junior Auxiliary district team, a big congratulations to our very own Sandra Bennett for being appointed as the new Chapter Support Coordinator for Region 4. Sandra has served for years as an integral member of our organization and will be such a valuable addition to the national team. Thank you Sandra, for your endless giving spirit and contributions through volunteering!
The second annual Family Field Day event was held on June 8. We were able to welcome over 50 children and their families to enjoy a day of fun in the sun with nostalgic games and inflatables over at the Crawford Sports Complex with concessions and goody bags with ice cream from Turnage’s and cupcakes from JustCakeIt! for participants. There was a tug-of-war, egg and spoon race, potato sack race, and a three-legged race. In addition, families enjoyed the inflatable hatchet toss and soccer ball target. This event was designed to promote family togetherness and align with last year’s national focus of Junior Auxiliaries of disconnecting to reconnect. We all had so much fun, and look forward to kicking off the summer this way again next year.
At the very end of April, our Chapter sent 10 delegates to the National Association of Junior Auxiliary’s annual AEC Conference. This year’s conference was held in Memphis at the Hilton, and we explored the new national focus of “Finding our Why.” This focus centers on enabling our volunteers to get in touch with what drives them to give their time to benefit the children of Yalobusha County and explore ways that we can expand our impact through understanding this motivation.
A lifetime member of the JA of Water Valley Chapter, Sandra Bennett was added to the National Association of Junior Auxiliary district team.
This conference is so inspiring, and included sessions about leadership, fundraising, organization, parliamentary procedures, publicity, and team-building. We enjoyed spending time together as a smaller cohort of our chapter, and the Junior Auxiliary of Water Valley was awarded the Efficiency Award in recognition of Administrative Excellence.
Behind the scenes in the Junior Auxiliary we have several fun things happening. Our Patrons Committee is working on some new planning to coordinate with our contributors, our Bundles of Love project was able to provide snacks and sack lunches for the children taking summer school in the Water Valley School District, we enjoyed a nice and lively bingo night at the nursing home at YGH, and the Project Santa committee is coming together to get our largest service project of the year off to a good start.
Additionally, our chapter is getting so excited for the Watermelon Games that we have coming up during the Watermelon Carnival! This free event will take place again on Saturday Morning, August 3 at 11 a.m. with registration beginning at 10:45. This event will include a Watermelon Eating Contest, a Watermelon Toss, and a Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest with prizes for the winners, and ice cream coupons to Turnage’s Drug store for the first 40 kids to register. We are looking forward to seeing you all there!
The Junior Auxiliary’s Family Field Day was held June 8 with fun activities for over 50 children attending.
