Zoom – six months ago when I heard this word, I assumed something was moving quickly past me. What a difference time makes. Zoom now means gatherings with friends, family and ESA. In these trying times, Zoom has become a social lifeline for many of us. Like many of you, I have had to cancel family vacations, haven’t going to a movie or restaurant in months and haven’t been able to attend a sorority meeting in person. I am grateful for Zoom. Zoom has allowed me to attend game nights with my extended family, attend book club meetings, attend Chapter meetings and attend the ESA IC Convention. The ladies on the International Council did a wonderful job in presenting the Convention via Zoom. From the safety and comfort of my living room, I was able to attend the IC Challenge, the Opening Ceremonies, the Celebration of Life, the Installation of the IC officers, the business meeting and many other presentations. I shared in the excitement when Florida members won some awards – Congratulations to our Florida Winners:
Ruthann Richwine – Outstanding State Easterseals Chair
Beta Theta – Top Ten Educational Program
Alpha Gamma – Top Ten Educational Program
Omega Omega – Gold Seal Merit – Second Page
You can also view the St. Jude presentation. It is always very exciting to see the presentation of dollars – I was proud to see that this year the State of Florida raised $21,051 for St. Jude. Our contribution helped ESA raise a total of over $22 million dollars and also contributed to the overall total ESA has raised for St. Jude of $312 million dollars. WOW. All of our hard work is paying off to help the children of St. Jude. It is rewarding to know that we all played our part in supporting Danny Thomas’ dream.
I hope you were fortunate enough to have been able to attend the IC Convention. If not, or if you missed portions, please visit the IC website where you will find a IC Convention Recap Page. There you have access to many of the presentations from that day.
The new IC Board with LeAnn Wray at the helm has invited us to Embrace the Journey in ESA. LeAnn has started her year out by hosting Coffee Chats. If you have the opportunity to attend these events, they provide an opportunity to connect with members across the country and obtain important information. The Coffee Chats are held via Zoom every other Monday at 11 am and at 7pm. Please let me know if you are interested in attending an I will get you the Zoom information.
As we continue to stay social distant, I hope you and your chapter continue to find ways to support our national and local charities. If you need ideas, you can visit the ESA Life Page on the IC Website. There you can obtain some ideas to help your chapter continue to be involved while socially distant.
Stay safe and continue to Sparkle like diamonds!
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