Traditions

I love the line from the musical Fiddler on the Roof - “Without our traditions, life would be as shaky as, as a fiddler on the roof.” The line was spoken by Tevye very early in the play to introduce life in Anatevka, the small Russian village where the play is set. In many aspects of life, traditions give us a way to bond, a way to establish a common culture.

Take our Soroptimist clubs, for example. Most of us know that “Founders Pennies” started after WWII as a way to help our European clubs rebuild. This has become a lasting tradition among Soroptimists. Many of our local clubs, including Salt Lake, began well before WWII. Imagine the pride our members must have felt knowing that they were helping Soroptimist across the ocean; and imagine how they might feel now – knowing that this tradition lived on.

As we think about Breakfast with Santa, one of our purposes in providing Christmas as a reward to our single moms is to take away the stress of Christmas and give them an opportunity to create their own family traditions. As we think about the Christmas program at Horizonte, one of the highlights is the opportunity we have to share Christmas traditions with these young parents.

It is the traditions we remember – long after the gifts are used, worn out, discarded or “re-gifted.” Our traditions give us lasting memories. Our traditions become a part of who we are. As we celebrate Thanksgiving and look toward Christmas, may we be mindful of just how meaningful our traditions can be. Happy Thanksgiving!

Celebrating our Diversity

Our club members, or their ancestors, are from America (native American) Brazil, China, Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, the Phillipines, Peru, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Venezuela, Vietnam, Wales...I’ve probably missed a few. We came here on boats and airplanes. Our ancestors came across the oceans, and they came across the plains. And that’s just the members who attended our November meeting focused on International Goodwill and Understanding.

It is our diversity that makes us interesting. It is our diversity that makes us fun! It is our diversity that gives us the breadth of experience and ideas needed to creatively address the issues we have chosen to tackle.

But it is our unity that makes us successful as a club. I want to share a 3 minute video on the lessons we can learn from geese (inspired from the words of Milton Olson and first shared with me in another Sherrie’s blog). It’s a great message on teamwork. I’ve seen this message shared in many written forms, however, a visual does it best. Just copy the text below into your browser. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdEjL9bVcCM

A Window for Awareness

Another confession – yes, I am an avid scrapbooker. If someone had told me 10 years ago that I’d be saving memorabilia, cropping, paper shopping, and PhotoShopping for fun, I’d have found myself rolling on the floor laughing. That’s ROFL to the instant messagers out there 

So I was thrilled to hear that the scrapping contingent of our club has been working to put on a scrapbooking event. They’ve found a location where we can bring in food, they’ve set a date (January 29, 2011), they’ve even arranged for a PhotoShop class.

So when I asked Pat if they’d decided on a theme for the event, she told me, “Crop ‘til it Stops” and that it would be a fundraiser and awareness raiser for Domestic Violence Prevention.

A scrapbooking event focused on domestic violence prevention? What a great way to increase awareness while raising funds to support the ideas our service committee is working on. What a great way to kick off our service project for domestic violence prevention as well as to partner with organizations that focus on this mission.

Thank you Pat, Rita, and Barbara – for the idea, for the event, and for your initiative in seeing it through. I am thoroughly excited about the possibilities.