Murder at the Deadwood Saloon: Beyond Success!

 

The Mammas on a Mission's first annual fundraiser successfully concluded on Saturday, June 25th. Surpassing our 80 guest limit our friends and neighbors came in character and costume with gusto!

With so many pictures, I'm working on a slideshow that will be posted soon.

We thank everyone for their support. The proceeds from this fundraiser will go towards the school supplies for the Idaho Hill Elementary School.

Stay tuned!

A Mammas Plan Comes to Fruition

It all started with stockings...

One year ago we had a plan. We'll all make stockings. Sell some to raise enough money to fill the others with a gift card and candy, lotions... remember?

We made a quilt to be raffled. We had 50/50 raffles, our crafty members donated their treasures and the StoneRidge community bought them up. After all was said and done we made nearly $2,000.00!

Over the course of the year the Mammas donated 4 turkeys to complete the StoneRidge baskets that were donated to the Blanchard Food Bank. And when we realized how much we had in our treasury our original plan for Christmas evolved. Not only would we give stockings, but we would play Santa for 3 families in Bonner County. 

The families were chosen by the elementary school in Oldtown. They provided us with names, ages, sizes and the children's wish lists. With our budget of  $900.00, $75 per person we played Santa.  Everything we set out to do was completed beyond our expectations.


The Mammas are a year old now and have already started planning for this new year. At our first official meeting of 2010, Kathy invited the Mammas to her home and to take advantage of using her extensive collection of beads. She has some experience making beaded items and thought we could sell them for the Mammas. Of course, we won't be making things that would conflict with Ginger.

We discussed getting our non-profit status. Without even trying we are teetering on the boarder of making too much money and having to pay taxes. Cari is going to follow up on that. We may have to change our plan for the cookbook due to cost. We are investigation other options. Cari completed the "Star" quilt and the Mammas will be finishing it so it can be sold or auctioned off. It was then decided to make potato bags to be sold at the coffee/socials. We all agreed that we will try to include the entire community with as many projects as possible.


On the 22nd we had our first working meeting making Idaho Potato Bags that will be sold at the coffee/socials beginning in the spring. It took a while to get going, but once we did things started to take shape. Some worked on the potato bags while others were finishing the Santa dolls. Margee showed us her decorated corks as we discussed other projects.



Our next meeting will be February 19th 10am - 2pm at Harlene's house. Brown bag lunch. We will continue making our potato bags and hope to complete the Santa dolls. Everyone is welcome!
 

To send corrections, additions, more information on Mammas on a Mission

or a copy of the minutes from our January 2010 meeting, 

please email mammasonamission@gmail.com.

 

It's A Wrap!

December 16, 2009 was the date of the Mammas on a Mission Christmas Party and the day that we would all get together to wrap the many gifts we had purchased for the 3 families.  Judy hosted and we all brought refreshments and appetizers. 

Some of the guys decided that wrapping was not for them and went to the Rec Center to play pool.

There was plenty for everyone to do. We had to get everything wrapped and the stockings stuffed with enough time to each and toast our success. We had a great turn out! Judy, Harlene, Debbie, Jim pictured above wrapped for one family.

Bobbie, Tammy & me for another family. Bobbie taught us how to make bows out of leftover wrapping paper, which we used to decorate many of our packages.

 

 

 

Susan, Tamara, Margee, Patty and Cari wrapped the 3rd families gifts. 

 

 

 

Everything finally was packed up in large bags, one per family. They would be delivered by the team leaders: Judy, Cari and Mary.

After our wrapping was completed, we adjourned to the kitchen for appetizers and wine. The guys managed to get there just before the corks were getting pulled and joined us in the festivities.

I delivered gifts to one of the families the following week. It was a single mom with 2 children. She had been surprised to find out that they had been picked, but even more so when she saw the bag filled with gifts. She told me that she was thinking she would have to tell the kids that Santa wouldn't be coming this year. These gifts would be the only ones those kids would see Christmas morning. 

I think we done good!

 

B.A.S.I.C.ally Mammas on a Mission

This year our Mammas on a Mission group along with our Pappas volunteered at the B.A.S.I.C. Christmas Party. Via the coffee social we solicited volunteers and toys to be donated. Needless to say, there was a wonderful response.

Toys donated by the StoneRidge community.

The party was on December 6th from 1-4pm. Judy, Bill and Jim started setting up the Friday before. The rest of us arrived at noon to get the food and drinks set up. Gabe & Chef Steve made chili, and others brought desserts. Combined with the annual attendees from the Blanchard community there wasn't going to be a shortage of food.

Sue with Barb

It appeared that there were mostly adults until about 3pm which is when Santa was to arrive.

Gabe, Chef Steve, Carol & Dennis, Susan & David, Sue & Bill, Ken & Harlene, Patty and myself attended.

Each child was able to sit on Santa's lap, then pick 3 toys. 1 hand held, 1 stuffed animal and then a boy's or girl's gift.

I was helping out getting names and phone numbers of the kids so we could get a picture of them with Santa to their families. I still get teary-eyed thinking about the reactions from those kids. Some of these families are very poor, so this could very possibly have been the only Christmas gifts these kids would get.

One little girl was sitting on Santa's lap when her father asked her why she wasn't talking to Santa? She said, "I'm so excited to see him, I forgot what I wanted. This is the most exciting thing in my life!" and with that she just turned and hugged Santa one more time.

Because I was working with one of the B.A.S.I.C. ladies, I was made privy to some background of our "Santas". As it turned out the 2009 Santa was a novice. He was replacing a gentleman who took the role every year the past 30 years. Unfortunately, he was suffering from Alzheimer's and wasn't able to continue. I was told that last year he cried the whole time, somewhere in his consciousness he knew that he wouldn't be coming back again. The ladies had to tell the kids that Santa was just very happy to see them as a reason for his tears.

Our new Santa was incredibly nervous in his new role causing him a couple of sleepless nights prior to the party. But he did very well and is looking forward to continuing each year. By the end of the afternoon about 40 children and 20 adults had their pictures taken with Santa.

To be sure I will be a part of next years party.

I just recently received an email that had been forwarded from Chris who is a member of BASIC. It reads:

"Below find an excerpt from a recent grant that BASIC applied for. We were asked to tell a story about our experiences relevant to the grant (we are applying for meal site funding and kitchen completion). I thought you might be interested ;-]...

Chris

"BASIC offers a free Christmas party every year at the Center. We cater food made by volunteers, distribute toys and provide photos with Santa. This year we partnered with volunteers from nearby StoneRidge Golf and Recreational Community. This not only gave us more volunteer power and food, but, it also added financial support for toy purchases. It brought us closer together as a "common" "unity". It further highlighted the diversity of needs that we all have and the joy found in giving and receiving. The new volunteers were emotionally touched and vowed to offer their resources again. They shared the story about one gentleman who thanked them "with a tear in his eye" because feeding his family had been especially difficult this year. The toys were a bonus and so was the involvement of StoneRidge."

This is the kind of thing that makes our community so special and we should be proud that we have a part in making so.

If I have forgotten anyone, please email mammasonamission@gmail.com and I can correct the error.

Mammas on the Town

The Mission for 2009 was to make stockings and fill them it gift cards and stuffers that would be donated to local residents that were in need. We worked during the year making stockings, but giving only the stocking soon evolved to much more. The Mammas worked all year to raise cash to fund our cause and the StoneRidge community had our back all the way. Our crafty members made items that were sold at our coffee/socials. 50/50 raffles were held once a month at coffee and at any possible community get together. Many times the winners of the 50/50 would donate their winnings back to the Mammas. At the  StoneRidge garage sale, Tammy sold donated items and the proceeds were all donated to the Mammas. 

As the months went by it became obvious that we would be able to do more than donate stockings. By the end of the summer we had raised nearly $1,000.00. Tamara contacted the local elementary school and they were able to provide us with the names of 3 families. The parents provided, names, ages, sizes and each child's wish list. There was a total of 5 adults and 7 children. With a budget of $75 per person we went shopping. 

10 of us went to Fred Meyers and split into 3 groups. One hour later we were finished. We were able to buy more than what was on each wish list. As you can see in the pictures above, there was a lot of wrapping to be done.

After shopping we all went to lunch, not just to eat but to pick the winner of the quilt raffle.

Jim, Debbie, Tammy, Judy, Terry, Cari, 
Mary (I'm taking the picture), 
Harlene, Susan & Margee

We split up the tickets and got everything organized. Then let Jim pick our winner.

 

Fred & Thayl Ghio were the lucky winners. Tammy offered to deliver it to them on their trip south the next month.

The raffle prize

We were like the Navy Seals sent in to strike. Our lunch took more time than to shop for 3 families. We are truly a group to be reckoned with!