Blogging A to Z… W is for….

W is for Women’s Improvement Club (WIC)

Women’s Improvement Club (WIC) is a national organization with chapters all over the country. It’s goal is to improve the local community and the world. I joined WIC in 2007 when I retired from teaching.

We take on all kinds of projects we hope will make life better for others. Our members are from different faiths and backgrounds. In our chapter a lot of us are retired teachers but we also have lawyers, our past mayor, business women, medical professionals, homemakers, etc. Anyone can join that wants to serve.

An example of one of our international projects was making washable sanitary panty guards and pads for girls in Africa. Most of the girls can not afford to buy sanitary napkins to use so they have to miss school during their monthly cycle.

We met week after week sewing up  a storm. We made up little kits made up of 1 guard, several pads and a pair of cotton panties.

A number of chapters worked on this same project and WIC ended up sending 100s of kits to Africa.  It was a lot of work but we all felt really good about doing it.

We also help local people. We help by donating food and supplies to our homeless shelter here in town.

We got a trailer donated to the homeless shelter that we use to help the preschool children get ready for school and the school age children do their homework. I have not volunteered there since our accident but I did it for years. As mentioned we have a lot of teachers in our club. We paired up and took a different night of the week to work at the center. We read to the preschoolers and had craft time. We helped the older students with their homework and tutored them in areas they needed help. Each holiday we also had parties for the kids. It is hard being a homeless child. Working at the center was not an easy job but  we felt it was worth the effort.

One of our main goals is providing college scholarship money for each of the 6 high schools in town. We give 2 scholarships to each school. We have fund raisers all year to earn the money for these scholarships. I’ve been the co-chairman on the scholarship committee and love this job. The only hard part is narrowing down all those we interview to just 2 per school.  If I ever win the lottery I will see to it that we can offer more scholarships to each school.

We also have fun at various social events. My friends, Jan and Sil attended this Wacky Fashion Show with me. (You know that it had to be wacky for me to be a model! I’m the one modeling “The Little Black Dress”)

There are tea parties, monthly luncheons and special programs.  It is very nice spending time with so many lovely ladies.

I’ve enjoyed being the keynote speaker at 2 of the luncheons.

My blog friend, Kris from Simplify attended one of my presentations. That was special to me. WIC is a good organization. If you live in the states why don’t you go on line and join a chapter located in your area?

Women’s Improvement Club is definitely my favorite W.

Have a nice Sunday… and enjoy your  A to Z day off.

Hugs, Lura