Rio Review Fall 2011

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Rio Review Junior League of Harlingen

2011-2012 JLH An Exciting Year of Service

The Junior League of Harlingen has started the 2011-2012 year with a new vision and tremendous energy. The JLH Board has worked hard to plan strategically so the activities we engage in and support tie in with a broader vision of what it means to be a JLH member and a woman of service to the Harlingen community. We have some lofty goals, but our theme reflects our commitment. Our theme this year is “Mission Possible.” Read more about how we are accomplishing our mission.

Ribbon Cutting January 9

Ribbon Cutting at the Harlingen Chamber of Commerce

KidFit/FunRun March 3

KidFit and KidFit Fun Run at the Fair Park in Harlingen

Fishing Tourney April 27, 28 Señoritas on the bay (SOB) Fishing Tournament

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In this issue… President’s Welcome ……...…..2 JLH At the Movies ……………2 1st Annual KidFit ……………...3 Fun Run: Fun For the Entire …... Family………………………….3 Kids in the Kitchen 2011 ……4 Provisionals ………………….5 Sharing Their Experience …..…5 Scholarship Winner and 2012 Information …………………..6 A Winederful Evening:1st Annual Wine Tasting Fundraiser............7 Coming Events ………………8

2011-2012 JLH Theme

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President

Bonnie Villarreal

RioReview EDITOR

Janie Santoy

Board of Directors President: Bonnie Villareal

President-Elect: Natalie Leal Secretary: Lindsey Schaeffer Secretary-Elect: Gina Cano-

Monreal Treasurer: Brittney Pinkerton

Treasurer-Elect: Melba Sanchez

2011-12 Sponsors

Boggus Ford First Community Bank

HEB Leonard Simmons Farms Lone Star National Bank

Rio Vista Dentistry Texas Sweet

United Health Care Valley Baptist Legacy

Foundation Wray and Company

I am so excited and delighted to be your President of the Junior League of Harlingen for the 2011-2012 year. I honestly took a “minute” when I got the call from the nominating committee to contemplate whether I should take on this huge endeavor. The years of service this organization has given to this community in it’s past is unfounded and quite remarkable. The women of today’s league have huge shoes to fill. I knew this task would be an uphill climb. Today’s volunteer climate is quite different than the past. The economy is quite different. The working woman is now the norm. Honestly, who has the time these days? As I contemplated in my “minute”, I thought of why I found it important to return to Harlingen after completing my dental degree 10 years ago. This community is my home. I am growing my business, raising my children, and cultivating my family in this town. I have found it my duty to help create an environment something I want to be proud of and, hopefully, my children will be proud of too. So, I said yes. Last year, we asked the membership through a survey, what it meant to be members of JLH. Unanimously, all wanted to give back to the community and to help children through education. This year’s dedicated Board of Directors felt that it was our calling to gear all of our programming toward a common goal and theme- children and education. For the past seven years, JLH has loved working with kids to fight childhood obesity with the AJLI initiative, Kids in the Kitchen. This year we are growing to now include 180 children from our school district. This is quite a jump from the 20 kids we had at our first Kids in the Kitchen event. Our membership also felt the need to take this message and create big impact in our community. Thus, we are proud to announce the inaugural year of KidFit - Fit Minds, Fit Bodies, Fit Lifestyle. This one day festival is a true collaboration with all parts of the community to unite, educate, and combat childhood obesity. We

are so excited to get this event off the ground and running. The early response has been fabulous and very well received. Under our same theme, is our scholarship, in its second year of reinvention. JLH is in a year of reconstruction and reorganization. Due to the sale of the building three years ago, we have been operating out of a storage unit. We thought it was time to start working and acting like women who mean business. Thus, we now have an office in the Harlingen Chamber of Commerce building and are conducting our board and general membership meetings in this same location. We are excited to formally have an open house this year to show the community how we operate. In addition, we are also now fully engaged in a sponsorship campaign, quite different from any type of fundraising we have ever done before. We are now campaigning for the fruit of our causes- our mission, our purpose. To get re-engaged into our community we need to revisit all that encompasses our mission. Volunteerism, civic duty, teamwork, and leadership all develop from our mission statement. We hope to learn these ideals from each other, our predecessors, and the community. We were founded on these ideals and it is from the true understanding of what they mean in how we can use them in better serving our community. This year I have adopted the theme Mission:Possible. It is only through thinking that anything is possible that we can do great things! Hats off to the membership for tackling new projects. We are reaching for the stars!!

JLH Members met at the Harlingen Cinemark to enjoy each other’s company and good movie. They watched the much anticipated The Help” which shows a historical perspective of Junior League practices.

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“A TRUE COMMUNITY COLLABORATION” March 3, 2012

Fair Park, Harlingen. Texas Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years! Because of this our children are at an increased risk for many cancers and cardiovascular diseases. This generation of children may be the first to have a shorter lifespan than the generation before them. In response to this ever growing epidemic, The Junior League of Harlingen has created a free community event, called Kidfit. JLH is striving to educate the children of our community about healthy living through diet, exercise, and safe living. We are collaborating with the City of Harlingen, Valley Baptist Hospital, and many other businesses and organizations to make this festival a success. Kidfit will have many opportunities for the children to learn

about healthy living. There will be interactive programming on the stage to get the children moving and active. Hands on activities will also be available for the children to learn about how to prepare healthy lunches and snacks. Screenings will also be available for the children and their families through Valley Baptist. This event is a true collaboration of the community. Volunteers from all over the city, including both Harlingen High Schools will be helping us the day of the event. With all of us working together we will help break the cycle of childhood obesity. Contact Sarah Johnson or Ashley Barker for more information: Send an email to [email protected]

FunRun: Fun for the Entire Family To kick off the KidFit, JLH is hosting the KidFit Fun Run! The KidFit Run will be held Saturday, March 3, 2012 at Fair Park in Harlingen, TX. The run will consist of a 1 mile fun run and a 5K run - both of these events are open to ALL ages. This is a family-friendly event, so we encourage parents, kids, grandparents, friends, anyone and everyone to sign up and walk and/or run together. If you've never done a run before - this will be a GREAT first fun run or 5K for you. If you're an avid runner - come out and run for kid fitness and health. This is a great run for everyone! The 1 mile fun run will begin at 7:30AM and all participants will receive a finisher's medal. The 5K run will begin at 8:00AM and awards will be given

to Overall Male/Female, Masters Male/Female (50+), and Age Groups 1st/2nd/3rd (Male/Female). T-Shirts are guaranteed to the first 150 registrants - so sign up early!! Online registration is open at http://juniorleagueharlingen.org OR, download the registration form and mail it in to: JLH - KidFit Fun Run 311 West Tyler Ave. Harlingen, TX 78550 Questions? Please call or e-mail Laura Sparks or Liz Phillips! Laura: 956.454.7065 / [email protected] Liz: 956.778.9989 / [email protected] *Find us on Facebook

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Kids in the Kitchen

Our JLH Annual Kids in the Kitchen event was held on Saturday, November 12th at Rodriguez Elementary. It was a well attended event and we thank our participating Harlingen CISD schools: Crockett Elementary, Jefferson Elementary, Rodriguez Elementary, Sam Houston Elementary, Travis Elementary and Treasure Hills Elementary. Our 4th & 5th grade guests had the opportunity to learn about how to live healthy lifestyles and left with strategies to teach others about how to do the same. Junior League members helped to welcome our guests and hosted breakout sessions for all.

One great addition to this year’s KITK event was the incorporation of HCISD high school volunteers. We were graced with volunteers representing the cheerleading squads from Harlingen High School & Harlingen High School South. We also had students representing Owls in the Community from Early College High School. Collectively, these high school students added a valuable lesson to the event. While JLH representatives reiterated the importance of healthy lifestyles and giving back to the community, our high school volunteers served as role models for our 4th & 5th graders because they were taking time out of their schedules and giving back to their community. What a concept!!!

KITK provided so many important lessons for our guests and the feedback from campuses was overwhelmingly positive. Thank you to the committee members that made the event such a success. We would also like to take time to send a special thank you to our hosting campus principal and JLH sustainer, Traci Gonzalez and two special volunteers who gave of their time to support JLH, Jessica Galvan and Brenda Paredes. Jessica and Brenda hosted two of the breakout sessions for our guests and we could not thank them enough for giving of themselves and spending time with JLH. Thank you to Traci, Jessica and Brenda!!!

The Kids in the Kitchen Campaign is a nationwide movement to support our kids in living healthier lifestyles and JLH brought this campaign to Harlingen. Our kids have a choice when preparing their meals with family members and Junior League Harlingen wanted to ensure that our kids had resources available to meet the goal of living a healthier lifestyle. During our KITK event, JLH partnered up with the Harlingen CISD to provide an affair organized for the sole purpose of educating our students about healthy options and the importance of exercise. Included in the KITK were several breakout sessions for our participants. The session topics allowed time for Junior League Harlingen volunteers to educate our students on topics, such as choosing healthier options in the grocery store, how to read food labels and how to incorporate fun exercises into daily routines.

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Provisionals 2011-2012 Junior League of Harlingen is so happy to have such a great group of provisionals for the 2011-2012 year. Provisionals include: Sarah Bass, Rebekah Batot, Kasey Boykin, Jill Canales, Amanda Montemayor, Rachel Kram, Michele Lopez, Amy Martinez, Lynda Soto and Amy Tamez. All of the provisionals bring unique and wonderful talents and strengths to Junior League. The future of the Junior League of Harlingen certainly looks bright!

All provisional members were placed on a committee so that they could truly be immersed into what JLH is all about!

Committee that provisional members were placed on include Fall Fundraiser – A Winderful Evening, Kids in the Kitchen, KidFit Fun Run, Kid Fest and Senioritas on the Bay Fishing Tournament.

In addition, JLH Provisionals already dove right in to some long standing Junior League holiday traditions! They recently decorated the Rondald McDonald House for Christmas, as well as hosted the Annual Holiday Social.

The committee chair for Membership Development is Kymberly Meade. She has been active in Junior League for 4 years, and has served as both Secretary and Secretary-Elect.

Also on the committee are Ginger Armstrong and Meredith Swanberg. Ginger has been active in the Junior League of Harlingen for 11 years and is currently our Ex-Officio. Ginger has served as President, President-Elect, Secretary and Secretary-Elect. Meredith has been active in Junior League for 2 years and has served on the Senoritas on the Bay Fishing Tournament Committee.

Planned Activities

Committee Chairs Committee Members

Sharing Their Experience We were honored to be joined by Mrs. Lee Means and Mrs. Gerry Fleuriet- who provided a Leadership and Training Activity- focused on Volunteerism and the community roll of HCISD. Both women have been lifetime educators and instrumental members of the community.

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JLH is proud to support young women who are seeking advancement by attaining a higher education degree. In 2011, JLH inaugurated the JLH Educational Scholarship.

This is an education-based scholarship for female post high school graduates attending an accredited institution who graduated from or currently reside in Cameron County and exhibit leadership qualities and a demonstrated commitment to community service.

The funds are meant to cover the cost of books, tuition or housing.

Recipients will receive their funds when enrollment has been verified by JLH with their Fall class schedule.

The recipient will be invited to attend the JLH Spring luncheon.

Applications are available at the high school counselor’s offices and online at http://juniorleagueharlingen.org .

Applications must be postmarked by February 29, 2012.

2012 JLH Scholarship Information

JLH 2011 Scholarship Recipient Peyton Linn

Peyton Linn, a 2011 graduate of Harlingen High School was awarded a $1000 scholarship for the exceptional leadership qualities that she exhibited throughout high school. Peyton played an instrumental role ensuring that students with disabilities were included in school functions and celebrations. She was also very involved in her church and a cheerleader.

Peyton is attending Texas State University. We wish her the best of luck in her college career and we look forward to hearing about all of the wonderful things she accomplishes!

Congratulations!

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A Winederful Evening

The fall fundraiser was held October 29th at Harlingen Country Club.

This year JLH inaugurated its first annual fall fundraiser by offering the Harlingen community a special event. The first a Winederful Evening held October 29th at Harlingen Country Club was a success. The wine tasting and small plates event was attended by 72 guests. The guests enjoyed several wine and food pairings, along with a brief wine education presentation, and live music by Carlos Canas. Although attendance at the event was lower than expected, the event was a success raising $7,000. These funds

will be used to support the community events which JLH sponsors. The feedback from the guests was positive. They loved the wine and the delicious food-and are looking forward to next years wine tasting. The event also served as the perfect avenue to inform the community about the programs JLH is producing this year. Many guests in attendance were not aware of the great things league has planned for the Harlingen community. Thanks to all the JLH members who attended the event, sold tickets, and participated in the

compilation of the fabulous silent auction baskets!

The event would not have been so successful without the hard work of the committee members and the awesome volunteers who worked serving the wine and tending to guests. Thank you to all who supported the event.

KidFit

Sponsored by

Coming Events We are excited by the changes we have instituted this year and we know those changes will help league grow in membership and strengthen our role in the community.

The energy and enthusiasm of the young and professional women in our chapter will lead us to great successes.

We welcome your support!

Junior League of Harlingen

Junior League Harlingen Supporter

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RIO REVIEW FALL 2011

JANUARY • January 9 Ribbon Cutting at

the Harlingen Chamber of Commerce

• General Membership Meeting joint meeting with Junior League McAllen and Immediate AJLI Past President Mrs. Debbie Robinson January 19 in Weslaco Chamber of Commerce Building

FEBRUARY • Board meeting February 6 • General Membership Meeting

February 16 MARCH • KidFit and KidFit Fun Run

March 3 • Board meeting March 5 • GM meeting March 22 APRIL • Board Meeting April 2 • Annual Conference San

Francisco April 19-21 • General Membership

Meeting April 19 • Spring Social TBA • Señoritas on the bay

(SOB) April 27,28 MAY • New Board/Old Board

Dinner- 2011-2012 May 7

• May Luncheon