Women Committee meets
The Women for Family Farms Committee met at 6:30 pm on Monday, January 9th and was led by Sam Tewes, Chairperson with the following members present; Loretta Sartore, Sereda Perosa, Sam Tewes, Karen Warrick, Jeanne Tewes, Lauren Nugent, Amy Brandau, Ashley Davis, Anne Soucie, Nicole Issert, Dana Tures, Kelly Reus, and Mark Schneidewind, Farm Bureau manager
The minutes from the November meeting were approved as printed. Sam reported on the Christmas party and everyone had a very nice time. Wreaths Across America was held December 17th and Sam thanked all who helped with these efforts as we ended up with 89 volunteers helping on the 6 different days as Farm Bureau was in charge of with semi unloading and delivery on the 17th. Biscuits and Gravy were enjoyed by over 44 at Symerton Tap after the group dropped off boxes of wreaths at 36 different locations in the cemetery. Sam reported that we set another record for number of wreaths which was just slightly over 28,000 wreaths which was approx. 900 above last year.
Beginning Hunting Program is not going to be held in 2023 because the schedules are already full for September. We will bring it back again in 2024. The group then reviewed the fall luncheon for the 2023 year and selected a desired date and a back update for the Victorian Ballroom. The group reviewed theme ideas for the event and they had over 40 ideas to consider with many great themes. The group selected the theme “Queen for a Day” and people attending will be encouraged to bring an old purse or bag in good condition to donate to a local women’s shelter. The group will also check on entertainment to see where they can find something that fits this theme. The group will continue the 50/25/25 raffle and the Farm Bureau has secured the raffle licenses for the 2023 year.
They have been working with Nancy on the April 2nd vegetable gardening program times approx. 1-3:30 PM at the office and ads will be finalized in the next three weeks. The discussed the annual meeting which will be held January 28th at the fairgrounds atrium with doors opening at 4:30 pm and sit down around 5:20 pm with business to start at 5:30 pm and dinner to begin at around 6:15 pm. There will be FOUR (4) live auction items, THREE (3) raffles and they helped fill in the workers for selling raffle tickets as they combined all raffles to one table as we will be tighter on space with only using the north end. Ads have been developed already for what raffles and live auction items there will be. Set up was discussed and several will assist with set up on January 27th. In addition, the theme is game night and after the meeting an ice cream social will be held while the raffles continue, and we will have a euchre tournament with prizes run by the Peotone FFA and we will also have bingo with this being run by Debbie Werner and Bruce Carstens. There will also be a 6 foot puzzle that people can put together shaped like Will County with local ag on the puzzle.
Sam reported that the silent auction will be online again and will go live January 18th and will run through February 1st at 9 pm. This is being worked on this week and early part of next week as we have several late arrivals on donations with the holidays. Sam reminded all that after the meeting if they could stay as the game plan was to develop and make decorations for the annual meeting which could take up to 2 hours. They marked their calendar for the young farmers golf outing set for Green Garden Country Club for Friday July 28th and this will be the 10th anniversary event as Covid took away one year.
The group discussed harvest dinner and the possibilities of not doing it for 2023, Cash Bash March 11th from Tractors for a Cure, Christmas Cuties received high marks and many extra papers have been asked for with 21 pictures and 24 kids featured in the December 29th edition. Sam reported that the Estate Planning program is set for Tuesday February 28th with Country Financial and a guest local attorney Ragan Pattison will as be a presenter to review estate law and rule changes. We will cater in food for the event and plan on 30-40 people with the limit of 50 people. Family Fun night is set for July13th at JJC and they will discuss this more at their next meeting. For Ag Expo they will assist with tour guides but want to see where the FFA is working as they may take a whole day to be tour guides. The FFA Auction is being held on Sunday, February 26th for lunch with auction to follow.
Sam reported that the spring flowers program is set with pick up on Saturday, May 6th and they are finalizing prices and will have this done by end of January. The 4H Foundation fundraising auction is being held on Saturday, February 18th and they decided to donate an item to their auction. The young farmers are doing a pedal pull for the event as well. There will be a Pesticide Applicators Testing Program and you will need to register through Extension office with the event in the auditorium on March 23rd. They will see if Tim Beutel can do a summer cooking program for the group. The final item of business was the election of officers for the 2023 year and they are as follows; Sam Tewes, Chairwoman; Amy Brandau, Vice Chairwoman and Anne Soucie, Secretary/Treasurer. All 3 officers indicated this would be their last year of serving as officers. The next meeting was set for Wednesday, March 1st at 6:30 pm.