Women for Family Farms Meets
The Will County Farm Bureau Women for Family Farms met on Thursday, May 11th at 6:35 PM with the following members present: Anne & Amelia Soucie, Sam, Claire and Charlotte Tewes, Dana Brandau, Loretta Sartore, Sereda Perosa, Karen Warrick, Anita Schneidewind, and Mark Schneidewind, Farm Bureau Manager. Sam indicated that many were not present as they were working yet, some had kids’ activities and some were helping in the fields. The previous meeting minutes were approved as printed.
Sam reported on their Christmas party plans for 2023 and things are falling into place nicely. Wreaths Across America plant sales were excellent this year and they are estimating donating over $2,000 to the Wreaths across America effort for 2023 from this program alone. Sam thanked everyone that helped including Tracey & Todd Rosin, Sue Pennington, Sharon Zolner, Debbie Werner, Ashley Davis, Amy Brandau, Anne Soucie, LuAnn Matejcak, Don and Kris Mulderink, Judy Ogalla, Melissa Hack and the 4H crew of 6 kids and 4 adults for handing out and unloading/sorting the flower orders The group decided to make a contribution to the 4H food truck they are purchasing for the Will County Fair which is costing more as they move forward as a thank you for their assistance.
Wreaths Across America had a meeting and they are arranging for more chairs in different areas, but our duties will remain the same. New chairpeople will be in charge of the following areas: parking, buses, directing traffic, advertising, fund raising, new ordering charts to help organize the orders better, signs for drop areas and social media efforts.
We have been asked about conceal carry classes and we have been sending them to Sheep Dog as they are doing several renewal classes. Also, the pesticide applicator’s testing had around 70 participants this year.
The women’s fall luncheon was next on the agenda and the group reviewed the menu and selected the food to offer including desserts. The luncheon will be held on November 15th and set up will be 10 am. The group reviewed center piece ideas and what they had already secured which will be put together in September. The theme is “Queen for a Day”. At the luncheon the group will do a raffle for Wreaths Across America. The entertainment is booked – “Mike & Traci” and they all liked their high energy. Also, as a part of the luncheon they will have a handbag or purse collection for the local women’s shelter so whoever brings a purse or handbag in good condition will receive a raffle ticket to enter them in a drawing for one of 5 door prizes. If you bring 3 handbags or purses you will get 3 tickets; however you can only win once.
The group had very nice reports on their vegetables program held this spring with Nancy Kuhajda as the guest speaker. The group discussed ideas for the next program and will visit with Nancy on what she would suggest. The Will County Farm Bureau Annual Meeting in January was reviewed and they kicked around decoration ideas and will keep many of the items they had last year as the theme “Game Night 2.0”. This theme is more family oriented and they plan to have bingo again, will have games at the tables for kids and will have a magician under current plans but are still working on securing a caterer. They also kicked around some ideas for family friendly auction items and Mark will present these to the Foundation for consideration and they asked the kids what they would like to see and received some ideas as well.
The Young Farmers Committee golf outing is set for Friday, July 28th and they reviewed and started a work schedule which will need more helpers. Cheryl asked to help at this event and she will be included. This is the 10th anniversary and the group has some items secured for raffles and the live auction and they are working on getting a few others. The Harvest Dinner is set for Friday, September 8th at Kevin and Molly Gorman’s Farm and invites will be out soon. That committee hosting this event started to develop a work schedule for this as well. Sam asked for Karen to report on Tractors for a Cure event and the group raised $40,000 for St. Jude’s. Christmas Cuties will continue and that will be in the Farmers Weekly Review. They will be adding for increasing readership on the electronic newsletter called Directions a pet and farm animal Christmas event with prizes. Judging was still to be worked out and they approved 6 prizes – 3 for pets and 3 for farm animals. The electronic newsletter has 6,400 on it and they want to increase it to over 7,000 readers. A work schedule for Family Fun Night which is set for Thursday July 13th at the JJC Wietendorf Education Facility has been started. Sam thanked Nicole for speaking at Ag Expo on machinery, corn, soybeans and making flour which was a fun activity for the kids!
The Farm Bureau will be participating in the Round Barn Farm event set for Saturday, June 10th, and they could use 2 more helpers with this as they have 3 signed up. The event runs from noon to 5 pm with set up no earlier than 11 am. They placed their summer outing on hold for now with schedules getting so full and family vacations. There was talk about a CPR class and Karen will be talking to someone she knows to see if we can do it. Memorial Day flag placement is May 26th so plan to get there by 9 am if you want to help. Farm Bureau will be hosting an EMT and County Emergency program in September for local farming items and that will be promoted in August.
The next meeting for the Women for Family Farms committee was set for Thursday, July 6th at 6:30 pm.