Women for Family Farms Meets
The Women for For Family Farms committee met at 6:30 pm on Thursday, January 9th 2025 presided by Ashley Davis, chairman, with the following members present: Loretta Satori, Karen Warrick, Anne and Amelia Soucie, Amy Brandau, Anita Schneidewind, Sam Tewes, Ashley Davis, Jeanne Tewes, Nicole Issert, Dana Brandau, LuAnn Matejcak, Kelly Reus, Jackson Hogan and Mark Schneidewind.
The minutes from the previous meeting were approved by the committee. Ashley asked for comments on their Christmas party and all who attended liked the location and wanted to go back there next year. They enjoyed the trivia games and decided to do another game or two at the next Christmas party.
Ashley reported on Wreaths Across America and our duties went extremely well. Anita, Jackson and Mark commented that we were done with delivery by 8:15 am. Ashley indicated we were down 10,000 wreaths this year and what was told to us by many including the haulers out of Maine, was that because there was little to no money provided to the citizens of the U.S. with the hurricanes, fires, tornadoes, flooding, etc., that many placed their priority on donations to help these people affected by these natural disasters rather than donate to WAA.
We still had over 26,204 wreaths placed on December 14th and the weather was perfect that day. Parking became an issue with an estimated 4,500 people attending, which was a record, due to the nicer weather. Our duties will remain the same for 2025. Sam asked about the current match, and they are matching dollar for dollar for one more week from the Wreaths Across America group. The group asked to place this on social media again this weekend.
The Women’s Fall luncheon will be held again at the Victorian Ballroom and the group considered themes and entertainment. They will choose in March what the theme and decorations will be for that event. The group will reach out to the Victorian Ballroom to secure a date and time in the meantime.
The committee has booked Nancy Kuhajda for their spring growing program and it is set for Sunday, April 6th from 1-3:30 pm. She will cover the topics of house plants, starting plants inside and raised gardens. Limit is 65 people that can attend this meeting.
The group developed a work schedule for the Will County Annual meeting being held on Saturday, January 25th and they will work on decoration ideas after the meeting as the theme is “Hats off for Agriculture”. There will be two stand up comedians this year for entertainment and FFA is doing the presentation of the flags and serving ice cream. The group will also help with the raffle sales and they filled out the time slots required. The group will assist with the golf outing for ag education for the young farmers annual event set for Friday, July 25th.
They discussed meal changes and games and the event will be held on the gold course in 2025. Other activities the group will assist with is the harvest dinner, if corn and soybean groups decide to host it in 2025. he Christmas Cuties and Christmas pets will continue in 2025. For Family Fun Night they need to work on getting a face painter and the photo id and finger printing as rest is set and booked.
Spring Flowers is set for delivery on May 3rd and they reviewed what they were offering this spring. The planter box making program is set for Sunday, March 30th from 1-3:30 pm and it will feature Nancy Kuhajda as the guest speaker. The cost for the box including refreshments is $35 per box. There will be a limit of 30 for this program. If you need more than 1 box you can do 2, but each box is $35.00. Everything is precut and the participants will assemble them and paint them at this program.
Food for Thought Committee meeting is set for January 22nd in DeKalb. The marketing program for ladies’ phase 2 is set for March 31st and Britt O’Connell is coming back from EverAg to be the guest speaker. The program will be free to the ladies and will be held at the Farm Bureau auditorium. People who attended last year’s program were eager to sign up for this year’s program.
There was a report that Mistihill Vineyard will be opening soon. The group reviewed the legislator meeting set for January 27th, the Herbicide Strategy Workshop provided by ISBA set for January 28th at 11 am, the pesticide applicators testing programs with sign up being online February 7th and March 6th.
They will assist with Ag Expo. The group held their election of officers for the 2025 year and the officers elected are as follows: Ashley Davis, Chairwoman, Dana Brandau Vice Chairwoman, Karen Warrick Secretary\Treasurer. The group then adjourned at 7:30 pm and went to a different room to work on centerpieces and decorations for the annual meeting. The next meeting was set for March 6th at 6:30 pm.