Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Birthday Fun

I love birthdays! I love my own, and I love celebrating the birthdays of my friends and family. I get so excited about presents for my husband that I can never keep the gift a secret. Birthdays are so fun!

A lot of people have a birthday tradition they love. It may be a meal at a certain restaurant, or a special breakfast each year. Our staff here at The Stewpot is like a family, and we've started this tradition of funny homemade birthday cards. The cards usually include a funny picture of staff members. We went all out for our executive director's birthday in December. Staff, volunteers, and clients made a book of custom cards for Bruce that will be a great gift to keep and look back at. 

We were thinking about starting a new tradition. Why not include our clients and do a giveaway? So, this morning we started with Suzanne, our Children & Youth program director. Suzanne wanted to hand out warm winter hats to everyone. Everyone was grateful for the gift and Suzanne received a lot of birthday wishes!

We'd like to open this up to volunteers also. If you're interested in celebrating your birthday the same way, you can! Contact me (stephaniem@thestewpot.org) a week or so before your birthday. You can choose what you'd like to hand out. You can bring something (we usually plan on 175 people) or hand out something we have here. It can be a seasonal item (hats, gloves, water bottles, baseball caps, etc.) or food. Any food item must be pre-packaged. Hopefully we can start a new birthday tradition!

Stephanie 

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Women's Tea

Women's tea was a huge success thanks to our staff, visiting agencies, and volunteers! This year we had representatives from:

  • Parkland Hospital
  • Turtle Creek Recovery
  • Attitudes and Attire
  • Genesis Women's Shelter
  • Martha's House
  • Crossroads Community Services
  • Dallas County Health and Human Services 
  • Planned Parenthood (HIV Testing)
Each agency came to share the services they provide, and how the women we serve can access those services to reach their potential! Every lady received a gift bag filled with makeup, perfume, jewelry and a few necessities. Crossroads Community Services sponsored a fashion show. And of course that was a hit. The ladies looked beautiful! Santa even stopped by and took pictures with our guests. 

We had so many donations thanks to you all! Thank you for helping out! Here's a video and pictures from the afternoon.