Kansas State Council of ESA

Epsilon Sigma Alpha News

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We will feature State, District, and Chapter news in this location. Elected and appointed board members are encouraged to place their notices and news on the website. The State Newspaper "News and Views" will also be posted here for your reading pleasure.

[President's FALL MESSAGE]     [August Board Meeting]     [President's Acceptance Speech]
[Past President Farewell message]

State President Thornbrugh Delivers Fall Message

Hello Kansas ESA! I hope you had a great summer! IC Convention in Chattanooga was fantastic. Carrying and posting the Kansas flag was a true honor. A change was made this year and smaller flags were posted in a holder that was on display at all the general assemblies. Speakers for the Certified Leadership Seminar and keynote address were outstanding. I am reading their books and learning so much. There is a lot of interest in attending the convention in the heartland, as Kansas sisters invited everyone to the 2011 IC convention in Overland Park. Kansas received awards and Kansas sisters received special recognition; read all about it in Pam’s article. Mike Burns announced his retirement. A steering committee was formed which facilitated the membership becoming owners of ESA. Be sure to read the article in this issue!

The summer meeting of the Kansas State Council in Independence was wonderful. The members of Beta Rho provided wonderful hospitality, great food, and excellent meeting environment; we appreciate your efforts. I have received many kudos for the weekend. Beta Rho, you really made us feel at home. Thank you.

The energy exhibited at the Kansas State Council meeting was fantastic. Several new ideas were tried and worked well. Clara and the membership committee organized a great activity on Saturday morning. (Anyone for banana soccer?) A wonderful time for getting to know each other and fun started off the weekend. The workshops on Adult Literacy and the Kansas ESA Website were great! The weather was a little damp for the Easter Seals Poker Run, but we still got some shopping in and had a lot of fun. Thank you, Bonnie, Sue, and Verneene, for your hard work. Following dinner Saturday, the social committee provided a great time when everyone told something that no one knew about them, followed by a Kansas trivia quiz. Thank gals for the fun!

As we begin the fall season with rush activities, I want to encourage all of you to bring in new members. I will reimburse the chapters for the Kansas membership dues for all new members pledged between May 1, 2008 and April 30, 2009. In addition, I will pay the Kansas Chapter Booster fee of new chapters with 10 or more members. Let’s strengthen ESA by getting those new members in our chapters and forming new chapters.

Check out the Kansas Website (www.esaks.org); Verneene has included many new items to help you. Forms, invitations, news items, etc. are there for your use. If you have any questions, contact her. She has set up a password protected Member Only section, so you have access to information about the chapter rosters. State committees, districts, and chapters are adding information about contacts and activities. Technology is one way to encourage those outside ESA to find out more and join us. Way to go Technogeek!

Your Executive Board is dedicated to helping the members, chapters, and districts in any way they can. Please be sure to contact them if you have questions, concerns, or comments. If we don’t know the answer, we will find it out.

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Independence was the site of the Kansas State Council summer Board Meeting

Members of Beta Rho/District B were the hostesses for the weekend. Over 60 women enjoyed the weekend full of fun and activities. The men were not able to get in much golf due to the bad weather but that didn’t keep them from trying, and there is always poker to keep them occupied.

Friday evening the Executive Board walked to “Uncle Jack’s” for a delicious supper and then headed back to President Joy’s room at the hotel to discuss plans for the year.

Saturday morning began with meetings at the Wesley Center just a short distance from the hotel. President Joy Thornbrugh met with the chapter presidents to discuss what was happening in their chapters for the upcoming year.

While the President Joy and the chapter presidents met Clara Ginn and the Social committee hosted the first ever Butterfly Connection by providing activities for those in attendance that didn’t have any specific obligations. Fun was had by all.

After the fun and games the Committee Chairs met with President Joy and the District Chairs met with First Vice President Pat Josey. Plans for the year were discussed. The District Chairs assembled the District Directories.

Pat and the Nominating committee also met on Saturday. Plans were made for an event to take place in November during the State Council Weekend at Heartspring. At the event everyone will have a chance to socialize and ask questions about different positions on the Council.

Raye Street, Goodwill/Easter Seals, Literacy Program Director, shared information on the Goodwill/Easter Seals Adult Literacy Program and becoming a volunteer for the program. Gayle Goetz, Goodwill/Easter Seals, Vice President of Development was also a guest for the day. She shared happenings at Goodwill/Easter Seals and upcoming events.

Technology Chair and Website guru Verneene Forssberg presented a workshop showing the new changes and additions to the Kansas Website. Members and chapters were encouraged to send in information about their chapters and districts to the Webmaster. Handbooks and forms are now accessible thru the website. Verneene also shared information on how the Pledge Lessons On-Line works.

Members then signed up to participate in the Poker Run for Goodwill/Easter Seals. After visiting different businesses in downtown Independence to pick cards to make a poker hand everyone headed back to the Wesley Center to turn in their cards with hopes of having put together the winning hand.

After a delicious supper served by Beta Rho the social committee led everyone in an activity to see how well we knew each other. Everyone had a good time even though there were some surprises. Papillion Observations were also seen throughout the weekend.

Sunday, President Joy Thornbrugh presided over her first council meeting of the year. Reports were given by officers and committee chairpersons. President Joy then led the group in a break out activity “Bucket List” that she brought back from IC Convention. Each person listed two items they would like to accomplish personally and then were asked to tell at the next meeting what steps they had taken to start to accomplish these items. After a few final reports and announcements the closing ritual was recited together and everyone headed home.

The weekend would not have been possible without the hospitality and hard work of Beta Rho. A big thank you for making the weekend so enjoyable.

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2008-2009 State President's Acceptance Speech
Joy Thornbrugh

Welcome to ESA friends, guests and family. I am so honored to be standing before you tonight. I want to thank Joan, Charlotte, and Helen for the beautiful installation ceremony. You don’t know how much it means to me to have you wonderful sisters do this for me. Welcome Suzie, our IC treasurer and Kansas Sister! We are so proud of you. I want to specially thank Charlotte Grelk for the banner that she created. It is absolutely beautiful, thank you for all the work and love that you put into it. Of yes, our men! You guys are the ones who give all of us the help and encouragement to carry out our work. We couldn’t do all we do without you. Of course, I couldn’t forget the members of Epsilon Eta and Eta Phi and Charlene Hansen for taking part in the Honor Guard, you have been with me through so many years and experiences! Finally, my thanks to District G for this wonderful convention; you know how to plan and carry out a great party!

“ESA—Free to Be…” is the slogan I chose for this year. The basis of this is in a story that I would like to share with you.

A number of years ago, a little girl found a fuzzy caterpillar in the yard. We placed it in a jar and put milk-weed leaves in with it and she proudly took it to school for show and tell. Her teacher, realizing a teachable moment, devised a unit about caterpillars and butterflies and the class created booklets about the insects. A few days after the caterpillar arrived at school, it disappeared and a cocoon was hanging on one of the branches of the milk-weed. The students watched the cocoon each day to see if the butterfly would appear. One morning when the teacher came into the room, she glanced at the jar and sure enough, a butterfly was there. As the children arrived, she advised them to not scare the butterfly in the jar. When class started, she allowed them to open the window and the little girl opened the jar and coaxed the butterfly out of the jar and onto the window sill. Soon, it flexed its wings and took flight. Free to be what God had intended it to be. That little girl is now a woman and she has also gone her way in the world; she is my daughter Debbie. What does this story have to do with Kansas ESA? In the coming year, I hope each of you will expand your wings. Find a way to reach a new level, do something that you think you can’t do, free your potential!

ESA has been helping others do this for almost 80 years. Think of Megan – a little girl at Heartspring in Wichita. Megan was adopted in an Eastern European country and brought to America. She could not walk. Because of equipment donated by ESA members, her therapists were able to help her learn to walk. She now goes to school and runs and plays with her classmates. ESA made it possible for Megan “to be Free” from disabilities in order to reach her potential.

Think of Josh – a little boy at St. Jude Children’s Hospital. He was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). If he had been a patient in 1962, shortly before ESA joined forces with St. Jude, his survival chances would have been 4%. Now, he has a 94% chance of cure. ESA and the millions of dollars raised have helped make this type of cure possible.

Think of Sandie – a woman at Goodwill/Easter Seals in Wichita. She has a job at Goodwill and dignity even though she is disabled. She is training to care for herself and possibly work in the general community. ESA has helped make this possible for Sandie and many others.

Think of Marty – a young man who might not have been able to pay for his college books and supplies, except for the support of scholarships supplied through the ESA Foundation. Think of your own communities – playgrounds, community and school libraries and classrooms stocked with books and supplies, local charities kept going with the donations of time and money made by ESA. Last year Kansas ESA raised over ½ million dollars in donations and spent over 50,000 hours helping others.

But we cannot rely on our past accomplishments. If we are to continue to help others and provide financial support, we must encourage our chapters to support our current members, bring in new members, and start new chapters. I know, you hear this all the time, but it is very necessary. I want to encourage you to look for creative ways to reach persons in your own communities and neighboring communities, to promote ESA and grow ESA. I challenge each of you as I challenge myself to bring one new or reinstated member into your chapter or to start a new chapter with at least 10 members. International Headquarters has invested resources to help us to reach our membership goals. They have hired a membership coordinator to provide new materials and incentives for growing ESA. At the Chapter President’s workshop, I handed out new materials from them. Clara Ginn, membership director, will be bringing you additional information, which you can use in your chapters. I hope you will consider these ideas carefully and use some of them to strengthen ESA in Kansas.

Another resource which you can use, once you have those new members, is an on-line pledge training program developed by Verneene Forssberg. Frequently, the time needed to coach our new members cannot be found in our busy schedules. This program will allow the new members to study the Ideals and answer questions which will lead to a better understanding of ESA and our goals. The link can be found on the re-vamped Kansas Website.

At IC Leadership, we were encouraged to look carefully at our agendas and meetings and find ways to make them more interesting and exciting. I am asking officers and committees to find new approaches to the State Board meetings this year. We will start with time for those who are not in special meetings to socialize, carry out hands-on projects, or participate in leadership activities. This is a perfect opportunity to interact, meet others from around the state, and discuss successful ideas and projects. I hope it will also encourage more members to attend the State Board weekend meetings and find out what is happening in ESA.

(Pictured right are the candidates for office being introduced to the General assembly in Topeka. All of these women will help to lead Kansas in 2008) Each year the State President encourages the membership to carry out a special/extra project. My project this year relates to child and adult literacy. On the ESA Website, is a program called “ABC’s of ESA”. The program outlines four levels of participation that ESA members can reach. This is one way that each member can make a difference in the community in a very important and critical manner. Care Connection Facilitator, Barb Smith, will be bringing you more information in the News & Views and at the August Board meeting. However, you can start now by looking around your communities for projects to help children and adults by reading to them or helping them to learn to read.

I have mentioned the Kansas ESA website and the International ESA website. Verneene Forssberg, web master for this coming year, is working on materials and information to make the website interesting and useful. Her goal is to have it will be up and running by June 1. I hope you will check it out then and frequently during the year. She will have a link to the International website. If you don’t have Internet access in your home, check out your public library. You can learn more about technology while browsing these sites.

I am asking a lot of you – continue giving of your time and resources to our philanthropies, increase membership, help with literacy in your communities, and enrich your knowledge of ESA through the Internet. I know that ESA is a viable organization and there is no limit to the care and love you give. But please keep the most important part of this organization in mind. ESA has flourished over the years due to the care that we give to each other. This is extremely important. Keep that spirit alive in your chapters and Kansas.

I would like to leave you with this little poem by an unknown author:

“I believe in angels, the kind that heaven sends.
I'm surrounded by angels but I call them my best friends.”
ESA friends are the best of the best!

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My Final Thoughts as Your President
Pam McElvain

My Dear ESA sisters:

How do I begin to say thank you for the honor of being your president for the last year? I have had the most amazing year filled with so much fun visiting you at your District meeting during the past few years. You have made me feel so welcome & I have enjoyed it so much getting to know each of you a little better.

As I have said many times & continue to say when I meet other women & talk about ESA. You truly are the most amazing & incredible women that I know. You are caring, loving, giving & just phenomenal women. I mean this from the bottom of my heart!

ESA has changed my life for the better. I could have never been a State President of anything without this organization As you move up from being a chapter member, you are encourage to learn & grow by your chapter sisters, Then as you move past being a chapter president…your District begins to encourage you as you become a District Officer & then District chair. I found this such an awesome growing position because I started going to State Board meetings & meeting the amazing women who have served on the Kansas State Council Board. I will never forget I was sitting on the fringe of a group of ladies sitting in Salina & Dorothy Albers, who didn’t know me at all, grabbed my hand & said “Get Up Here & Join Us!’ Those words truly changed my life…because I felt a part of my Kansas sisters from that day forward. Clara Ginn was very nice to me at my first board meeting as District G Chair in Pratt. I won a massage from Norma Stevenson. She & I had a wonderful discussion about ESA & the wonderful women in it. She told me many wonderful things & made me want to be a part of ESA Kansas & I grew to love it even more. Linda Schmidt & I became friends that year and my friendships began to grow. I went to IC that year...Linda was Incoming President. I wanted to go to IC & support her & attend my second IC in 10 years. Phyllis Wheaton & Marsha Barnes shared their room with me. Phyllis, Marsha & Linda & Karen Knorp Brown became good friends of mine that week. And as I attended more meetings, my friendships grew. Linda gave me the privilege of being her Jr Circle of Life chair & the rest is history.

A couple of years later, I was encouraged by past state presidents & others to run for the board. Your encouragement & confidence truly made me want to be the best woman & leader that I could be. I owe a huge thank you to Shirley Campbell, Donna Dawson, Joan Bourn, Linda Schmidt, Connie Hoch, Suzy Winters, Phyllis Wheaton, Maureen Wells, Karen Knorp-Brown & others. Your encouragement & love have meant the world to me. I want to say a few words about our Wonderful Phyllis Wheaton. Phyllis was like me…she had a fabulous corresponding secretary that helped make her Presidency even better & we need to thank Clara Ginn for that. But Phyllis was a true mentor & hero of mine. She was always there with a funny story, usually on herself & she made any room light up with her jest for life & her love of ESA. She & I are so much alike, our families mean everything to us. The joys of our lives…but ESA women are also our family. You all have made our lives complete. Without each of you, our lives would not be nearly as rich or full. Each of you can have that kind of fulfillment by becoming more involved in ESA by coming to more state functions & attending more of your District meetings & getting involved. Any one of you sitting out there…can be standing here in a few years…if that is something that you want to do. Your leadership can help make ESA continue to grow & let our good works change the world for the better. You aren’t any different from me, because 10 years ago I was you sitting in this audience. So think about becoming more involved in your chapter, District & at State. You will enjoy the benefits more than anyone else. Look at the past IC Presidents, IC Officers & Past State Presidents that are at this meeting. They are still very involved in ESA’s work in their chapter, District & many are serving on the State Council.

(Pictured left is Pam singing a HEEHAW love song to husband Kenny at the Mixer at the Topeka Convention) The year I ran for the board, Denise, Charlotte & Joy were also running for the board. We have moved up the Leadership ladder together & Kansas ESA has benefited from their amazing Insight & Leadership. Joy will continue that tradition next year. I want to thank each of you that have served on the Executive Board with me & on the Council. Your encouragement have helped make me the woman I am today…for better!!! With Pat, Kim, Marsha, Phyllis, Janene & Bonnie on the board…ESA Kansas is in excellent hands for many years to come!

These ladies do need each of you to volunteer to be committee chairs & committee members. And please, when you take a position on a committee, do everything you can to come to the board meetings. This will help improve your leadership skills, plus expand your friendship & you will make the work of the Council much easier & more enjoyable for everyone.

My one regret this year is that I have not pledged a new member as so many of you all have. Thank you for accepting my membership challenge…& remember, you have till May 31 to submit your donation requests to me & I will make a donation in your honor to any ESA Philanthropic Project. I still have a month to go so I am still hopeful.

As long as I have the ability to come to ESA State meetings…I will be here at each one & every year. Sharing the fabulous leadership, philanthropic & friendship opportunities that this wonderful organization has to offer! We have gone on a special journey together & I can’t thank you enough for sending me on one of the most awesome rides of my life. It has been a privilege & an honor to be your State President & I will cherish this year along with all the others in the past & in the future for the rest of my life. Agape to each of you! God’s blessings on each of you for a lifetime to come! Thank you for your friendship & love! Thank you for being a part of my family.

Love, Laughter & Hugs Always, Pam

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