Hello everyone,
Thank you to all who attended our meeting yesterday. Before our meeting we enjoyed a wonderful pot roast dinner, complete with homemade dinner rolls, lovingly prepared by our Associate Matron Sister Dawn. Sister Betty brought wine and nibbles to share, and for dessert, Sister Cec treated us to individual cheesecakes and pineapple upside down cake, which were delicious.

We enjoyed the company of Karl and Kathy Cox who visited from Upland Chapter. We also welcomed one of our Masonic Brothers who brought his wife and adorable kiddos to join us.

We had a brief presentation by Mickey Reed from Woman’s Club of Indio. She spoke about an opportunity for Coachella Valley OES to participate in a special project benefitting children in Foster Care. We would donate women’s gift items, such as bath and body care products, scented candles, and gently used costume jewelry. The donated items would then be displayed for the children in Foster Care to come ‘shop’ for gifts to give to their foster mom, biological moms, or other mother figures in their lives for Mother’s Day. We agreed to participate in this project, with Sister Dawn Gummer taking the lead on coordinating our effort. She will provide further details shortly for everyone. If you would like specific details, you may reach out to Sister Dawn directly at missdawn01@aol.com, or by phone at 760-799-4943.

We also discussed putting on a Fashion Show on May 20, 2023, at Heritage Palms Club. Sisters Cec Speaker and Raelene Qualls are taking the lead on this fun event. We discussed additional ways to raise money through a silent auction during the Fashion Show. Some great suggestions included creating gift baskets and other items such as restaurant gift certificates, event tickets, hotel stays. Do you have a favorite restaurant you eat at frequently? Please approach the management to ask if they would consider donating a gift certificate for our charity. Do you enjoy wine? Think of ideas to gather a wine lovers gift basket, with some cute glasses, a bottle of your favorite libation, and maybe some snacks or unique bottle opener. Movie lover? Make up a basket with movie tickets and some yummy candy snacks! Same for Theater Tickets. Do you have a timeshare? Why not donate a stay at your time share? Do you have season tickets for an event you would like to donate? These items would be part of a silent auction benefitting our chapter. The event will be open to all members of our community, so invite your friends, neighbors, etc. More information will be provided shortly.

Brother Mert extended an invitation to the ladies for the Mason’s Sweetheart Dinner, 6:30 pm Feb 2, at Coachella Lodge. There is no charge for the ladies of our chapter. Please RSVP to Mert Gayler at mgayler@aol.com.

Brother Mert reminded us of the monthly Scottish Rite dinners that take place at Coachella Lodge. The dinners are served at 6 pm the 4th Wednesday of every month. This is a wonderful opportunity to network with the Masonic organizations meeting in our area. For details or to register and pre-pay for the dinners, you may go to their website, psscottishrite.org. We usually have several of our Eastern Star group in attendance every month. Join us, the food is great!

Sister Sandra Curtis has created a webpage for our chapter. Please go to coachellaeasternstar.com. When you pull up the page, a pop up box will ask you to register your email. This allows you to be notified of any updates and events posted to our page.

As you can see, we have been busy, and our year is well underway with lots of events.

Have a wonderful rest of your week.
Star Love,
Jane Bradfield, Worthy Matron

Sent from my iPad