This is your October Hotline...

September 15, 2021 - AAUWverobeach.org - PO box 2143, Vero Beach, FL 32961

HOTLINE

October 2021

AAUWverobeach.org

President's Corner

Jonnie Mae Perry

“Don’t settle for average. Bring your best to the moment. Then, whether it fails or succeeds, at least you know you know you gave all you had. We need to live the best that’s in us.” Angela Bassett

As we start our new season this autumn, we are looking forward to the physical branch meeting on October 16^th. We have missed seeing and fellowshipping with you. Although there is still a pandemic, we have planned an exciting season, which includes two major fundraisers. We will always adhere to CDC guidelines and take every precaution to remain safe and well during our events.

My goal for this season is to promote leadership among members, promote the expansion of membership, seek opportunities to collaborate with community groups to assist our mission and create a diverse, equity and inclusion committee.

The challenge of members taking on leadership roles necessitated many of us taking on dual responsibilities this season. To reinvent our branch can be a purposeful endeavor, so let us each reflect on our vision for its possibilities.

Our branch is strong and resilient; we will prevail.

Jonnie Mae Perry

Reminder: Our Season's First Event

Jonnie Mae's speech will be recorded and put online for members who are not able to attend the luncheon on October 16. Information on how to access the speech will be available in the next Hotline.

Bylaws Amendment Notification

At our October 16^th branch meeting (detailed above), members will be asked to vote on a proposed amendment to our branch bylaws. The amendment will add a new article:

Article XIV ELECTRONIC MEETINGS

Any meeting of the membership, board, committees, task forces or other AAUW Vero Beach Branch groups may be conducted in whole or part by electronic means as long as all persons participating, whether in person or electronically, may hear each other and communicate in real time. Participation in an electronic meeting constitutes attendance and any official actions shall be recorded in minutes.

Please plan on attending and voting!

Submitted by Kathy Martin, Parliamentarian

COMING SOON--ON THE SAME IMPORTANT TOPIC:

DEI, a FL state sponsored DIALOGUE:

Implicit Bias

Saturday, October 9, 2021

10am - 11 am

Patricia DeWitt is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: State DEI Dialogue Meeting

Time: Oct 9, 2021 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

To join Zoom Meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86480920656?pwd=cXpwUk1iYy9QTVJEYWVMOGZnZGM3Zz09

Meeting ID: 864 8092 0656

Passcode: 107232

One tap mobile

+13017158592,,86480920656#,,,,*107232# US (Washington DC)

+13126266799,,86480920656#,,,,*107232# US (Chicago)

Dial by your location

+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)

+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)

+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)

+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)

+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

Meeting ID: 864 8092 0656

Passcode: 107232

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbt9xpbL0V

Finally...

After a very long time of holding virtual meetings, this season we're planning on holding in-person meetings when possible, and CDC guidelines will be followed.

Oh! By the way, now is an especially great time to bring a friend--or several! And, if your friends join at a meeting, they'll get a special membership discount thanks to the AAUW "Shape the Future" initiative.

Following are all the season's programs. More information will be provided on our new website, AAUWverobeach.org and in future Hotlines, as well as the membership handbook, which is being released soon.

A Brief Look Forward: BRBs

Fundraisers, a.k.a. FUN Raisers

IMPORTANT: SUPPORT NEEDED for FUNDRAISER VENUE

The Emerson Center has scheduled two volunteer orientations for those interested in volunteering for the upcoming 2022 Season. Volunteers are needed to serve as event greeters, ushers, parkers and box office personnel.

The orientations are set for Saturday, October 9 at 10:00am and Saturday, December 11 at 10:00am in the auditorium at the Emerson Center (1590 27th Ave., Vero Beach). If you are interested and would like to attend an orientation, you must either call Patty Walker at 772-480-4883 or send her an email: pmwalk52@gmail.com.

We hope you will consider supporting the Emerson Center Team at the site of our branch's first, very important fundraiser!

Mission Forward

Notable Women in Science

Janaki Ammal, Botanist

Nov. 4, 1897-Feb. 7, 1984

As India’s first female plant scientist, Ammal developed several hybrid species still grown today. She also advocated for protecting the biodiversity of India.

(Click on link above for more info)

Photo Credit: John Innes Centre

Member Spotlight

Jonnie Mae Perry

“I remember Mom telling me she would stand over our beds and tell us we could do and be anything. She planted the seed. It’s still growing.”

Jonnie Mae Perry is linked to the history she’s preserving in Gifford. “I’m a fifth-generation descendant of slaves on my mother’s side. My mother could read but stopped school in the 12^th grade, because she was ashamed of her clothes. My father couldn’t read or write but he had the first full-service gas station in Gifford in the 60s and 70s. My parents moved here from Georgia in the early 40s as children. The story of my mom’s great grandparents includes a great uncle who owned a restaurant in Gifford for over 50 years and was very active in civic engagement.

“When Victor Robertson, my father’s employer, asked him what he could do for him, my daddy said he wanted his own business and a home for his family. Mr. Robertson, a citrus owner and builder, built the house I grew up in, where my mother still lives. The service station was built on that property. I pumped gas and put air in people’s tires there.”

Her initial passion was music. She learned to play piano when she was 11 or 12 and performed for the church junior and adult choirs.

Never feeling she was good because “I couldn’t just sit down and play like others I watched with envy,” she also took up singing and was a member of the Gifford Community Choir.

“Mom wrote to President Nixon and asked for options to help me go to college. I have the letter she got in return. It suggested she apply for a national defense student loan, which allowed me to be the first in the family to earn a degree.” She selected a music major in voice at HBCU Morris Brown College in Atlanta. After one semester, she reconsidered.

“I felt like there wasn’t enough money in music, and jobs would be limited to teaching. My experience in church hadn’t prepared me for the variety of voice work I encountered in school.”

Switching to business, she studied secretarial science, then education and business administration, graduating with a BS in Business/Office Administration.

“I joined a co-op program that sent me to DC to visit HUD, where I interned during my sophomore year. Already learning that things work out, I prepared for opportunities and let the universe deliver.” Then two of her first cousins were killed on Christmas night in 1975, and she learned she couldn’t take anything for granted. “I craved entrepreneurial freedom, especially given how women were treated in corporate America, particularly black women. To get it, I walked away from my first corporate job after eight years.

"At around the same time, a woman I’d met at HUD took me to her Unity Church in Atlanta. She told me I could dress casually, which was new for me. There was a woman minister. I loved it.”

The founder of the Chicago company Professional Creative Services invited Jonnie Mae to work for them out of her home in Atlanta and flew her to California several times, where she worked with the NAACP Image Awards TV Show.

“When I first returned to Vero in 2011, my eyesight had deteriorated because of diabetes. I turned to a doctor at We Care, who found he could clear away scar tissue in one eye and save my vision. That doctor gave me back the flexibility I needed to continue growing as I wanted.”

Never a sit-around person, she began volunteering. “Habitat for Humanity hired me part-time. I was one of the volunteers that set up their first library in the in-store and eventually appeared in a commercial for them that ran for quite some time.”

In 2015, she was part of the Gifford Progressive Civic League and the MLK birthday committee, which used the little white church in Gifford. “I was told the dream for the historic building was for an African American museum and library and asked to do it. OK, I thought. I don’t know anything about how to do this, but I’ll figure it out.”

A current Board member of the Indian River County Historical Society, President of our local AAUW Chapter, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Chair for AAUW State, Jonnie Mae is founder and CEO of the Gifford Community Cultural & Resource Center and the Gifford Historical Museum.

She began telling the story of Gifford, which resulted in donations here and there, enough to allow the museum to open February 24, 2018. On March 16^th of this year, the IRC Board of Commissioners approved a Resolution of Commitment to lease the land it’s on in the MLK Memorial Park to extend the museum and build a cultural center. A Capital Campaign is underway.

“I’m called to service as the conduit for the universe to do its work. That’s how I feel about everything I’m in. No hidden agenda.”

Written and submitted by Elaine Spooner

Meet Our Board

DID YOU NOTICE?

Our dedicated board is doubling up on some positions, yet there are more to fill. If you are interested in any of the open positions, please contact Jonnie Mae Perry (772-985-7573) and let her know of your interest.

It's Here!

Your Board proudly announces that AAUW Vero Beach has an exciting, brand new website!

And...drum roll....and here it is:

http://AAUWverobeach.org

(Click on the above link to find a wonderful surprise for your eyes!)

You are Welcome

Why not come by during a board meeting to see how we cooperate to take care of business? All meetings of the board are open to members. Here's the scoop:

This season, meetings of AAUW Vero Beach Board of Directors will be held the first Tuesday of each month at 9:00 am at the offices of the Friends After Diagnosis organization, 3404 Aviation Blvd., Vero Beach, Florida, 32960.

Local Program Fund News

When you contribute the AAUW Vero Beach Local Program Fund, you are contributing to these programs:

· We maintain four Free Little Libraries, continually stocked with books for Pre-K kids.

· We give scholarships to eight girls in Girls on the Run – a program which inspires them to be joyful, healthy and confident, using a fun curriculum that creatively integrates running.

· We donate to Florida’s Tech Trek STEM Camp for “rising 8^th graders.” We’ve donated money and volunteered our time to the local STEM Camp run from the Environmental Learning Center, and we give Science Fair Awards to two girls whose projects show thought and promise.

· Since 1971, we’ve given scholarships to women at Indian River State College to advance to a BA degree at a college of their choice.

· Since 2018, we’ve awarded stipends for living expenses through the Economic Opportunity Council to women in an intensive LPN program.

· And this year, we’re beginning two new scholarship awards for local high school girls. It’s very exciting to be helping young high school graduates afford the college of their choice, and we’re looking forward to receiving our first applications in the spring of 2022. See the article below for more details.

When you donate to our Local Program Fund, you are supporting these initiatives. Our Board of Directors will allocate your donation to the programs with the most need.

Thank you for contributing to

AAUW Vero Beach’s support of local women and girls.

Submitted by Linda Barker, Director of Development

New Scholarship Opportunity

NEW SCHOLARSHIPS FOR LOCAL GRADUATING

HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS

The September Hotline was full of inspiring articles and reminders of the wonderful outcomes we can achieve as strong, intelligent and well-educated women.

This year the Board agreed to add a new category of scholarship recipients: Indian River County High School graduating girls from Vero Beach High School, Indian River Charter School and Sebastian River High School. Here is our opportunity to support local high school girls who have achieved academic excellence, demonstrated leadership potential in high school and have financial need.

The Scholarship Committee established an ambitious goal of $2,000 to be awarded to two girls for school year 2022-23. A committee of five AAUW members will review all applications, select and and notify scholarship recipients. All donations will be added to our Local Programs Fund, and upon Board decision, will be paid directly to the college of choice upon our receipt of their acceptance letter. The awards will be presented at the Indian River School District’s “Scholarship Night” in the spring, giving more exposure to our mission and outreach.

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." Ann Frank

Here are two ways to donate

1) Make your check out to:

1) AAUW VERO BEACH BRANCH, and in the note line at the bottom write Local Program Fund and Mail it to: AAUW Vero Beach, P.O. Box 2143, Vero Beach, Fl. 32961

2) Pay on website: AAUWverobeach.org

Submitted by Suzanne Jones, Director for Scholarships