Black Friday reminds me of the Holiday Olé Market!

As Black Friday approaches, I am reminded of the week of FUN we had at the 2013 Holiday Olé Market! It is hard to believe that a month has past (time flies!). This year,  throngs of women (and men) from all over the city (and state!) piled into the Exposition Hall at the Freeman for a week of “Shopertainment.”  "The 2013 Holiday 'Ole Market was a HUGE success," says Erin Alsup, JLSA Holiday Olé committee member. Thank goodness because the success of this event is vital to projects JLSA sponsors in and around San Antonio. "All of the net proceeds from this event allow us to provide much-needed resources for our projects and our non-profit beneficiaries.  Without this funding, JLSA cannot go out into the community and make an effective, meaningful impact," says Shannan Pfeifer, another Holiday Olé Committee member. The Junior League of San Antonio has kept the Holiday Olé Market alive since the first market took place in 1990. Just like Shannan mentioned, the money raised from the three day shopping extravaganza helps fund projects all over San Antonio. 

This year Holiday Ole featured five events that entertain all age groups form all over the city. The events were everything from a night dedicated to shopping with your girlfriends to watching the most precious pre-teens walk the runway to read more about what went on at the events, visit this link: http://www.jlsa.org/?nd=ole_home.  Now, check out the pictures from the week of "Shopertainment" yourself!

Looks like a blast, huh? You MUST join us next year! 

Another thing the holidays remind me of is our service men and women who so bravely serve in our nations military. The school I teach at recently honored our veterans during a Veterans Day assembly. It gave me goosebumps to see them cheer for each branch of the military and wave their American Flags proudly. Those same goosebumps arise when I learned about the World War II War efforts the Junior League of San Antonio proudly became apart of. Women of the organization dropped everything they were doing and focused their time to serving their country in anyway they could. Women like Mrs. Amanda Ochse 

who was waitressing at the Bright Shawl and decided to become a volunteer at places like the Red Cross, British Relief, and the Aircraft Warning Service. Women like Mrs. Ochse began raising money, organizing food drives, and donating blood. By the end of the war, women of the league had raised over 1,000 canned goods for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation and donated $1,500 in care packages for the troops. This is equivalent to $17,404 today! The women did not stop there. They continued their support by establishing a blood bank and nursing organization at Robert B. Green Hospital. They also provided shelter by turning the patio of the Bright Shawl into temporary housing for soldiers stationed at San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center. 

The very thought of all of this exhausts me and makes me thankful for this organization during a time when we can sit down and reflect on things we are thankful for. I hope you will remember all the leagues efforts- past and present- during this season of giving. Happy Holidays!  

Summer of Service

While some of us were off enjoying some summer fun, many Junior League of San Antonio women were actively giving back to their community. 

The projects for this summer's SA works (our community service outreach program) ranged from assisting in deep cleaning Seaton Home to cooking for participants at the Children's Bereavement Center. Women of the league pulled up their gloves, and put on their aprons to get down and dirty. Giving to the community is at the center of this organizations core values. 

Sitting in our time traveling machine, we have made our way to the 1940’s. Before you read this next blog entry I want your to sit back and grab a near by tissue- trust me, you’re going to need it.
            The Sunshine Cottage, School for the deaf is another outreach program that we serve. In fact our Junior League ancestors ESTABLISHED IT! 

            This program excited me to my very core. Being a teacher, working with special needs children hits REALLY close to home. I can still remember visiting the Sunshine Cottage on my new member tour. Visiting the classrooms, I was surprised by the state of art technology the classrooms had to offer. 

        I guess when I think about  a child with hearing impairments, I automatically place them into a foreign language category since I assumed these children will only learn sign language. However, while learning about their facility and the great job their teachers are doing, I learned their children are very similar to MY students! Watching this video entitled "Children Learning to Read" you can see that their morning message is similar to regular education children. They learn the sounds of letters, how to read them, and how to pronounce them. 
            How the school came to be- In 1944 Tuletta White was born to John and Dela White. 

 After learning that  their child was born deaf, the parents struggled to cope. They looked at schools for children similar to their own. The closest school was the “Tracy Clinic” in Los Angeles, California.  The Whiltes were excited that they had other parents to collborate with, but the thought of sending their child to a different state sent them looking for different options.

 That is when Mrs. White turned to the organization she was apart of and believed in, the  Junior League of San Antonio.  In 1946 the league voted to fund $4,500 (which would calculate to $ 52,213 in today economy).

Mrs. White worked hard to obtain a building to house the school in. She was able to acquire a caretakers house near the Landa Library. Free yellow paint was given to accepting volunteers, and soon a yellow school house was complete.

  In the summer of 1944 the first class of 7 preschoolers, including Tuletta,  received instruction from Miss Mark Kay Van Wyk.

Since its debut, the school has outgrown 2 buildings and now resides off Hildebrand Ave. the school serves Preschool-5^th grade.  The school is “…accredited by  Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement, OPTIONSchools International, and is a Texas Education Agency Approved non-public school. The school provides  the newest and best hearing technology.” When I was able to tour the school, I was fascinated by the amount of technology the teachers had available to their children. The school prides itself in helping children become an active part in the hearing world. This includes education on how to speak using intelligible speech, not sign language. Don’t you get the warm fuzzies thinking the Junior League of San Antonio helped get this school up and running?