Hi all, I want to apologize for putting these notes out so late. I normally get this done directly following the meeting. Life has been busy so again, I apologize. We have a new addition to our chapter. Sara Nowak is a 22 year old senior at UT majoring in early childhood education. She is from Swanton and will be helping out with activities and meetings. She has volunteered to set us up a FaceBook group and has done a wonderful job! You can look us up on FaceBook by searching "Invisible Youth Network Fulton County". Please welcome Sara!!

During our meeting the kids received their pen pal letters back from St. Jude's, they were very excited. I gave them each their letter to take home and asked them to write a letter back and bring it to the next meeting. We discussed the chapter "collectively" being on the auxiliary board for the Fulton Co. Humane Society. As an auxiliary board member, Robin or I will attend their meetings and bring the information back to the group. Our group will assist the Humane Society with fundraising events and with their barn raising party when they are ready to build. We briefly discussed the Youth Outreach Center called "The Warehouse" in Delta. Myself and a couple of members have been up there to visit with them and we are considering partnering with them in some sort of way. We will be talking to them more about this next week. I would like to see us hold a meeting there once a month with their group. This may make it easier for Swanton and Delta students to attend meetings. Robin has volunteered to lead those meetings if necessary.  Jenny Herr and her daughter Allison were guest speakers at our meeting. Jenny spoke to the youth about the importance of organ donation. Allison was born with a rare pediatric liver disease called "Biliary Atresia" and desperately needed a liver transplant, more on that in a later post.

We talked about some fundraising opportunities for our chapter. We have decided to go ahead with an on-going fundraiser which will consist of selling diaper cakes and towel cakes. You may ask yourself what in the world are these? Well they are really unique, personalized gifts for baby showers, bridal showers, house warming gifts, wedding gifts and over the hill or retirement parties. For baby showers, they are "cakes" made out of disposable diapers and decorated nicely to look like a cake. They make great centerpieces and a very practical gift if you ask me. All diapers used in these cakes are able to be used when the party is over! Instead of spending tons of money on decorations never to be used again, this is a great alternative. The over the hill and retirement cakes are very similar except we use Depends adult briefs instead of disposable diapers and of course the "cake" is decorated with an over the hill theme. Towel "cakes" are created using either bath towel sets or kitchen towel sets. They are also decorated to look like a cake but would be given as gifts for house warming parties, bridal showers, wedding gifts, graduations or for any other purpose you see fit. Our towel cakes and diaper cakes can be fully customizable to your specific needs or themes, just ask! Another fundraising opportunity we talked about and decided to act upon is to set up and sell our “cakes” during the baton competition sponsored by the Twirling All Stars. The baton competition is scheduled for Sat. April 10^th, from 9am-5pm at Evergreen High School. Another fundraiser we are going to participate in is again, setting up and selling our “cakes” Saturday May 1^st at the 1^st Annual Craft Sale and Business Expo in Delta at the Trinity Lutheran Church. We will also be offering face painting and babysitting in the preschool room for donations so parents can enjoy the merchants and vendors and know their children are being cared for and entertained. All proceeds raised from this event will benefit the Open Door in Delta. Please contact me if you are interested in becoming a vendor, making a donation, donating baked goods, dontating a raffle items or volunteering to help with the show itself. I have all the registration information to pass along. Email me at renee@fultoncountyiyn.com.

After our meeting, we volunteered at Centennial Riding Center. We had 11 youth and 4 adults participate. The kids did a WONDERFUL job and the riding center was very pleased. We cleaned out all 8 stalls, raked the indoor arena, fed and watered the horses, brought hay down from the mound and even groomed a horse. The kids even were able to play with and love on the puppies and the barn cat. They loved it! I’m sure will be going back soon! I want to thank Bathany Sherrad, a photographer from Wauseon for coming out on that cold, nasty day to donate her time to take pictures of our group in action!! Thank you Bethany!!!!

 Next meeting will be Monday March 29, 2010 at Tedrow Methodist Church from 6:00-7:30.

 Hope to see you there!!