In This Issue:
- Party with the Stars
- President's Message
- Don't Buy Groceries Until You Read This!
- The Word on Gift Wrap!
- The Goats Know the Way
- Entertainment 2001 Report
- SVORT on the Web
February, 2004
March, 2003
February, 2002
October/November, 2001
April/May, 2001
February, 2001
December/January, 2000–2001)
October, 2000
May, 2000
 SVORT Bulletin Archives: February 2001 |
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Well, not really. But you can see Steve, enjoy a nice dinner, and see your ORT friends at our third annual Oscar party at 5 p.m. at Wendy Fotland’s house. We’ll watch the Academy Awards, try to predict the winners for prizes, and have fun! ORT will provide a main dish and drinks. Please bring an appetizer if your last name begins with A—M, or dessert for N—Z. Dairy or parve only, please! Admission is $5 per person, or free if you become a new member that night. Bring a friend! If we’ve never met you or haven’t seen you in years, don’t be shy: we’d love to have you! R.S.V.P. to Wendy, at (408) 985-1236, or email at wendy@svort.org, by March 22nd. We’ll be sending an email reminder closer to the party date. If you’d like to receive one, please send your email address to hayley@svort.org. We’ll also post the ballot on our website for download. No snail mail notice will be sent! Happy (secular) New Year! This is a time that many of us use to make New Year’s resolutions to try to improve our health and well-being. Many of our resolutions tend towards the physical or tangible: I will lose weight, I will try to exercise more, I will quit smoking, I will volunteer more, etc. This is opposed to the spiritual exercises we may do at Rosh Hashana. Both New Years tend to be a time of renewal for all of us. Tu B’Shevat, the New Year of the Trees, is nearly upon us. In the Torah, the origin of Tu B’Shevat was a time for renewal of our commitment to God and to share the yield of the land with the poor. Tu B’Shevat also commemorates our connection to Eretz Israel. How many of you (or your kids) have planted trees in Israel on this day? I was driving to San Jose after the big rainstorm on January 25 and saw snow on top of Mt. Hamilton. It was a very beautiful sight and I would have driven up there if I didn’t have other commitments. As I was looking at the snow, I was marveling at how wonderful Nature is! While you are working out your New Year’s resolutions, add one more to your list: Appreciation for the Earth. As we stand at the edge of the millennium, Tu B’Shevat offers an opportunity to look at the state of the Earth today and to commit ourselves to helping its preservation. What can you do for Earth? In California, many of us have seen Droughts, which force us to conserve water; Gas Crises, which force us to conserve fuel; and most recently the Energy Crisis, which really forces us to conserve electricity and natural gas. Before these last few weeks, how many of you had used the words Stage 3 Power Alert and Rolling Blackouts? Some ways to help the Earth and appreciate what we have may include:
To my fellow Ortists, If you haven’t already heard it through the grapevine, we had only a spectacular Gift Wrap this year. I don’t have the exact numbers, that’s Wendy Fotland’s venue, but in the rough 30k sounds mighty good to me. That represents the cumulative efforts of a very high percentage of our chapter getting off their couch, donating free time, making room in busy schedules, putting other things on the back-burner and giving of themselves to this project. Evelyn Howard, Wendy Fotland and I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who made Gift Wrap 2000 such a runaway success! Again the members of our chapter came through with enthusiasm and spirit. The new web site seemed to improve our scheduling efforts. Thank you to Doug Smith for putting it together. Evelyn Howard kept the booth well stocked, great job! My own special guy Roger was the moving force of our traveling Gift Wrap to Cadence, Thank You. But, as in the past seven years if it were not for Wendy Fotland this project wouldn’t work. She has been the organizational, patient, persevering force staffing the booth. Honestly the biggest job of all for Gift Wrap. Thank You never seems like enough. A tough job well done seems inadequate. But as they say, "It is all that" and a whole lot more! To close I can only wish that next year will be even better. Susan Hertzberg You have to eat, so why not help ORT at the same time? Register for eScrip, and ORT gets a percentage of every dollar you spend at participating merchants. You pay $10 per year to be a member, and give hundreds of dollars to ORT without spending another extra dime. Here’s how it works: you register your grocery store loyalty cards, credit cards, or ATM cards with eScrip. Then, you show your grocery card, or use your credit card at participating stores where you usually shop, and ORT gets money. If you are already doing eScrip for your child’s school or another group, you can have your donation split equally between that group and ORT for $5 extra per year. Stores enrolled include Safeway, Pak ’n Save, Cosentino’s, Mollie Stone’s, Draeger’s Market, Eddie Bauer, Budget Rent A Car, Old Navy, The Sharper Image, and many more. Check eScrip’s website, www.escripinc.com, for a complete list. There are several ways to register: (use ORT’s group ID# 5203965)
This could be the easiest fundraiser we ever do, but it won’t work unless you sign up! As of now, we have only 3 members, a long way from our goal of 100. We could earn thousands of dollars for ORT each year, for no effort, but you must act now! Register today, before you spend another dollar at Safeway!! It’s free money - don’t waste it!! I know you’re all wondering how much money we made, so let’s do that first. Gross proceeds, including two wrapping jobs outside the mall and generous donations from some of our members, were about $30,000, way up from last year! But, unfortunately, there are expenses. For the first time, we had to pay the mall $3500 for our space. Of course we must pay for our supplies, and compensate the other non-profit groups who help staff our booth. Our net profit was $14,450, which is almost $2,000 over last year. Coincidentally, the increase in gross sales at the mall was about equal to the amount we had to pay for rent, so our increased net profit came solely from outside projects and donations. Now on to the thanks you’s! First, thanks to the other gift wrap committee members. Susan and Roger did a great job of setting up the booth, keeping it organized, and tearing it down. As always, the Hertzbergs wrapped many hours and were generally helpful in any way they could. Evelyn Howard was at the booth bringing in new stock almost daily, and hosted the kick off and wrap up meetings. They made this huge project a success. And Doug Smith did a great job with the website schedule, which made communications with the other groups and callers much easier. Many, many thanks to my small but dedicated calling team. Ellen Mastman was wonderful, filling many shifts and giving me virtual hugs when needed. Nancy McMahon and Elaine Kahn also made many calls and helped keep warm bodies in the booth. Thanks also to Sheryl Popper for making reminder calls to wrappers. No shows were way down this year, due in part to her efforts. (Lil Schwartzberg and Phyllis Newman had to drop out of the calling team because of family commitments. Thanks to them for their good intentions!) 69 ORT members and 29 friends and family members put in hours this year. I know that many people wrapped more than they really wanted to, or wrapped at all, because I asked them to. Though I am getting better at not taking no’s personally, I take it very personally when people say yes to help me, and I really appreciate it. Scheduling is a very tough job, but it was made easier by the people who were so willing to help, especially when I was in a bind. Thank you to everyone who helped in any way! Our top wrappers included Susan & Roger, at almost 50 hours each, including set up, etc. Evelyn contributed 43 hours of wrapping and schlepping. Bobi Levine wrapped 36 hours, plus got her cousin to wrap. (Not to mention her daughter Wendy MacLean, who wrapped despite small children and long distances, and daughter-in-law and wrapper Bernadette Levine. They’re a dynasty!) Rachel Abramowitz and her daughter Aleeza wrapped 42 hours between them, including many hours on Christmas Eve. Dale Bergman put in 20 hours, as did Ellen Mastman, in addition to calling. Many thanks to our wrapping stars! Others who put in ten hours or more and deserve a pat on the back include Joann Astrahan, Judy Augenstein, Ginny Baird, Hana Baskind, Sheila Gold, Ann Mandell, Diane May, Phyllis Newman, Diane Rauchwerger, Hayley Smith, Veronica Tincher and Gayle Weissbrodt. And special thanks also to those who volunteered at Cadence and Organized Living. I don’t have enough space to mention everyone by name, but I know who you all are. Thank You to every one of you! About fifteen ORT members and guests attended the meeting. It was nice to see some members who don’t usually come, but were interested in the program. After snacks and some announcements, Erica took the floor. She told several stories, some with a feminist slant. (But the lone gentleman in attendance didn’t seem to mind.) Everyone was enthralled by Erica’s performance. Her use of her voice, facial expressions and gestures combined with her words to create a vivid picture. Her stories gave everyone some things to think about. Next, we each got to tell our own story. We can all be storytellers, given a chance. Erica had audiotapes for sale for $10 each. If you wish to purchase one, please contact Erica at lanntell@cruzio.com. Because we sold almost 300 books, we earned $6 each, instead of the regular 20% ($4 per book). So we made just over $1700, a little more than last year, when we sold 180 books. Everyone did a great job! Special thanks to our top sellers, starting, of course, with Bobi Levine, who sold an incredible 84 books!! That’s an increase of more than 25 books over last year. Next was me with 40 books, more than double my total from last year. Then came Alice Nichols, with 22 books sold, and Sheila Gold with 20, a big increase over her sales from last year. Carol Parris & Lil Schwartzberg sold 18 each, Hayley Smith sold 15, and Susan Hertzberg and Sheryl Popper each sold 10. We can attribute the increased sales to the great price for this year’s book, and also the willingness of our members to make an effort for ORT. Many thanks to our top sellers and everyone who sold even one book! Every dollar counts and goes a long way in helping our students worldwide get the tools they need to create a better life for themselves and their families. Other benefits that you can take advantage of online at http://www.svort.org include:
Doug Smith, Webmaster |
