Sangria Social

Welcome Back Juniors!

Our 2012-2013 club year kicked off in grand style on August 15, 2012 with our New Member Sangria Social. It was great to see so many familiar faces and even better to see a few new faces as well. Thank you Kari, Karen, Kat and Tracy for coming out to see what TJWC is all about. We look forward to getting to know you better as the year progresses.

And there is still time for new members to join. Know someone who likes to have fun and help her local community? Please invite them to the upcoming Member Social on September 6, 2012 at Kona Grill in Westshore. This will be a great opportunity for members to catch up with one another and trade summer vacation stories.

Watch your email for information on upcoming projects. We’ve got lots of fun projects lined u p for the first half of the club year – Humane Society, Clothes to Kids, Feeding America, Animal Coalition of Tampa – just to name a few.

Be an active and informed Junior by checking the website regularly. And new for 2012 – MeetUp! Join our group now at www.meetup.com/GFWC-Tampa-Junior-Womens-Club and you’ll always be in the know about upcoming projects and socials.

Here’s to a GREAT year. Cheers to Members!!

Spring Fundraiser: Have a Ball.....at the Pub Crawl!!

Are you ready to get off the bench and help someone go to college??

The GFWC Tampa Juniors are hosting
Have a Ball....at the Pub Crawl!

Come join us dressed in your favorite team jersey or sports team t-shirt for our first ever sports themed pub crawl to benefit our TIGER Scholarship fund.

Check out our line up below:

Date: Saturday, March 31st
Kick-off: 6:00 PM
Cost: $20.00 in advance; $25.00 day of/at the door

Kick-Off Location (First Inning):
4 1/2 Reasons
1605 E. 7th Ave, Ybor City

Halftime Location:
Gaspar's Grotto
1805 E. 7th Avenue, Ybor City
Raffle items and silent auctions will be held here, so don't for get to purchase your raffle tickets!

Full Lineup for the Game:
4 1/2 Reasons 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Reservoir 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Gaspar's Grotto 8:30 pm to 10:00 pm
Green Iguana 10:00 pm to 11:00 pm
First Chance/Last Chance 11:00 pm to 12:00 midnight


About Us:
The GFWC Tampa Junior Woman’s Club is a non-profit, 501c3 organization. This event is our largest fundraiser of the year, and it allows us to collect and distribute charitable donations to our TIGER Scholarship program, a merit based scholarship available to both men and women that are either about to graduate from high school or are returning to school.

TJWC Holiday Party - December 2, 2011

Come join us for the Holidy Party and bring your significant other to join us. This year it will be held at Malio's downtown Tampa which is located on the river. We will have the enclosed patio all to ourselves.

Bring an ornament to exchange. This is like the white elephant game where you get to steal an ornament.

Dinner will include: Ziti bolognese, Vegetable Lasagna, Filet Tips with Grilled Onions and Potatoes, House Saled and Bread. Many drink specials will be offered.

Drinks from 6:30 pm to 7:00 pm and dinner at 7:00 pm.

Dress to impress or in your holiday attire.

Cost: $25.00 per person.

RSVP and money due by November 25, 2011.

See Marie Kimbrough or Christie Cunningham with any questions.

2011 Installation and Awards Banquet

What a year 2010-2011 has been for the GFWC Tampa Junior Woman's Club! We have participated in a number of volunteer projects, helped send supplies to troops overseas, delivered baked goods to fire stations and raised money to benefit the causes we support all while making new friends along the way.

On Saturday, June 11, 2011 at the Rusty Pelican, we will be hosting our end of the year Installation and Awards Banquet. This is our opportunity to formally welcome in our new, provisional members, as well as recognize the hard work of all of our members and club as a whole. We will also be installing the new 2011-2012 Board. Lunch (salad, entree, dessert, and rum punch) will be served. This is a fun event that will give you the opportunity to get to know your fellow club members.

All members and provisionals as well one guest per member are invited to attend. The club will pay for lunch for all provisionals. Members and all guests are $30.00 per person (or $31.00 per person if paid with PayPal). We look forward to seeing all there!

Formal invitations will be arriving in your mailbox shortly. Please be sure you mail back the self addressed stamped RSVP card that will come with your invitation.

It is important to remember that all of our actions, no matter how small, make a difference in our community. Often times, it is a small action that touches someone’s life and makes a permanent impression. It is easy to get overwhelmed in today’s world and to feel like you just can’t do enough to make a difference.



A good story to think about to combat this feeling of "how much good can one person do" is the “Golden Starfish” story: While walking along a beach, a man saw someone in the distance bend down, pick something up, and throw it into the ocean. As he got closer, he noticed that it was a young woman, picking up starfish one by one and tossing each one gently back into the ocean. The old man smiled and said, “I must ask, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?” The woman replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.” Upon hearing this, the man replied, “But do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish along every mile? You can’t possibly make a difference!” The woman listened politely then bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the ocean and said, “It made a difference for that one.”

The Juniors’ first project of the year, Special Olympics Bowling, was a great success and an extremely rewarding experience. The Juniors were assigned the duty of “lane monitor” in order to ensure that the bowlers knew which order they were bowling in, to assist those with severe handicaps in the actual process of bowling, to help the score keepers, and to act as cheerleaders. Everyone had a great time and the top scoring bowlers from this event will move on to the next level of competition.

Our second event was a chocolate party with Faces of Courage, a group that organizes camps for kids, women and families who have been affected by cancer or blood disorders. The Juniors have established a great relationship with Faces of Courage, and this is one of our favorite organizations to support.

I think it is safe to say that the GFWC Tampa Juniors are well on their way to “Making a Difference Everyday in Tampa Bay”!

New Member Iced Tea Party

Our new club year is starting, we will be hosting the New Member Iced Tea Party on Wednesday August 18th at the Clubhouse. If you have a friend or co-worker that you think would be interested in joining the Juniors please invite them to this event, if you don't ask they won't know!

The Individual Growth in Education Recipient - “TIGER”

The GFWC Tampa Junior Woman’s Club (TJWC) is proud to present The Ralph F. Schiller “TIGER” scholarship to our community.

Many individuals have a dream of going to college and continuing their education, however, with the rising costs of higher education; many cannot afford this luxury. The “TIGER” Scholarship was created in memory of Ralph F. Schiller. In 1926 his father abandoned the family and his mother realized that she could not handle the responsibility of a family. She dropped off the five children ranging in age from nine months to nine years old at the local orphanage. Being the oldest, Ralph was determined that his family would not be torn apart by these circumstances. He saved his food from his first meal, gathered up his four brothers and sisters and ran away to his grandparents’ home. His grandparents raised all five children as if they were their own. Because Ralph had made this decision, he also took on responsibility. He began a paper route before school and worked as a bag boy at the local grocery store after school. As his siblings grew Ralph saw that expenses were growing as well, so at 16 he dropped out of high school and joined the Army Air Corps.

Ralph had a successful career in the military. He served as a member of the American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers, World War II, Korea and was an adviser during the Vietnam War. Throughout this time his goal was to eventually return to school to complete his education. In February 1962 he learned that he would soon be a father. He began to plan his dreams and realized that with a limited education he would have a difficult time helping his child to do simple homework. With this realization, he went back to high school and earned his diploma. He then applied to Merced College, California, began the curriculum, and in 1972 received his college degree. This all began at the age of 44.

The goal of this scholarship is to provide assistance for continuing education to a Tampa Bay Area male and female. This is not restricted to high school students, simply anyone seriously looking to further their education by attaining a college degree.