Kudos to former Will C Wood teacher and advisor, Debbie Garcia for conducting the STEPS workshop today, which just happened to be her birthday!!!  Mary Harris and Suzan Hey did a fabulous job of assisting, and Carole Warren provided some yummy Jambalaya!  The gals were given tips for making a good impression when interviewing and were shown what NOT to do which added some humor to the exercise.  I'm interested in getting some feedback from the Soroptimist who have been attending the workshops.  What have you discovered about these amazing young women that surprises you?  Do you feel we are providing relevant and helpful information and are we succeeding in helping them develop life skills?  What is working?  What is not working?  Is there anything we could do better?
Feel free to add your comments.....

Mark your calendars and plan to attend our Annual Awards Banquet the evening of
Tuesday, March, 19, 2013.  This festive event will be held on the grounds of the beautiful Buck Mansion on Buck Ave in Vacaville. The quaint setting of the carriage house promotes an intimate evening devoted to honoring the recipients of  the Women's Opportunity Award, the Violet Richardson Award and the Ruby Award.  We will also be honoring two club members for their special contribution to our club and to the mission of Soroptimist.

Soroptimist from Founder Region will gather at the Marriott in San Ramon the first weekend in May.  Women from Northern California, Hawaii, Guam and Marianna’s will meet to conduct business, attend workshops and have some FUN!  We will be honoring the candidates for the Fellowship awards on Friday, and, on Sunday the Women's Opportunity, Violet  Richarson and Ruby Award winners will be honored.  For more information about Fellowship awards visit our Founder Region website at http://www.si-founderregion.org/ 
For more information about our program awards visit http://www.soroptimist.org/

Soroptmist Donna Fox and a team from the City of Vacaville led the STEPS workshop on Wednesday.  The teenaged girls at Country High were introduced to the art of completing a job application and interviewing for a job.  The girls embraced the excersice with enthusiasm and expressed appreciation for the guidance.  A big Kudos to those in our community helping to support this project and to the Soroptimist members who attended to show support.   The next workshop will address "Image" on Wednesday, March 6th at  Country High.  Coming up on March 27th is "Mad City Money" which will be sponsered by Travis Credit Union and held at the TCU corporate headquarters in Vacaville.  This a 2 1/2 hour hands-on simulation giving youth a taste of the real world--complete with occupation, salary, spouse, student loan debt, credit card debt, and medical insurance payments.  Volunteers are needed to man the various stations the students will visit. For more information contact Desiree Tinder at desiree@vpat.net.

Chief Word is one of our favorite speakers and he did not disappoint us yesterday as he addressed several issues facing the Vacaville Police Department,  our community and the schools.  The Chief credited reduced staff and the distressed economy as contributors to the uprise of crime in Vacaville.  He also spoke about efforts to secure safe environments on our school campuses.  In light of the recent school shootings in Conneticut, the Chief and members of the Vacaville School District are meeting to discuss possible solutions. He also discussed the many on going efforts of the force to work with troubled youth and homeless youth in our community.
VP and program chair, Sandy  Esparza, presented Chief Word with a Live Your Dream pin and encouraged him to visit the Live Your Dream website.

Thanks to the efforts of our member Shauna Manina of The Reporter and our many members who contributed advertising and articles, Soroptimist International of Vacaville is showcased in a special section in The Reporter on Thursday, January 31, 2013.  You can also view the publication on the Reporter website under the Reporter Special Sections.