During these smokey days, it’s easy for me to get stuck reflecting on the past (Camp Fire) and fall back into the dark days that followed that event. I remind myself that “Gratitude helps make sense of the past”. The Camp Fire taught me the true meaning of gratitude. As we pray for the safety and recovery for those currently being affected by the wildfires burning in Butte County, I hope that they too will be able to find gratitude to help them through this difficult time. To some, it may seem silly to think that someone who is going through something so horrible would find gratitude. Sometimes, we find gratitude at the most difficult and unusual times. Gratitude is a bright light that helps us find our way through the dark times.

I would like to share my gratitude with all of you, for the kindest and most generous act, bestowed upon our club and local community this weekend. The Soroptimist International of Santa Clara Silicon Valley Club reached out to me and inquired how they could help fire evacuees in Butte County. Their club isn’t even in our Soroptimist Region. These Sister Soropotimists had recently helped fire evacuees in the Monterey area and they felt compelled to reach out and do what they could to help those in our community too. The Vice President of their club drove to Chico on Saturday and delivered a very generous donation for us to give to our local fire evacuees. They filled up the entire back of my SUV! The donation included $300 in gift cards (for stores located in Oroville where the majority of Fire Evacuees are currently staying), two boxes of new clothes, and numerous bags of gently used clothes, along with a $500 check. Their club requested that we use the $500 check to help any Soroptimist members who are evacuated due to the fires. This beautiful act of generosity reminds me of why I joined Soroptimist! This has been a difficult year for many of us and it is so easy to focus on the negativity in our world. I am guilty of falling victim to this myself and that is why I chose “Gratitude” as my theme this year. We can all use a reminder that there are still so many things in the world and in our personal lives for us to be grateful for.

I had a wonderful time during our joint SUDS last week! Thank you to those who joined us on Zoom for this fun event. It was such a joy to see all of you and share some laughs. What a great way to reconnect with our club members and members from the Bidwell Ranch club. It’s so important for us to all stay connected, rather it’s in person or online. What’s important is that we are together as a club and supporting one another. I hope we can continue to find new ways to reach out and support one another.

This leads to my next topic: SI Chico Installation, Retreat, and Summer Picnic Due to the wildfires and poor air quality, we had to once again postpone our installation, retreat, and picnic. Merlo Park was gracious enough to move our payment to May 16, 2021. We will be able to end our club year by having a end of the year celebration there. More information is to come on this event, meanwhile please add this date to your calendar, so we can all get together and spend some time celebrating with each other. As for installation and retreat, we will provide you with the updated information for these two events once we have them rescheduled.

 I am thankful for all the phone calls, emails, and text messages of support that I have been receiving. I appreciate all of you and I am thankful to be surrounded by so many caring and supportive members. Thank you for your words of encouragement, flexibility, and compassion!

With gratitude,

President Billie

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