Well, it’s been a couple of weeks since we had an update, so here is what has been going on.

Monday Morning
We had 19 members and our guest speaker, Sandi Roehrig, Executive Director of the Fond du Lac Area Foundation, at Monday’s meeting. Gary Miller had a “Happy Buck” for winning a vacation time share at Trinity Baptist School’s Annual Auction. Kathy Schreiber was the 50/50 Raffle winner and she drew a Jack of Spades, not a winner. There are 37 cards left in the deck, five of which are pay cards.

United for Diversity, Georgiann Froemke January 23, 2012
The CELEBRATE commUNITY event sponsored by United for Diversity is scheduled for February 18, 2012 at the FDL County Fairgrounds Recreation Building. It will be an exciting day of cultural immersion. The focus of the day will be for families and children, although adults will also have activities to awaken them to the benefit and pleasure of interacting with those of other cultures. A variety of ethnic foods will be served without charge from noon to 3 P.M. Many barrier-breaking games, crafts and activities will continue throughout the day to make the message personal and effective. Being shoulder-to-shoulder and eye-to-eye will result in a long lived positive experience for all who participate.

Enjoy an exciting day celebrating your heritage and other cultures through mu-sic, dance, food, crafts and activities.

11:00 am to 5:00 pm – Activities, Exhibits, Ethnic Dancers, Musi-cians, Speakers
11:00 am – Flag Ceremony
Noon – 3:00 pm – Ethnic food
11:00 am to 5:00 pm – Traditional American food available for purchase in Concessions Area

This event not only promotes the acceptance in Fond du Lac of people of all cultures, but also educates and maintains the pride of the new generations in their heritage. The mobility of society often distances people from their roots. The task of CELEBRATE commUNITY is to reverse that trend. Both the new members and the established members of our community will be able to learn about, admire and accept each other. This is a way for DIVERSITY to become UNITY.

Fond du Lac Area Foundation-Sandi Roehrig January 30, 2012
Sandi Roehrig, Executive Director of the Fond du Lac Area Foundation (FAF) joined us on Monday to tell us about FAF. FAF exists for the good of the community. The purpose of FAF is to build a permanent & lasting endowment to support the charitable needs of the community. The Foundation provides the following:

• A service to donors who have a charitable dream. The Foundation works with them to ensure that their charitable dream is set up properly, documented and carried out to the donor’s specifications.
• Grants for the charitable good of the community to support health and human services, education, the arts, the environment, etc.
• The Foundation acts as a neutral convener and collaborator to work with individuals and organizations to determine unmet needs within our community and find ways to meet those needs.

In 1976, a group of local citizens, headed by “Founding Father”, Carl W. Tonjes, and Allen Edgarton, were awarded with $50,000 of the proceeds from the disbanded Children’s Home to establish the Fond du Lac Area Foundation. For more than twenty years, Mr. Tonjes worked full-time as a volunteer to promote the Foundation and to educate donors about how they could carry out their own charitable dreams and also leave a philanthropic legacy to the community through the Foundation. In the 1990’s staff was hired and the office was established. Sandi started with FAF in 1993 and became Executive Director in 1995. The FAF currently holds over $23M in assets and has awarded grants in excess of $10M back to our community since its inception in 1976.