The Friendship Club

Message From our Executive Director – February 2012

jsinger — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:52:27 +0000

February is another busy month at The Friendship Club. The program staff is busy planning for their field trips and activities. The Leadership Council girls have started planning their spaghetti dinner fundraiser coming up on May 12^th and I recently had the chance to give them a session on soliciting donations in our community. They are excited to produce this event and will be looking for raffle prizes. Don’t worry, no door-to- door knocking in town. They will be crafting a letter to some of our local businesses and will be following up with personal phone calls and visits. If you happen to get a call, please take a moment to hear their message!

Our line up of events for 2012 is set and we recently sent out save the dates to everyone. Please note that due to unforeseen circumstances we are changing the date of the Graduation and Scholarship Dinner to May 10^th rather than May 17^th. We are sorry we had to change the date after the cards went out but promise it will be the best one ever. This year we will be at the Miners Foundry and we are looking forward to the opportunity to change things up a little bit.

In our continued effort to celebrate the Year of the Girl, we started February with an artist’s reception at the Nevada City Winery on February 2^nd. The girls who participated in the summer photography clinics were on hand to talk about their photography. The photos will hang at the winery through the month of February so please take a minute to pop in when you are downtown and see their work. They are beautiful and all professionally framed – a huge thank you to Nevada City Picture Framing for a generous discount on the framing! All photos are on sale for $150 and most proceeds go directly to The Friendship Club to support our summer clinics.

And please see the next article about a benefit showing of “Finding Joe” at the Stonehouse on February 23^rd. Thanks to Machen Macdonald for thinking of us!

Looking forward to seeing you around our community soon!

‘Finding Joe’ Screening to Benefit The Friendship Club

jsinger — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:52:14 +0000

Join us for a movie, light appetizers and learn how to follow your bliss. The ProBrilliance Leadership Institute, The Union and The Stonehouse have teamed up to present the movie Finding Joe on Thursday, February 23.

Proceeds will go to benefit The Friendship Club.

Finding Joe is an exploration of famed Mythologist Joseph Campbell’s studies and their continuing impact on our culture. Through interviews with visionaries from a variety of fields interwoven with enactments of classic tales by a sweet and motley group of kids, the film navigates the stages of what Campbell dubbed The Hero’s Journey: the challenges, the fears, the dragons, the battles, and the return home as a changed person. Rooted in deeply personal accounts and timeless stories, Finding Joe shows how Campbell’s work is relevant and essential in today’s world and how it provides a narrative for how to live a fully realized life – or as Campbell would simply state, how to “follow your bliss”.

Doors open at 6pm with light appetizers being served along with a no-host bar at The Stonehouse located at 107 Sacramento St. in Nevada City.

The movie will begin at 6:30pm

The cost is $15 and tickets can be acquired by calling the ProBrilliance offices at (530) 273-8000 or by going online to http://probrilliance.com/joe (all major credit cards are accepted)

Finding Joe – Official Trailer

Power of the Purse Coming March 21st!

jsinger — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:51:59 +0000

For those of you who have had the opportunity to attend a Power of the Purse event, you know how fun it is and how important it is for The Friendship Club. In its eighth year, this event has helped us spread the message about The Friendship Club to well over 500 men and women in Nevada County. It serves as a great source of information for people who are not familiar with the Club and as a celebration of the volunteers and donor opportunities that are critical to our success. March 21 we will once again gather at the Holiday Inn, enjoy lunch catered by Antonio Ayestaran, raffle beautiful purses donated by local businesses and learn about the impact The Friendship Club has on our community. Attendees will enjoy presentations by Carol Scofield, Our Executive Director Jennifer Singer, a Friendship Club girl and a Friendship Club family member. Judy Hess will deliver a closing that is sure to be inspiring. We are currently recruiting table captains to help us fill our tables. Please call for more information if you would like to attend or if you can commit to filling a table of eight. This is a complementary luncheon so filling a table is pretty easy, just find your friends and neighbors who would like to learn more and we will do the rest!

Artists of the Month at the Nevada City Winery

jsinger — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:51:45 +0000

Photographs taken last summer by Friendship Club girls during a Photography Clinic are on display for the month of February at Nevada City Winery.

While the cornerstone of The Friendship Club is the after school program. summer brings a host of new opportunities and exciting activities that keep the girls active and engaged. There are summer camps, a weekly reading club, sports and art clinics and community service opportunities. Lead by Middle School Program Director, Denise Tambasco, photography clinics have been a part of summer for six years. The girls learn about all aspects of digital photography from composition to Photoshop.

If you can’t stop by the exhibit, call TFC for a Club tour. The walls are full of the girls’ photography!

Nevada City Winery is located at 321 Spring Street, Nevada City, and is open daily.

Melissa’s Senior Perspective

jsinger — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:51:27 +0000

High school is one of the most fun times of our lives, but it’s the temptations-drugs, alcohol, and sex- that can set us back. I have lived with the constant fear of becoming an alcohol or drug addict, to fall into the dark pressures that many people are faced with, because of my past family situation. It was the summer of 2007 that a bright light lit my life; I was brought into The Friendship Club. As a sixth grader, I was recommended to The Friendship Club by my teacher who saw that I needed some extra support. I had been enthusiastic about joining, and establishing new friendships. I have grown to love The Friendship Club more and more with each passing day. I have established close friendships with the girls and ladies. The Friendship Club has given me that extra push that I needed and I appreciate that very much. After I graduate in June I will be going to the Air Force and then college after that. Eventually I would like to become a movie producer/director. I hope to see you all on May 10^th at our graduation and scholarship dinner to personally thank you all for your time and contributions for this great program. Thank you!

The Friendship Club’s January Calendar

TFC_Admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:05:55 +0000

Partnering Up-The Friendship and United Way of Nevada County

TFC_Admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:04:25 +0000

The Friendship Club is proud to announce that we are now a partner agency of United Way of Nevada County. We look forward to the opportunity to expand our audience and bring awareness to more community members about our important work and the girls we serve.

We thank the United Way staff and Board of Directors for their support through the application process and also for their commitment to Nevada County. We’ll also let you know about United Way events and activities in 2012 and let you know how you can be involved!

Reflections: Friendship Club Senior-Jacquelyn Chavez

TFC_Admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:03:18 +0000

Back in 5^th grade there wasn’t too much pressure to get involved with sex and drugs, but shortly after I started Friendship Club, the summer before 6^th grade I learned the temptation grew stronger. Sometimes the temptation seemed irresistible, but when I joined The Friendship Club I signed a paper saying I would stay tobacco, drug and alcohol free and stay abstinent from sex. Friendship Club taught me there is more to life than all that other stuff. Kids in Nevada County that don’t see that there is more to life are susceptible to getting involved with drugs and alcohol because it seems like its everywhere. Through The Friendship Club I’ve met many people I look up to and many girls that I know will be life long friends, which is hard to come by these days. I’ve met women who have been amazing role models – they’ve given me opportunities I would never have had a chance to experience without them. Now, about seven years later, I’m on my way to graduating high school at Nevada Union with good grades and big plans for college and a bright future. I don’t think I would be in this same position without the love and support I’ve gotten through this phenomenal program. In six more months I plan on being graduated and moving to Rocklin to attend Sierra College and plan to eventually become a Juvenile Probation Officer. I want to be able to help troubled youth and be there for someone like someone was always there for me. I really hope you can come to The Friendship Club’s Graduation and Scholarship Dinner on May 17^th for me and my four other lovely senior girls. Thank you!

2012 Calendar of Events

TFC_Admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:02:23 +0000

2012 Calendar of Events

February 2nd-Nevada City Winery Photo Exhibit

Nevada City Winery-Nevada City

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM

March 21st-Power of the Purse

Holiday Inn-Grass Valley

11:00 AM – 1:00PM

April 4th-Volunteer Appreciation Event

Location and Time – To Be Announced

May 17th-Graduation and Scholarship Dinner

Miners Foundry-Nevada City

6:30 PM – 9:00 PM

September 24th-Friendship 100

49er Family Fun Park-Grass Valley

4:00 PM – 9:00 PM

December 3rd-Holiday Reception

Miners Foundry-Nevada City

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM

Message from Our Executive Director

TFC_Admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:01:44 +0000

Happy New Year to our friends and family! We are excited to launch into 2012 after a very successful 2011. Our program staff is busy getting ready to welcome the girls back to the Club and our board and staff are ready to for a host of events, activities, and thought provoking opportunities to usher in 2012 as Year of the Girl.

Why girls? Why now, you may ask. You may have noticed recently that numerous groups, national and international, are drawing attention to something we have acknowledged for nearly two decades: girls hold a special place in our communities, our society, and our world. They hold the power to bring about the critical changes desperately needed in our world today. As the African proverb goes, “If you educate a boy, you educate an individual, if you educate a girl, you educate a community.”

“Your support especially over the last year has proven that you believe in investing in girls and that – recession or not – support for girls is a critical need and a powerfully effective investment in our community.”
(Girl Scouts 2011)

This year we look forward to continuing to work with our girls to develop their basic skills, leadership abilities, and help them achieve their personal best. Then they are prepared to enter the world with the confidence, belief in self, and feeling of possibility that will be required of them to make their world a better place.

Thank you for you support, and please look out for more from us about how you can be involved in making global change, one life at a time, in your own backyard.