Angel Tree Luncheon

The American Women's Association hosts an annual fundraiser luncheon each year to raise money that goes directly to the charities we support. The event is called the Angel Tree Luncheon. "Angel" because everyone who attends is donating a lot of money so we are all angels. Tree because in addition to the luncheon tickets, you can take gift wish lists off of a tree and purchase gifts for children in the orphanages we support. Last year ladies from my crafty group enjoyed a lovely lunch together. It was really fun. This year the lady who hosted  our group's table last year really didn't have the time to host again all all by herself. She's from Canada and is now the head of the Canadian Women's Association.  I asked her if she had 50% of the time and what did she think about doing it as a team. The chair of the event had repeatedly asked me if I would please host a table. I just kept saying no, but ultimately I decided to do it. What does it mean to host? You have to find people to buy the luncheon tickets to fill your table, you have to create a centerpiece. You can provide all of the glassware, dishes, utensils, cloth napkins and really do it up big or borrow the rest of the items. You also need to encourage your table mates to buy some of the gifts for the orphans.

My co-host completely took on the encouragement about the tree gifts. She is a shopper. I gave her cash and she did the rest. Many of my friends did the same. But most of the host-related tasks were done by both of us. In fact, between travel schedules, we handed tasks back and forth with relative ease. This included the fact that she was originally going to buy items we needed to make our table souvenir ornaments for our table mates in Singapore. Then her trip got postponed. As luck would have it, we were traveling to Sydney so I was tasked with that job. To create the souvenir ornaments we met for 1.5-2 hours, cut out felt shapes divided them up and off we went. She traveled to Singapore and I started making my ornaments. We agreed to stitch them totally by hand since she would not have a machine with her on her trip. We each constructed half of the ornaments and it was pretty difficult to tell who did which ones. I sold tickets, she sold tickets and the tickets and lists and monies went back and forth.

My co-host worked out the centerpiece for the most part while I finished it off and delivered it and I constructed the table runner. She provided "fat quarter" fabrics for the cloth napkins, I folded them up.

 A bouquet of yarn ball flowers on a "field" ( aka tray) of additional yarn balls. The little sewing machine is adorable. It is a music box and when the music plays the foot peddle moves up and down. My co-host loaned it for the day. My table runner was a not-to-scale yellow tape measure made from a yellow Bali batik print. Perfect!

With both of us traveling in and out of town, it was amazing to me that we were able to carry it off so well. It was a true team effort and our table reflected our group. I am proud of both of us! I know the ladies had a really amazing time! Every one loved our sheep ornament souvenirs. Wool comes from sheep and yarn can be made of wool. Everything ties in. If you can see the booklet created for the event, I helped with that too.

Some of my "Needle Nomads" (crafty group) plus one. One lady new to our group had committed to attending but then canceled. I was able to sell her ticket to an acquaintance from my Heritage Explorer group who really wanted to attend. We all tried to make her feel very welcome.

Why all the white outfits? White dress was suggested to symbolize the hope, etc. for the holiday season and the new year. It was only a suggestion . I noticed at least one table chose to all attend in very dark colors. Maybe they thought it would blend with their table better?  We opted for the caterer supplied glasses, plates and utensils!

This was a very busy few weeks for me. I also volunteered to assist the woman who took over as chair of this event. The previous chair was suddenly re-patriated. The new chair needed help and I had the know how, so I assisted with the art, etc. for the pamphlet for the event.