Blog

November meeting

Our November Membership event was all about style. Our very own Sue Scharf gave us great tips, hints and ideas for fashion and our looks. She talked about “A Life of Style” by Rebecca Moses. (The book was illustrated and written by Rebecca, it’s a piece of art on all its own.)

First, make the most of your body shape. By the way, don’t google body shapes, you’ll be overwhelmed. Stick with the four shapes Sue shared with us: Rectangle, Triangle, Inverted Triangle and Hourglass.

If you’re a Rectangle (your shoulders are about the same width as your hips and your waist is basically undefined): create shape on top with empire cuts, add volume below the waist like a tunic that lands on your hips, find pants with narrow legs which will make your hips look wider in comparison or try color blocking with a contrasting belt.

If you’re a Triangle (you have fuller hips and bottom, your shoulders are narrow and you have a defined waist): go strapless or off the shoulder, wear jackets with strong shoulders, look for knee length pencil skirts made of a firm fabric that will hold in curves, wear a textured top to accentuate your top and offset curvy hips, and wear dark colors on bottom.

If you’re an Inverted Triangle (you have a swimmer’s physique with wide shoulders and narrow hips): wear v-neck in a darker color than your bottoms to minimize your shoulders, choose tops with straps close to your neck to shift focus to your center, wear fuller skirts, and pick pants with pockets.

If you’re an Hourglass (you have well-proportioned shoulders and hips with a defined waist): stick to your shape with a fitted blazer or belted trench, show off your waist with any skirt or wrap dresses with slender belts, show off your shoulders with v-necks or sweetheart necklines, and wear tailored blouses with a few buttons undone.

Simple, right?

Actually, it is. Stick with your own style and make it yours.

And if you have questions feel free to ask Sue. She would be happy to share her expertise with you.

Read more

2013 DHHS Holiday Party

Join us Tuesday, December 10th at DHHS for our annual Holiday party with the Tuesday group. You can make monetary donations to help fund the lunch and the purchase of gift cards (we have decided to go the gift card route in lieu of actual gifts) before that Tuesday. Bring your checkbook to the holiday party at the Bishop’s or mail your check to our P.O. box. Make checks out to “Q.I. of G.R. Charitable Foundation”. This is tax deductible. You may also help supply BINGO gifts by purchasing $1.00 items and getting them to Martha before Dec. 10th.

Remember, this holiday party may be just another party for us, but for our DHHS friends it is THE event of their holiday season. You can see a few pictures and the joy we bring by clicking here.

Read more

2014 January Membership event

Join us for our January event. We’ll have a business meeting, we’ll share exciting Q-TIPS and we’ll hear from our guest speaker, Clay as he shares the secret life of bees. No, not the book; the actual life of beekeeping!

 

Remember to bring a friend. Our “meetings” are more than just business; we are learning about our community, sharing our stories, caring for others, all while supporting the greater good of Quota.

Read more

2013 Holiday Party

Join us for our annual holiday gathering. An invitation has been sent out. If you did not receive yours, please contact Sarah.

Read more

2013 Book Fair Fundraiser Photos

While we wait for our final numbers from the book fair (scroll to the bottom of this article to see the results), here are a few pictures (taken from Pat’s iPhone)

The bookmark craft table (or maybe we should call it the chaos craft?)

A Paws With A Cause dog supports Quota.

Santa’s Signing Elf.

Story time

A customer learns more about Paws With A Cause.

Thank you to all who helped make our event fun-filled and packed with excitement! Thanks to Pam for organizing another great book fair. Thanks to some of our Junior Quota members for stopping in and helping. And thank you to Pat for snapping a few photos with her smart phone. Well done Quota of Grand Rapids!

Drumroll please…

The total that we raised from the book fair is: $786.00

Way to go Quota of Grand Rapids!

Thanks again for everyone’s participation and hard work to pull off a highly successful fundraiser. You can’t spell fundraiser without FUN!

Read more

November 2013 President’s Message

As a rule, I don’t look forward to the end of the year. The march of time, the coming of winter, the closing out on the opportunity to accomplish yet another year’s goals, these things are not comforting to me.

However, the Barnes & Noble book fair and the excitement that surrounds that day is warm and welcoming. The feeling is like a big, fleece blanket wrapping around you. Kids are at the mall, anticipating some time with Santa to relay their secret wishes, people are shopping for gifts, and books, and special items for their loved ones that can take them out of their everyday world. Shoppers are contemplative and happy, thinking about surprising that special someone. The smell coming from the coffee bar fills the whole store. And smiles are everywhere; there is no sign of the stress that sometimes comes with the last couple of days before Christmas.

Our goal of $10,000 in sales for the duration of the book fair is reachable. That’s just an average of $35 per person for the number of people who have participated in the past—286 buying units. We can talk to everyone we know to make that happen because any sale, at any B&N, or online, using our book fair # of 11195823 will get the job done.

Now the cold, hard numbers is a pretty sterile way of looking at it, but a much better way to realize what this book fair is really about, is to think of the students at Northview schools seeing the play The Miracle Worker and understanding a little better what their deaf peers go through. And what about the deaf students knowing that they are not alone in the world with their disadvantage and it REALLY isn’t a disadvantage after all! It’s the young man going to school to be a pharmacist and who is working part- time as a pharmacy assistant who needs good hearing aids to continue learning and get instructions right at work—so many people are counting on him and we can provide the funds for those oh so expensive aids that insurance doesn’t cover. It’s the business owner who had a health issue that treatment of caused hearing loss, now he’s concerned he may lose his business and have to displace his employees if he can’t get hearing aids. And affording them after losing so much business already due to time away treating the other health issue is a burden but not so much, with the help from Quota International of Grand Rapids.

These are just a couple of examples of the impact we make with our efforts and it’s a really fun and enjoyable day. What a blessing!

Read more