The Toledo chapter has had a difficult 2007-08 year. Our great loss of Adeline Talip, Joann Cousino, Lorene Gunderson, Mary Helen Welch and Rhoda “Do” Jost has devastated our members. Each of them contributed greatly to our programs and activities as well as national involvement by Adeline, Jody, and Lorene. We mourn their passing and miss them very much.
Our 50th Anniversary party in October 2007 chaired most ably by Ardenia Jones Terry, was a huge success with almost forty people enjoying the luncheon at Georgio’s Restaurant. We were honored to have in attendance Mani Chari who came from San Diego to join us. She served as president of the chapter in 1982 and 1983. Ginney Schlicher, PPSEAWA-USA President gave the main address with brief stories of PPSEAWA international conferences she had attended.
Some programs and activities in 2008 were disrupted by untimely storms. At our fall meetings, Fran DeLamater, Ginney Schlicher, Sharon Vass, and Louise Bankey shared with us the information they learned in September at the 60th Annual DPI/NGO Conference, “Climate Change: How It Impacts Us All” at the UN. Our scheduled speaker for last November had left her job with DOSTI, the organizer of the school we help finance for younger children in Peshawar, Pakistan.
The January meeting was at the Jewel of India Restaurant. Elizabeth Balint organized a very successful International Women’s Day Celebration and fashion show at a local country club. Our member Temuulen N. Johnson modeled her native Mongolian wedding dress. Over 300 people including twelve of our members attended the function with the theme, “Flowers around the World.”
The International Student Association events at the University of Toledo were also shared by several of our members in the spring. Greta Ullman is the president-Elect.