We May Be Small But We Are Mighty

At the recent District 3 Altrusa Conference, our St. Augustine Club came away with several prestigious awards.
A Joey Robison Scholarship for Students in Transition was awarded through our club to Amanda Soto, a student in the Licensed Practical Nursing Program at First Coast Technical College. This scholarship is intended for students who have been out of school for several years and may have financial hardships in returning to school.

Lisa McGowan, FCTC, Mimi Cooper, Altrusa, Amanda Soto, Joey Robison Scholarship Recipient, Arleen Dennison, FCTC

Our club also received First Place in the Literacy Service Award. The objectives of the award are: To create an awareness of Altrusa’s commitment to literacy in District Three; to stimulate an interest in developing active literacy programs in the community; to encourage members of local clubs to participate in literacy projects designed to meet specific needs in the community; and, to recognize outstanding club achievement in literacy service projects to the community. We received this award for our work with the St. Johns County School System and Project FLY – Five Learning Years which provides small group literacy intervention to pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students who have been identified as being at risk for reading failure. We obtained a $4000.00 grant from the Altrusa International Foundation for this project.

Mary Alice Hayes, St Johns County Schools, Vicki Sellner, Altrusa, Mimi Cooper, Altrusa, Chris Plant, Altrusa, Donna Lueders, St Johns County Schools

We received third place, just missing second place by a few votes from the judges, in the Mamie L. Bass Community Service Award which was established in 1963 as a memorial to the first National President of Altrusa. The objectives of the award are: to stimulate interest in developing action programs in the community that fall within the scope of Altrusa’s program of service; to encourage members of local Clubs to participate actively in service projects designed to meet specific local needs; and, to recognize outstanding Club achievement in service to the community. We received this award for the work we have been doing to help those in need during the pandemic. This work involved a number of projects from providing socks and underwear to the Head Start Program; to contributions of food, money, and gift cards to the Food Bank; to birthday backpacks and books to the children at the St. Johns County Homeless Coalition.