My term as Worthy Advisor started in July of 2013. My theme was ‘Dreams’ and my charity was Operation Smile.

Operation Smile provides surgeries to kids born with a Cleft Lip/Palate birth defect, which is a split in the upper lip and roof of the mouth. Unfortunately, some families can’t afford the surgery for their child, and without the surgery, 1 in 3 kids will die before their first birthday or find it difficult to talk, eat, and socialize. This charity was really important to me because I was born with a Cleft Lip and I got my surgery from Operation Smile when I was only a few months old.

To kids who receive their surgery, Operation Smile is a dream come true. So, during my term, I had a lot of different kinds of fundraisers like carwashes, carnivals, face painting, and dinners. I also received donations from people and groups and the Phoebus community merchants even helped by collecting change from their customers. My goal was to raise $1,500, enough to pay for six kids whose families aren’t as fortunate enough to be able to afford the surgery.

After all the hard work with the help of the girls of Hampton Assembly No. 2, the fundraisers (just about every other weekend) and help from my sister who raised $528.97 during her term, I managed to not only meet my goal but exceed it. I invited representatives from Operation Smile to an open meeting on January 19, 2014 and presented them with a $2,750 check. They were very grateful and told me that was enough to pay for over ten (10) surgeries.

Julia
Hampton Assembly #2

On Saturday morning, I woke up really early to go make sandwiches for the homeless. After making those sandwiches, we drove to the homeless shelter to hand them out along with clothes. I remember this really nice man with a hopeful spirit, who was only wearing a short-sleeved jersey. I thought it was very kind when a member of Hampton Assembly, Kensley, went to her car and grabbed her old jacket and ran down the street to give it to the man. On Sunday, Kensley and I went to Hampton University for the P.A.B. 1,000 Youth March Against Bullying. It was neat to see all those people show up. They had kids singing, tumbling, and dancing. And the mom who started ‘Parents Against Bullying’ had a very moving story about why she created the organization and her daughters that were bullied in middle school. They also had a guest speaker who was the aunt of the kid who got killed at the Carnival at the Hampton Coliseum a few months back; She said since he can no longer speak out against bullying, she is his voice.

Julia

Hampton Assembly #2

Bright and early Saturday morning Richmond Assembly met up to help serve and clean up the breakfast for the auction to raise money to donate towards Cancer and Parkinson’s Research. It was a blast and they raised lots of money.

<3 Erin

Ashburn Assembly First Time of Service

On August 22, the Rainbow Girls of Ashburn Assembly No. 11 had the chance to help the Herndon Chapter Order of the Eastern Star serve dinner for the Commandery at our Lodge in Ashburn. The girls showed up with excitement as to what they would be doing. We all wore our white aprons for the first time. Our jobs were to help set the tables and serve food and drinks to the Commandery Members after the prayer was said. We all took turns carrying plates of food (taco salad) and serving drinks to the members. We cleared the tables and also served dessert (peach cobbler) and coffee.

It was fun to sit and talk to the members and learn about them and their uniforms. We took several pictures and learned a lot about their plumed hats. There were jokes about how many peacocks had to lose feathers to make one proper headgear. Some of our members volunteered to go on a peacock feather run to see how many we could collect. We wanted to see how many peacocks it would take and feathers so proper hats could be made.

The Herndon Chapter Order of the Eastern Star has the kitchen here running as one smooth working machine and we look forward to working with them again in the future. Plus we got to taste the dessert and it was really good.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you.

In Rainbow Love and Service,

Samantha, Faith

Ashburn Assembly 11