Junior Miss and Junior Auxiliary Princess Applications Available!

Junior Auxiliary Little Sister 2009 - Bliss Zechman, Junior Auxiliary Princess 2009 - Leslie Moulton, Junior Miss 2009 - Caroline Carter

We love our pageant girls!

The applications have been released for the upcoming Junior Miss and Junior Auxiliary Princess Pageants and we have them at the shop!

Junior Miss is open to young ladies ages 14 to 16.

Junior Auxiliary Princess is open to young ladies ages 11 to 13.

There are only a number of spaces available in each pageant so come in and get your application today!

Father & Daughter Date Night

I stayed too busy serving the meal at Covenant Academy's Father Daughter Dance (Junior Auxiliary volunteered to help out with that part of the evening) to get very many pictures but I did manage to snap this one of miss Gracie before the dessert portion of the night.

She got the dress from the store and I just think she looks so beautiful in it....like Cinderella! Lucky for you, we have lots of similar dresses in stock for all the upcoming pageants...even Easter Sunday!

Come check them out while supplies last.

Christmas in the Park 2008

Join us tomorrow night for the 23rd annual Christmas in the Park!

It'll be a night to remember so don't miss it!

Children's Advocacy Center Banquet

At Ashley's Attic, you know we love the kids! We believe that no child should have to hurt unnecessarily and should be supported, cared for and cherished....for that reason, I'd like to let you all know about a fundraiser for our community's Children's Advocacy Center.

The Angels' Autumn Fest is a formal event that the C.A.C. will be hosting in October.

There will be a really nice dinner, a silent auction and will feature Tennessee's First Lady, Andrea Conte, as the keynote speaker for the evening. Andrea (pictured above during another children's advocacy event) is a big supporter of Children's Advocacy Centers in the state of Tennessee and has made it her goal to make sure that the centers are supported and well-publicized.

Like I said before, this will be a formal event...ladies, it's a great excuse to get all dressed up and go out for a nice dinner event with your friends or your guy!

Junior Auxiliary will be there helping to serve the meal and I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone there. It looks to be a really special event.

I hope the C.A.C raises lots of funds for their cause! This is a great opportunity for our community to come together to help a really worthy cause.

You can learn more about the event or reserve your tickets by contacting the Children's Advocacy Center at 507-2386.

Scholarship opportunity

Since I'm posting about my projects and causes tonight, let me fill y'all in on a scholarship opportunity from Junior Auxiliary.

Since we are so blessed to have many friends and customers who are in professions devoted to supporting the special needs of children and youth...I figure this is a good scholarship to advertise on here:

Every year the National Association of Junior Auxiliaries, Inc. offers scholarships to those who are planning to attend school at the graduate level to work in one of those professions.

Visit the J.A. of McMinnville blog for more information and links...or go straight to the NAJA website to view the application. NAJA will be accepting applications from September 1st until February 1st.

(and even if you're a fan of the blog from another county or state, check the rules for applications anyway...it might still apply to you! As long as your state has a Junior Auxiliary chapter - and you meet the other requirements - this scholarship could help you too!)

Yay for free money for school!

J.A. Book Giveaway

Come join me at the Junior Auxiliary Booth
this Saturday,
August 2nd
for the 2nd annual J.A. Book Giveaway during
Warren County School System's Back-to-School Kickoff
at Three Star Mall from 9am until noon.

Through this project, we are able to distribute hundreds of books to children from all over the community. Every child that visits our booth can pick out one book that they like to take home with them.

Last year, for our first time around, we collected and distributed over 300 books free to kids who came by our booth at the event...this year we have over 1,000 to give away!
We see this as an opportunity for the kids to pick out books that they would like to read...not just a book that they've been assigned to read. We hope that through this project we are able to encourage kids to learn to love reading...and maybe give them an appreciation for charity and giving along the way.

I'll see you there!

and then come to the shop for our great tax-free holiday deals!

Also check out today's Southern Standard on page 5-A for the story about our book giveaway!

Go check out this blog...

I'm the public relations chair for Junior Auxiliary of McMinnville and, thanks to Susan Burks for setting it up, we have a blog! As PR chair, I have taken over administration of the blog and I'm working to make it a really great resource for, not just members of the club, but also the general public who might want to know more about, or want to help out our chapter!


For those of you who don't know; Junior Auxiliary of McMinnville is a chapter of the National Association of Junior Auxiliaries. We are a group of women, here in McMinnville, who do our part to make a lasting difference in our community by meeting the needs of the citizens, especially the children. Our organization's slogan is "Care Today - Character Tomorrow"...along the same lines of the "Teach a Man to Fish" school of thinking.


We believe that we can make a difference in Warren County and we participate and host several service projects in the community; from the fun and family friendly Christmas in the Park, which has become a community tradition; to Coats for the Community, a project in which we collect donated coats and winter weather items from all over Warren County and then set up at the Mall in the autumn in order to give out the coats free to families and individuals who need them. We also host the Junior Miss Warren County Pageant in April and the Snow Princess Pageants in February, as well as several other fundraising projects in order to raise money to support all the service that we do for Warren County!

It's a great group that I'm so proud to be involved with. I wouldn't be a good PR chair if I didn't invite you to check out our new blog, to find out more about this club that does so much for the community, to make suggestions or comments that you think might be helpful to us, to find out more about maybe joining the club, or to donate if you feel so moved (monetary donations are great; but we also take coats for our Coats for the Community project, Books for our J.A. Book Drive, school supplies for our Pencil Pals project, etc.).

Here's the address: www.jaofmcminnville.blogspot.com

Annual Education Conference

I'm finally getting a chance to chill out and relax after a busy weekend at the National Association of Junior Auxiliaries' Annual Education Conference in Birmingham, Alabama. We had a lot of fun and got to meet lots of women from all over the south who are extremely dedicated to Junior Auxiliary's cause. We also got to attend several meetings, seminars, talks and workshops designed to inspire us and help us learn to do our jobs as J.A. volunteers even better. We came back from the conference with so many great ideas...I can't wait to start acting on those ideas! My camera was dead part of the time...and we stayed busy so much that I often forgot to take pictures...but here are just a few that I remembered to take...

[This is me and my roomie Kristi...I'm pretty much an only child (my brother is 16 years older than me) so I don't share a room well...I'm so glad I had Kristi in my room because she made me so comfortable and didn't mind my only child room sharing habits...or lack thereof. We talked a lot though and I'm glad that I got to know her a little better. I can't wait to work with her on some of the projects we discussed.]

[I'm amazed that Shauna got to come along on the trip. She's one of those supermoms that I admire...and on top of that she is very involved in the community and she's an amazing nurse that got nominated for two awards at River Park Hospital this weekend but missed the ceremony to be with us at the conference...(not to mention she looks like a supermodel...see the picture)! She was also one of the drivers that got us to Birmingham...Thank you Shauna!]

[Brooke, Cole and our 2008-2009 J.A. President Natalie on their way to the parking garage to go home...we all missed our families after two and a half days so we were really ready to head out. ]

[This is our row during one of the meetings...Jaime caught me trying to get a candid pic...]

Oh...and for my Ashley's Attic connection; I was on my feet the whole weekend and what do you think I had on them? Crocs, of course...I wore my black Alices the ENTIRE TIME! They are super comfortable and allowed me to go from casual to business casual to after-five-cocktail dressy without having to change to a different style shoe...pretty cool for one pair of shoes, eh? They're my favorites, seriously...if you haven't tried a pair of the Alice, you really need to get into the shop and let us fix you up with a pair!

The Women's and Children's Health and Wellness Fair

Every year, this day of health screenings, give-aways, spring fashion and good old fashioned family fun is held at the Three Star Mall. It is sponsored by Riverpark Hospital and I think they really really out-did themselves with this year's event! The crowd was huge and there were lots of vendors there to keep them entertained! Right behind our booth there were a bunch of bunch of really cool video games that the mall had moved in just for today...all the kids (two pictured above...haha) had fun spending their quarters on!

I set up a booth for the shop, of course, where I showed off the new spring Crocs and did a little bit of advertising. It's good sometimes to go somewhere else and show off the merchandise when we get the chance!

Junior Auxiliary also had a booth right next to mine, which was super-convenient; I could work at both of them! I want to thank Caitlin McClain, our newly-crowned Junior Miss Warren County for coming out today to represent JA. She was beautiful and so good with all the little kids who wanted to talk to "the princess"! She really really made us look good! I can't wait to work with her more this year!

Ashley's Attic was also involved in the Spring Fashion Show. Miss Emily Hobbs organized it this year (I've done it for the past 5 years or so) and she did a WONDERFUL job. I was so excited to actually get to watch it a little bit this year. I think she ran it a little more smoothly than I ever could...maybe she just commands more obedience in the little kids running all over the place than I can! Brandi Mansfield over at Dream Custom Artwork emceed the fashion show and she was really good under pressure...things did get just a little crazy up there, as it always is with a big group of people!

Our models were wonderful...Chalee, Alyssa, Aliza, Kora, RheaLee, Bralyn, Chelsey, Tori, Lauren and Caitlin. Thanks to all of them for being so great and their mommies and daddies and grandparents for helping me out so much today!

Here are a few pictures from the day...

Queens for a Cure, my other group, also had a booth set up. Miss Paula Wanamaker was holding a bake sale and even though I didn't get to go over there and help out; I did buy some cupcakes...her banana bread cupcakes with honey cinnamon icing were AWESOME...Oh Goodness! Chalee and I both love love love loved them! The proof is here in the following picture...Chalee was "saving some for later" on her chin I think!

Healing Hearts

In the past year Junior Auxiliary has begun helping out the organization Healing Hearts of Tennessee. Healing Hearts is a service organization that has a headquarters in McMinnville. They provide counseling and other forms of therapy to individuals as well as entire families in order to help them get through major traumas and other life-altering changes. You can read more about them here on their website. They are a group of people who really really care about what they're doing and the services that they provide to our community.
We at J.A. have been trying to help them out in small ways; some of our ladies and their husbands have taken training sessions to become mentors for the children that come through Healing Hearts' doors, some have offered up other services to help out, and the club as a whole has been raising money with some of our finance projects' money going directly towards Healing Hearts. While we are trying to do our parts and I'm sure that many other individuals and groups have been helping out in their own ways, it has become apparent that the organization needs much much more help. Our Junior Auxiliary president, Susan Burks, brought to the rest our attention in an email today; an article in Sunday's Southern Standard about Healing Hearts' funding problems.
I just thought I would do a quick post to let those of you who might not read the Standard know about this...maybe you can help or know someone who can help...I'm sure they'll accept any form of service that you have to offer.
Thanks.

After Snow Princess

Well, it's over! The pageant was tonight and most everyone I talked to after the fact talked like they enjoyed themselves! I think the girls were really enjoying themselves too...I heard them backstage singing along to Hannah Montana and High School Musical DVDs! The pictures I have posted are from rehearsal last night...above is our President, Susan Burks and Vice President, Natalie Miller as they were getting some last minute details figured out.

Caroline Scott, pictured below, provided our entertainment for the night. This picture is from when she was rehearsing last night....her outfit tonight was great though, go over to Tonya Scott's blog; maybe in a couple of days she'll have pictures posted! She looked like an eighties pop singer in her gold jacket, poufy skirt and big gold earrings....it was great! The Scott family shops at the store alot and we just love Caroline and her little brother Andrew. Tonya did a great job with those kids; they are polite, talented and just so smart!
Here are a few of the Miss Snow Princess contestants last night at rehearsal. They were waiting for their turn onstage and as boring as rehearsals usually are; don't they look like they're having a ball? The girls were hilarious though. I learned alot of things from the girls tonight...apparently, I am too old to like Hannah Montana's show or music (AM NOT! I definatley don't think so! I think she's great!), I look like Belle from Beauty and the Beast and I really really deserve a tiara (the tiara thing was my idea, but they all agreed!). They were all great and so beautiful tonight. I am very proud of each and every one of them!

Congratulations to Elena Holder, who won the title of Little Miss Snow Princess 2008 and to Madison Taylor, who was named Miss Snow Princess 2008!

Snow Princess

I just want to remind everyone one more time about Saturday night's Snow Princess Pageants.

Junior Auxiliary is hosting this event and ALL of the proceeds go towards our service projects that we sponsor throughout the year. For those of you not familiar with J.A., go visit the National Junior Auxiliary Website or call me and I can tell you anything you want to know. In a nutshell though, we help out in the community through many service projects as well as working on a case by case basis with families in need. We are completely devoted to our service work, especially when it comes to children in our community. By supporting our finance projects, like the Snow Princess Pageants, you are supporting our service efforts.

The pageants begin at 5:00 and are being held at the McMinnville Civic Center. It will be alot of fun and the girls are sooo cute and pretty!

Come on out...what could be better on a Saturday night than supporting a good cause and getting some entertainment in the process?

Snow Princess Pageant Update

Please pass the word along about this...

The application deadline for the Snow Princess Pageant has been extended to January 28th! We know that there are a lot of people out there interested in the pageant that just haven't gotten around to picking up or sending in their applications!

We will also be holding a parent meeting for those of you who might have questions about the pageant or if anyone has a last minute application to turn in! The meeting will be held at 5:30 on the 28th at the Administration building on Locust Street in the Magnolia Room.

Let me just say again how great I think this pageant is; I really think that this is a good pageant to get your little girl started in the pageant circuit!
This pageant is all about celebrating the individual beauty of each little girl.
Of course there are the regular pageant winners, but unlike a lot of pageants, every single girl gets a tiara! We really want them to have fun, to feel beautiful and to really know how unique they really are!

The Snow Princess Pageants

As most of you know, I am a member of McMinnville's Junior Auxiliary Club. Next month we will be holding our annual Snow Princess Pageants at the McMinnville Civic Center. It will be on Saturday, February 9 at 5pm.

These are a couple of great pageants and all of the proceeds from them go back into our organization so that we can provide different services to the families in our community with a special emphasis on the Children of Warren County.

The Little Miss Snow Princess is for girls, ages 5-7 and the Miss Snow Princess Pageant is for girls, ages 8-10. We are only accepting the first 50 girls entered in each pageant so that the pageant won't go on all night!

I have applications here at the store and they are going fast!

I am also in charge of getting the prizes and programs together for the pageants, so if any of you readers know anyone or you yourself would be interested in either: donating something to the prize baskets (there are 14 in all!),

or advertising in the program, just let me know...email me or call the shop! Anything at all would help us out...because every penny that doesn't come out of the pageant budget goes towards our service projects!

The prices for advertising are $25 for a half-page ad and $50 for a full page ad...a full page ad also comes with 2 reserved tickets to the pageant and is a great option for family members or sponsors interested in a "good luck" ad for their contestant!