Category Archives: Scholarships

The Purpose of My Blog

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

I recently took a free class about blogs from Reedsy, a website that offers professional help to writers.

One of the topics discussed in the online class was the purpose of a blog. While I was reading about this, I realized that I had begun my blog for the purpose of improving my teaching skills; however, now that I’m retired, my focus is on my own writing and my other retirement activities.

The purpose of this post is to explore the current focus of my blog.

Practicing Writing Skills

The biggest focus of my current blog posts is to practice various writing skills.

I am currently exploring the ideas for my second novel so I decided to writing a series of character studies. In each post, a new character finds herself in a different situation. I use distinct character traits to identify her. I choose a unique name and reveal whether she is a child, youth, young adult, or older. I sometimes describe her physical characteristics, especially if they are important to the story.  For example, if she is riding a bicycle, I may describe the strength of her legs.

Since each story is unique, I use specific description to illustration the setting. She may be in a bedroom, on a trail in the country or behind the bar in a night club. In addition to using visual description, I try to add smells and noises to make the setting as vivid as possible. Perhaps, someone has spilled whiskey on the bar or the juke box is blasting out Beatles’ music.

Sharing My Writing Experiences

Since I retired almost three years ago, I have written one novel and over one-hundred blog posts. I also have petitioned several publishers about the publication of my first novel.

Needless to say, I’ve learned a lot in the past three years about my current writing activities. I like to share my experiences so that other writers can benefit from my practice, and so that I can interact with other people who love to write. Writers have so much passion about their work, and that excites me.

When I was writing my first novel, I wrote a post about my experience. You see, I didn’t have much of a clue how this project would go. Maybe I’d write it and find out it was awful. Maybe I’d have to completely rewrite it.

I wrote about telling people about my novel writing. They asked detailed questions. I made no promises. I protected my heart from criticism, but I listened to it as well.

What happened? I actually wrote a novel that is now being considered by a few publishers.

In another post, I wrote about how I evaluated publishers for my first novel. I thought this was important to share with other writers since publishers all have their own missions. Writers waste time if they don’t evaluate which publisher is appropriate for their book.

Sharing My Retirement Experiences

Retirement has turned out well for me because, during the first month, I made a three-part plan of what I wanted to do. The first goal was to write a novel. Second, I wanted to become fluent in a second language, and, third, I wanted to raise money for scholarships for community college and vocational students.

I’ve met so many people in the last three years and I’ve learned that some retired people are happily retired and others are bored. I write blog posts about my retirement experiences to demonstrate how retirement can be a vivacious time of life.

I’ve traveled several times since my retirement, and I’ve written about these trips. Two summers ago, I visited my cousin’s dairy farm in Minnesota. I wrote a blog post about being a “town girl on a dairy farm.” From that same trip, I wrote about how my ancestors came from Kashubia, currently a northern part of Poland. I also wrote about a hike on my great-grandfather’s property, which is now a Minnesota State Park. And I pleased my dozens of cousins when I wrote about how diverse they were.

I joined a philanthropy group named The Alamo Women’s Club since they raise money for college and vocational scholarships. Now, I’m the chair of the AWC Scholarship Committee. I’ve written a blog post about how we awarded eleven scholarships to financially-disadvantaged students in April, 2023. But that’s not all the organization does. We collect coats in the winter for people who need clothing. We assemble food packets for Ukraine refugees in Poland. We sponsor jewelry sales for scholarships. Our activities have provided a host of ideas for my writing blog posts.

Now that I’ve written this post, I’m going to revise my front page to update the purpose of my blog. It’s nice to gain clarity.

Female Philanthropy

Photo taken by Peggy Fleming

This is the story of 69 women who dedicate themselves to improving their community.

Every year, for the last 87 years, the Alamo Women’s Club (AWC) has given scholarships to college-bound students. For the last several years, they have offered $5,000 scholarships to single parents who are attending local community colleges and to students who have been emancipated from the California foster system. They also offer financial-needs scholarships to local high schools, but that topic is for another blog post.

How do they raise money for these scholarships? Well, in creative ways. First of all, every October, AWC hosts an Authors’ Faire to which they invite five to six authors to speak at a catered luncheon. The authors sell more books and AWC makes a profit on the event.

Most importantly, for raising money for scholarships, AWC collaborates with a local senior group to collect unwanted used jewelry, both precious and costume. Four times a year, AWC sponsors jewelry sales to which they invite the public. They’ve raised over $200,000 from these sales so far.

Most of these AWC women are retired, but in no way inactive. The organization has a five-year-plan for growth and an updated website for both members and the public. They attend business meetings one Wednesday a month and social luncheons with speakers for another Wednesday a month.

Most of all, however, these women work hard on philanthropy. The Author’s Faire takes a boatload of women to recruit new authors; choose a venue with great food, sufficient parking, and reliable service; and orchestrate the luncheon. A crew of women set up the jewelry sales. Others help sell it, and another team packs it up for the next event. While they’re working, they discover common interests and develop new friendships.

The AWC Scholarship Committee started its work last September. First, they contacted the Contra Costa community colleges and Youth Homes (for emancipated foster children) to notify them about their scholarships.

The important thing about offering scholarships is getting the information to the students. AWC’s Scholarship Committee worked hard to stay in contact with the counselors of each school and to ensure that students could access the scholarship information on AWC’s and the schools’ websites. For example, as soon as AWC received the first application from Diablo Valley College, they wrote an email to the counselor thanking her for her work. This continued all the way up to the due date.

Meanwhile, the Author’s Faire was a resounding success with over 200 people in attendance, and the jewelry sales earned money bracelet by bracelet.

In March, the Scholarship Committee chose ten single parents and one former foster child to receive $5,000 scholarships. The recipients were chosen for their financial need and their dedication to continuing their college education. Several were nursing majors and the former foster student wants to become a programmer. If they can stay in school despite their financial hardships, they can all become successful.

Immediately, the AWC members started planning the Scholarship Luncheon. One group chose the caterer. Another arranged for the table decorations. A kitchen crew covered the tables with tablecloths and set the China and silverware. A video was developed to honor the Scholarship Committee and the recipients. Finally, a cake was ordered and decorated with the words We Are the Champions!

The Scholarship Committee created and ordered a new banner to hang outside the clubhouse that said Congratulations to our 2023 Scholarship Recipients! They also designed and ordered the programs, arranged for members to greet and escort the scholarship recipients throughout the luncheon, and hosted the presentation of the certificates.

On that special day, over 70 people came together to celebrate boosting the success of students who may not otherwise achieve it. The recipients came with their guests and sat with the AWC members for lunch. They received their certificates and shared their stories. The women were all smiles and the recipients blushed with gratitude.

One of the students stood up to tell her story of single parenting. She ended her speech by saying that, for her, the scholarship was more than just money. It represented support and new friendships, gifts that would last a lot longer than money.

The AWC members nodded their heads. Philanthropy and friendship were natural companions.