Fathers and daughters, grandfathers and granddaughters, and uncles and nieces enjoy a magical afternoon at the annual Butterfly Kisses Father Daughter Dance at the Cedar Rapids Country Club.

Girls will experience a memorable time with their favorite guy as they dance, make crafts, enjoy face painting, and doll up with hair accessories from Kathleen Rose Designs.

This year’s event will be held on Sunday, January 29th 2012 from 1:00-4:00pm at Cedar Rapids Country Club. Ticket prices are $75.00 per couple, and $15.00 for each additional daughter. Three raffle tickets are included with each ticket. Purchase tickets by January 11 and receive three additional raffle tickets.

Features include a raffle for American Girl Giveaway, a Glitz and Glam Station by Mary Kay, 5×7 portrait of father/daughter by Randie Jayne, Red Curtain Photobooth, Papa Balloon, light luncheon, take home gifts, raffle for prizes, cupcakes, corsages, Valentine’s Day crafts, silent auction, and more!

Tickets can be purchased online or by contacting the JLCR office.

Butterfly Kisses Tickets

Father and Daughter $75.00 USD Father and 2 Daughters $90.00 USD Father and 3 Daughters $105.00 USD

Please tell us how you learned about this year’s event:

Website Email Paper Flyer Media Word of Mouth

Name and Phone Number:

Funds raised from the event go toward Junior League projects.

Hope to see you there!

Members from AMP (Achieving Maximim Potential) spoke to the JLCR chapter on Tuesday, November 8th 2011. AMP is a youth-driven, statewide group that seeks to unleash the full potential for personal growth among foster/adoptive and kinship children in Iowa. AMP offers leadership opportunities, service learning projects, speaking opportunities, and educational/vocational assistance. AMP also provides the life skills youth need to become self-sufficient, independent adults.  AMP involves young people as advocates for themselves and as a voice for system-level improvements in child welfare policies and practices.

AMP members are ages 13 and up who have been involved in foster care, adoption, or other out-of-home placements. AMP youth gain many strengths and life skills to carry throughout their years. They train to become advocates for themselves and others, participate in valuable leadership opportunities, educate legislatures, foster parents, the public, child welfare professionals and juvenile court representatives about foster care and adoption from the youth perspective- to name a few.

AMP’s goal is to help foster youth to become independent adults who can successfully educate others about the child welfare system and take an active role in making life better for themselves and others in state care. Please visit their website at www.ampiowa.org to learn more about AMP, and to find locations and times for local council meetings.

Each year about 29,000 young people “age out” of foster care without permament families. These young people face problems with school attendence and performance, substance abuse, financial literacy, teen pregnancy, homelessness, and juvenile deliquency.  Senator Grassley helped to pass the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008. This law gives the states an option to extend support for youth remaining in care to age 21, provided they are still in school, working, or otherwise preparing for work.

It is both JLCR’s goal, with Bridging the G.A.P., and Senator’s Grassley’s goal, to provide support to those aging out of the foster care system.

Please visit http://juniorleaguecr.org/support-jlcr/make-a-gift/ to help fill suitcases and support this important project.

A CASA is a trained citizen who is appointed by a judge to represent the best interests of a child in court. Children helped by CASA volunteers include those for whom home placement is being determined in juvenile court. Most of the children are victims of abuse and neglect.

A CASA volunteer provides a judge with carefully researched background details about the child to help the court make a sound decision about that child’s future. Each home placement case is as unique as teh child involved. The CASA volunteer must determine if the best interest of the child is staying with their parents or guardians, being placed in foster care, or being freed for permanent adoption. The CASA volunteer makes a recommendation on placement to the judge and follow through on the case until it is permanently resolved.

National CASA requires that volunteers complete 30 hours of training before being sworn in as a child advocate. The CASA program provides volunteers with training on the child welfare system in Iowa, and the CASA roles of investigator, liaison, and monitor. The first stage of training is the Foundations training, which is 21 hours.  Training is generally scheduled from 1:00pm-9:00pm on a Thursday, and 8:00am-5:00pm that Friday and Saturday. Please note that an interview must first be completed before you can enroll in any training.

During the second stage of training, the Program Coordinators meet with prospective volunteers for a three-hour training to cover the final chapters of the manual, exclusive to the CASA’s. The training covers communicating as a CASA volunteer, how the Juvenile Court process works in the area, getting started on a case, writing reports to teh Court, testifying and monitoring the case on an ongoing basis. The six remaining hours of training are completed in a variety of ways- spending time with the Foster Care Review Board, attending Court, reading on your own, online at casaforchildren.org website, or a combination of these options.

Upon completion of all training hours, a CASA volunteer is sworn into the role by a Judge. CASAs are assigned to a case per Court Order, and accept a case by signing an acceptance that is notarized by the Court. Once appointed to a case, the CASA volunteer becomes a legal interested party to the child(ren)’s Court involvement. The CASA acts as the “eyes and ears of the Judge” and reports to the Court regarding what is in the child’s best interest.

If you are interested in becoming a CASA you will need to complete an application and return to Jennifer Slife as soon as possible. You may visit CASA’s website at https://childadvocacy.iowa.gov/ (CASA’s state website) and at www.casaforchildren.org/ (the National CASA website).

To fill this important need in the community, JLCR announces its new project: Bridging the G.A.P.- Guide, Advocate, and Provide. JLCR will be filling suitcases with items necessary to live independently such as bedding, pots and pans, and cleaning supplies. The project will also partner JLCR with AMP (Achieving Maximum Potential), a program that empowers young adults by supporting the development of life skills.

A complete suitcase costs over $250, but even a $5 donation can help purchase essential items that many of us take for granted. Examples are listed below:

Dishwashing supplies (detergent, towels, brush):                           $5
Personal care (tweezers, first aid kit):                                                  $10
Laundry supplies (detergent, laundry bag, quarters):                       $20
Dishes (plates, cups, silverware):                                                        $25
Bedding (blankets, sheets, pillowcases):                                           $45

Please visit http://juniorleaguecr.org/support-jlcr/make-a-gift/ to help fill the suitcases and support this important project.

Photo by Ernesto JT

New Member Retreat
Time: 5:30-9:30
When: Thursday, October 6th

Where: Guaranty Bank Community Room, 300 80th St Court, Fairfax

Please contact Laurie Wahlert at lwahlert@guarantybank.com or Nikki Lee at nalee@aegonusa.com with any questions.

Once again, Titan International and Junior League of Cedar Rapids (JLCR) are delighted to bring the LPGA Futures Tour to the greater Cedar Rapids area. For the third year, the Ladies Titan Tire Challenge will be held in Marion, Iowa at Hunters Ridge Golf Course.  May 31st – June 5th.

Hosted by Junior League of Cedar Rapids with the Cedar Rapids Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, the exciting week will feature a junior clinic, adult clinic and Pro-Am events, and will culminate with three days of tournament play.

We need your help! Tournament volunteers fill roles such as cart drivers, real-time scorers, parking/main gate attendants and more. We need hundreds of volunteers to make this event a success. The tournament dates are June 3rd, 4th and 5th. Volunteers are needed during the three days of tournament play.

Visit TitanTireChallenge.com/Volunteer.html to register online or email Volunteer Chair Tracey Thomas volunteer(at)titantirechallenge.com.

There is a $30.00 fee to volunteer for this professional event. You are provided with a tournament dry fit golf shirt, complimentary food and beverages during your shift and a one day tournament pass. Shirt pick up will be done at the event when you check in.

The Ladies Titan Tire Challenge is one of 17 tournaments on the LPGA’s Developmental Tour—the LPGA Futures Tour. We invite everyone to experience the excitement that only an event of this caliber can provide. Players on this Tour hail from 31 countries around the world and they bring with them impressive credentials and great success in previous levels of play. They are very simply the best young professional golfers in the world and they represent the next generation of LPGA players!

Learn more by visiting TitanTireChallenge.com and LPGAFuturesTour.com

Thank you so much for your participation! We look forward to seeing you at the event!

You’ll be able to catch the interview on Mediacom’s MC22 channel during the month of May.

Nice job Karen!

1. The President doesn’t have all the answers.
   What?! Yes, it’s true.  We can quote bylaws, provide chocolate, and prepare tight agendas, but at the end of the day we put on our mascara just like you do.
2. Always be prepared for the good and the bad.
   Just when you think you know exactly what’s going to happen, it doesn’t. Leave time to correct mistakes. Be prepared for anything to go wrong, and for good to come where you least expect it. Such an attitude changes your overall perspective.
3. Falling on your sword doesn’t hurt as much as you might think.
   A good leader must know when it’s time to take responsibility for things that are (or are not) broken.  Develop an ability to see reality (even if unflattering and distasteful) before someone questions your intentions.
4. Humility is attractive.
   Of all the virtues most prized, it is humility that is most attractive.  There’s something beautiful about a woman who can say, “You’re right, I’m wrong. Let’s work together to make it better.”
5. Nobody is perfect.
   The sooner we ALL learn this lesson, the better the world will be—and for sure, JLCR.  Give grace freely, ladies.
6. Listening is not over rated.
   God knew what He was doing when he gave us one mouth and two ears.  I have learned more this year by listening than by doing, talking, discussing, or analyzing combined.
7. Take a break.
   JLCR is a volunteer organization.  There are times when the only way you can re-charge your passion for our mission is to turn off your email notifications, log out of Facebook and go to the pool.  I found it provided me with the perspective, distance, and calm necessary to make decisions that would best serve League for years to come.
8. Questions are a good thing.
   It has been said: the only dumb question is the one not asked. Embrace League as a place you can learn, question, and grow as a woman.  It’s amazing what I have learned by not being afraid to ask questions myself, or ask one of you, “Do you have any questions?”
9. Surround yourself with women better than yourself.
   The 2010-11 Board nominating slated to work with me was amazing. I was routinely humbled by their thoughtfulness, dedication, and commitment to fixing problems and applauding success.
10. Give credit where credit is due.
    Like I say to my son, always say “thank you.” Nobody likes to work hard and have another squeeze in at the last minute to steal or share in the success crafted by others. And I greatly thank all of you for a tremendous year.

It has been my honor and my privilege to serve you this year.

Kari, my shoes are off … jump on in!  :)

Hugs,
K

Photo by hellojenu