J U N E 2 0 1 8 the Welcome Mat Presidents Message Happy Summer!!! Carol Figueroa What a wonderful club year we have had!! It s been busy with many different events from Recipe Swap to holding Ways and Means fundraisers for our charitable fund. We hope to host a few events over the summer months - going to the movies, go hiking to beach visits!! Please feel free to send out an evite if you want to organize a one-time event. Please reach out to the 2 nd VP for assistance in setting up an evite. Coming up at this month s board meeting, the board will be voting on where we will be donating the monies from our charitable fund. At this time, I don t have the final dollar amount to be donated but we are hoping for input from the membership for suggestions for the donations. You can send your suggestion to info@merrimackfriendsfamilies.org by Monday, June 4 th. Later this month I will send out an email to inform you of the organizations that will receive a donation. I hope you have a fantastic summer. See you in September Carol
First Vice President We are celebrating the club year by hosting a year end bowling event on Friday, June 22 nd at 7:00 pm. Please join us at the Merrimack Ten Pin on DW Highway. The fee to participate will be $13.25. The total cost is $26.50 and the club has budgeted to cover half the cost for all participants. This fee includes 2 hours of bowling, shoe rental along with appetizers and sliders. We hope you can join us this evening. It will be lots of fun!! Please be sure to RSPV by Tuesday, June 19 th and pay the fee at https://squareup.com/store/mff/item/end-of-year-bowling-party Second Vice President Barb Amaral The social aspect of the club is run by the interest groups leaders. Please consider stepping up and running one of our groups next year. These events are a great way for our membership to get together. Also, if you would like to run a one-time event in July or August please let me know so that I can put it on the calendar. If you need assistance with Evite please let me know. Have a good summer. Secretary Jill Mitchell Though we tend to take the summers off in terms of most club activities, please let me know if you know of any club member that could use our support with meals, rides, or any other assistance that a friend might provide. Just because it s warm outside doesn t mean we can t help each other out in a time of need. Even if that person does not require any assistance, we at least would like to reach out and let them know we are thinking of them. As they say, If you see something, say something. Otherwise, we ll never be able to help out our extended family. Have a wonderful summer! Jill Mitchell 2
Ways and Means Beth Milliken Our May yard sale was a big success!! Even though the road was closed for a bit, so we had a full hour where people couldn't get to us, along with the weather forecast, we still had a great day! We raised just over $1,550.00 for our charitable fund!! Thank you so much to everyone that donated items, picked up donations, stored donations, donated tables, tarps, tents, and baked goods. Thank you also so much to everyone that donated their time to help setup, work the sale, and help cleanup. We couldn't have raised this money for our town without you!! I also want to add a thank you to Ski Haus/Patio Place in Salem, NH and Burlington, MA for donating the clothing racks that enabled us to hang the clothing to make it easier for people to see the items and shop. Service Julie Akers and Bev Coelho Thank you to everyone who volunteered this year! You guys are the best! You kept the road to the dump looking beautiful, filled Christmas stockings for soldiers, created Easter baskets for Merrimack children who would otherwise go without, donated school supplies to children in need, painted walls at the food pantry and did many more important and appreciated good deeds. Our next big Community Service project is filling backpacks for the Merrimack welfare department. Watch for an evite and list of needed supplies in August. Happy Birthday!! Kara Pitcher 06/04 Rose Shajenko 07/21 Katie Bowler 06/08 Wilma Cunningham 07/26 Beth Milliken 06/12 Kathryn Segreti 07/27 Jill Mitchell 06/12 Ginny Savarese 07/31 Nancy Morin 06/17 Gretchen Ricks 08/08 Julie Akers 07/06 Eileen Herring 08/12 Bev Coelho 07/08 Amanda Reichert 08/14 Jessica England 07/18 Stephanie Wunderlich 08/27 Vivian Dano 07/20 Carol Figueroa 08/29 3
Membership Dawn LeGay Publicity Nicole Castronovo We will be putting out our year end directory. If any of your information such as address, phone number, etc. has changed in the past year, please email the correct info to dawnlegay@comcast.net Please submit any MFF event photos/info to publicity@merrimackfriendsfamilies.org so that it can be posted on our Facebook page. 4
Interest Group Happenings Book Club Our meeting last month was the well anticipated ice cream social at Carol Angle s house. We want to thank her for opening her lovely house to us. Her ice cream table was picture perfect. She took great care in planning this meeting and providing each member of book club with an etched wine glass that included the MFF logo and a mini bottle of wine. During the meeting we had an interesting discussion of Nutshell by Ian McEwan. It was not everyone s cup of tea but it did lend itself to a good discussion. The book had an outrageous premise, and as such, could not be taken seriously. The author s intention was for the book to be humorous. For our last Book Club meeting before the summer, we will be reading The Shortest Way Home by Fay Juliette. This author is a friend of one of our Book Club members. Watch for the evite for more information. We are taking suggestions for future Book Club selections. Email me with any recommendations at evdano@comcast.net MFF Fitness Friends MFF Fitness Friends will participate in the Hollis Fast 5K which is coming up real soon on Thursday, June 14 th. It is a fun, easy (mostly downhill) 5k. You can sign up as a walker or runner and our team name is MFF Fun Runners. For more information about the race please see their website: http://hollisfast5k.com/therace.htm. Please also RSVP on the EVITE. We hope to plan some hikes during the summer months. Keep an eye out for the Evites!! 5
Secret Sisters Hello, Secret Sisters! What a wonderful year we had. I d like to thank all of you that participated this year. It was so much fun, and so rewarding. I hope you all plan to do it again next year! This month, you have the opportunity to send a small thank you gift to the wonderful woman who has been surprising you each month since October, now that you know who she is! Again, thank you for your participation. I hope you all have an amazing summer, and we ll see you in September! Regards, Jill Mitchell Community Partners 6