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Foster Care: The Altrusa International of Laconia and Altrusa International of Meredith New Hampshire clubs have joined together to create an ongoing community service project assisting Foster Care children and families in Belknap County. Last month we donated several dozen back packs filled with essential school supplies to be distributed to foster children. This past June we helped host a Foster Care Family day at a camp in Bristol with a BBQ, games, swimming and ice cream. We continue to supply Emergency Foster Care Packs to Belknap County’s Foster/Adoptive Parent Association. The packs contain comfort and personal items for children transitioning into foster care and encompass young school age children through high school. We continue to look for new ways to help support Foster Care families in our area.
For more
information on National Foster Care Month visit the National site www.fostercaremonth.org
or locally at www.nhfapa.org.
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Presenting the packs (from left to right): Jodi Wilson, Ceil Andrews, Shawn Hamel, Hilda Schmidt, Sue Clauson, Shirley Mento and Sharon Shetler.
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Adopt-A-Spot:
Each year Altrusa assists the city of
Laconia
with beautifying their streets. The
club plants flowers in a large
wooden planter in front of a local business.
This improves the beauty of the street and lets residence and
visitors alike enjoy the colorful city streets.
The Adopt-A-Spot program has
been in existence for 13 years and Altrusa of Laconia is proud
to say we have been involved since the beginning!
If you would like more
information on this program, please contact Marie Bradley (City
Of Laconia) at 527-1270. |
Belknap
County
Nursing Home: Altrusa
is proud to say that for more than 30 years we have donated money and time
to the Nursing Home to provide monthly Birthday Parties for its residence.
The first Wednesday of each month we visit the home and bring
balloons and Birthday Cards to celebrate those having a Birthday during
that month. In addition our
monetary donation helps the nursing home provide entertainment for the
party. The residences are very appreciative and enjoy our company.
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Hampshire
Humane Society: Altrusa
supports the New Hampshire
Humane Society (www.nhhumane.org)
with monetary support and participation in their annual Woofstock
Walk-a-ton. The animal shelter, located in
Laconia
on
Meredith Center Road, does a wonderful job providing
care and comfort for lost, abandoned,
abused and unwanted animals. They are a no kill shelter,
assuring life to all adoptable animals until such time as a
permanent home is found. Programs currently in place at the
shelter include S.N.A.P (Spay Neuter Assistance Program) - help
for those seeking affordable sterilization services for their
own pets, a veterinary internship program,
micro-chipping and rabies clinics, behavioral
consultation and canine training classes. |
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Literacy:
Altrusa is dedicated to helping people of all ages learn
to read and to open up the wonderful world of books.
We do this in a number of ways throughout the year.
We provide money to a number of local libraries for the
purchase of books. Our
members volunteer to read to children at local libraries as well
as the Head Start Program. We
have purchased books and donated them to the Laconia Adult
Education Program and to other area schools.
In conjunction with the local newspaper, we provide
newspapers to the elementary schools to help with their reading
programs.
Our Literacy programs are very
important to us and we are always looking for new and inventive
ways to help children and adults learn to read and to discover
the joy of reading. |
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Strides Against Breast Cancer:
Altrusa of Laconia proudly supports the annual Making Strides walk in October to support the
fight against Breast Cancer. For more
information visit the Making
Strides Event Page.
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Food
Pantry: Once again
Altrusians answer the call for help. Each
month we collect donations of food, paper products, etc. and they are
given to local Food Pantries.
During the holidays, we adopt a couple of families and provide them
with all the fixings for a wonderful holiday meal.
The
holidays are especially hard for many families in our community. Altrusa tries to provide assistance to the community organizations
that are continually providing these families with many needed items.
We have adopted families whose parent/parents are serving our
country overseas and provided meals, clothing and Christmas presents in
hopes that it will make life a little easier.
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Altrusa
Scholarships: Each
year we award scholarships in the following areas:
Astra
(Senior Graduate)
Dr.
Alice Normandin (Health Care)
Katherine
Daigneault (Business)
Rose
Emery (Education)
Stevens/Normandin
(Athletics)
Pictured
from Left to right are Diane Gaynor, Altrusa member with three 2007
Scholarship recipients; Danielle Pauquette, Dianne Zawacki, Ann Marie
Gauthie and Shirley Mento, Altrusa President.
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If you, or
someone you know, qualifies for any of these scholarships and is
interested in applying, please complete the Scholarship Information
Form and send it to:
Altrusa of
Laconia
PO Box
124
Laconia, NH 03246
Or scan
a completed form and email it to laconiaaltrusa@gmail.com
PLEASE NOTE,
cutoff date for applications is May 15th.
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