One of our local philanthropies, Habitot, enlisted the Juniors to help make ‘sugar skulls’ for use at their annual Halloween party for underprivileged children. Members, both old and new, got busy and made a fun evening of it!

We had a great turn-out at our open house this fall and are pleased to welcome many new members to the Orinda Juniors.  Please welcome:

  • Charlene Stratton
  • Natalie Vansant
  • Susan Glynn
  • Roxanne Christophe
  • Kristiana Tom
  • Erin Mitchell
  • Camille Andrews
  • Preethy Kalra
  • Keri Nakamura Ouye
  • Ritu Goel
  • Kara Dille

 

The Orinda Juniors had a great time together baking for the annual holiday gathering of the Pediatric/HIV patients and families at Children’s Hospital Oakland.

Following the delivery of over twenty dozen cookies and treats, we received a wonderful thank you from the organization:

Amy and ALL the wonderful cookie makers from Orinda Juniors:
I am sending a heartfelt THANK YOU from the whole Pediatric HIV team at Children’s Hospital for the beautiful array of decorated holiday cookie platters! What an abundance of goodies for our patients and families to enjoy on Saturday.  We are so grateful for community involvement in helping to make this season bright for our families.  They enjoyed crafts, entertainment, lunch and COOKIES before meeting Santa.  What a great way to top off the party.
Thank you again
Ann Petru, Teresa Courville and Julie Haining
Pediatric HIV/AIDS Program

We are so excited to have had Gina Moreland, Founder and Executive Director of Habitot Children’s Museum join us at our November meeting.  A core part of Habitot’s mission is to benefit as broad an audience of families raising young children as possible.  As such, the organization partners with non-profits and social service agencies to reach and serve the following: children with special needs and their families, homeless families, LBGTQ families, teen parent families, low-income/immigrant caregivers, foster/adoptive families, families on the path to reunification.  We were able to help by stuffing favor bags for the birthday parties for homeless children that they offer.

Habitot is looking for support in so many ways, especially as it continues its efforts to raise money to move to a larger space.  We appreciate you reaching out to anyone you may know who may be interested in learning more.  Learn more about Habitat online!

On Friday, October 26, several Orinda Juniors and their young ghosts and goblins visited the Orinda Senior Village for a frightfully fun small parade inside their dining area. The children, dressed in their Halloween best, passed out the pumpkins that the Orinda Juniors decorated in our October general meeting. They (and their Orinda Juniors moms) enjoyed some delicious cookies and lemonade afterwards, and received a lot of festive applause as we departed. Once again, it was a nice visit to help spread some joy to the residents and their visiting families at the Orinda Senior Village.

Each year the Orinda Juniors donate supplies and a night of food and fun to children staying at the STAND! shelter for women and children facing domestic violence. This year, we brought them pizzas, salads and cupcakes for dinner; as well as comforters, shampoos and other beauty products. The highlight of the event was the Lawrence Hall of Science who brought an assortment of animals for the children to pet and learn more about. The kids had fun and even many of the moms had a good time. It was so nice to see them having fun and sharing lots of laughter.

 

The Orinda Junior Women’s Club had a wonderful holiday celebration last night! We collected a mountain of gifts for children at the Bay Area Crisis Nursery, packaged and sold olive oil gift sets for our holiday fundraiser, hosted our annual holiday mug exchange, dined on a wonderful potluck feast, and best of all had a fastastic evening enjoying each other’s company!

The Orinda Juniors came together with all of their costumed kiddos and decorated pumpkins to bring a bit of Halloween spirit to the residents at the Orinda Village Senior Center.

Special thanks to Brigitte Meagher for corralling the little kids and making sure they got those pumpkins out. The kids were adorable, and the residents were lovely. We had all the superheroes represented, along with StormTroopers, GameBoys, ninjas, Steph Curry a few butterflies, the best snail costume ever and many more.
The pumpkin centerpieces stood the test of time (storage), and the kids loved the cookies and M&Ms.

Thanks also to our new members who attended along with their adorable kiddos. The Senior Village really was appreciative of the effort, and their Friday night dinner was off to a great start as we filed out.

The Orinda Juniors were pleased to put together a wonderful Easter dinner for the staff and families staying at the Bruins Hospice House.  Several Juniors and their families delivered the dinner on behalf of the group and received a wonderful thank you from the staff.