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

 

Thank you to everyone who came out last night to meet us and learn more about the Orinda Juniors and what we do! We hope to see you at our next general meeting in October!

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!

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.

One of the favorite events of the year, is the Orinda Juniors annual Mug Exchange and holiday party.  This year, the Orinda Juniors got together and not only exchanged mugs, enjoyed a decadent holiday spread of soups, salads and seasonal treat—we also donated holiday gifts for over 25 children from the Bay Area Crisis Nursery and kicked off a new holiday fundraiser!  Inspired by our November meeting at Amphora, we bottled 142 bottles of specialty olive oils and vinegars, including Basil Olive Oil/White Peach Balsamic Vinegar, Herb Olive Oil/Fig Balsamic Vinegar, and Gold Medal Arbequina Olive Oil.  Once bottled, we labelled and packaged them along with some great recipes and then sold them for holiday gift giving.  Our best fundraiser to date!

Our November meeting was held at Amphora Olive Oil in Lafayette.  We had a fantastic turnout learned more about what makes a great olive oil! We sampled a variety of great salad dressing combos, spicy olives, and decadent blood orange brownies!  We also put the finishing touches on our Youth Ink writing contest!