2024-2025 President's Report

It’s hard to believe a year has passed already.  When I was asked to serve as president, I was of course honored, but I must admit, also a little nervous.  Everyone said don’t worry, everyone does their job and you won’t have to stress about anything.  They were so right!  This group of women gets things done and you don’t have to manage them.  Thank you to the executive committee and committee chairman who worked so diligently.  You did make my job easy. 

We all collectively worked together this year to accomplish many things.  To begin the year, Kathy Feagins held a nice orientation at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum for our new members: Catherine Brillhart, Lisa Cofer, Debbie McMillin, Gena Prince, Suzanne Senter, Martha Wike, and Kristina Willis.  We were happy to welcome these women who have been a great addition to our group.

Some highlights of this past year include the following; 

• Our members volunteered 560 hours of community service at our designated placements that include: Healing Hands, Bristol Faith In Action, YWCA, Birthplace of Country Music Museum, and Appalachian Literacy Initiative. We also volunteered 34 hours at the Second Harvest Food Bank and 64 for the Healing Hands Cupcake Fundraiser for a total of 658 volunteer hours.  No wonder we take the summer off!    Nice Work ladies! 

  
  

• We collected 38 Coats for Kids and $755 in donations.

  
  

• We had 17 BSC members pack 385 Thanksgiving boxes at the Second Harvest Food Bank.

  
  

• Our Blue Stocking Christmas recipient was Crossroads Medical Mission.   Total donations collected for Crossroads were: $7200. In addition, A total of 86 cereal boxes were collected for the Bristol Emergency Food Pantry.

  
  

• Once again BSC participated in the Healing Hands 15th Annual Valentine’s Day Fundraiser, Sweets for the Sweet!  We were a part of Ninety-two volunteers that contributed an incredible 210 hours to help spread joy throughout the community!

  
  

• We collected a trunk full of supplies for the YWCA Tech Gyrls along with $400.

During the year we also had some fabulous community speakers at our meetings.  They included representatives from Crossroads Medical Mission, Appalachian Literacy Initiative, Healing Hands, We Rock the Spectrum and Theatre Bristol.  We also enjoyed our previous archives chairman Anne Steele touring us through our own archive rooms at the Bristol Public library.  Our current chairman Molly Keller also read us exerts from the club minutes from 1921-1930.  The minutes were so interesting and we look forward to hearing more!

We had another wonderful Christmas luncheon this year where 56 members and sustainers attended.  This year the hostesses decided our entertainment would be each other.  I believe we all enjoyed catching up with each other and our sustainers. We also sold copies of our BSC cookbook that was reprinted this year thanks to Meredith Massie.

We had the privilege of nominating Lea Powers for Bristol YWCA Tribute to Women. Lea has served in leadership roles for various organizations over the years and proven to be a strong leader and dedicated to the Bristol community. She was a wonderful candidate representing our group.

Tracey Harmon and her community service committee, along with coordinating our volunteer activities, created a new member survey and reported the results that indicated member interest in exploring other volunteer placements and a possible volunteer placement rotation. The survey also favored defining target areas and offering group activities that might serve as a meeting. Thank you to Tracey and her committee for a year of extra effort and initiating possible change.

We were saddened by the passing of two of our sustainers Nora Rockett and Peggy King.  With reluctance we accepted the resignations from Anne Steele, Debbie Gwaltney, Carol Everhart, Becky Smith and Karen Vann but we look forward to seeing them as sustainers.

We ended the year with a salad luncheon before the meeting where sustainers were invited to attend. I thank Lee Hull and her special events committee for helping us wind up the year in a lovely way.     

It has been and Honor and privilege to work with so many amazingly talented, giving women whom I admire and am blessed to call my friends. I will end the year with this last thought:

When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you'll never get back. Your time is your life. That is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time.

Submitted with love and gratitude for each of you:

Andrea L. Ford, 2024-2025 President