It is not simple to summarize a Soroptimist year in two or three paragraphs; there are so many great meetings and events that I would not want to leave anything out. But for the sake of the space, I would highlight some for those of you who missed them:

October 28, 2006 - Chocolate Wine & Jazz festival: Another great year for our only fundraising event, we net over $30,000 which allowed us to help many women and girls in our community. Congratulations to Debbie Miller and her committee for a job well done!

December 13, 2006 - Holiday Luncheon: this year at Sylvia Fleming's beautiful home. Every year this event brings us together even more and this year was not different, with the ornament exchange, the excellent food and that Holiday spirit on the air that always brings smiles to our faces.

February 28, 2007 - SI Corona 60^th birthday:  the theme "Diamonds are a girl's best friend". What a celebration! Shelly Davis did an awesome job planning and preparing this event, we gathered at Villa Amalfi with regular and life members, and those who attended witnessed a couple of hours of reminiscence from some of the life members. The gorgeous flower arrangements came from Dana Prechtl at City Florist of Norco, and we all came home with a beautiful souvenir "diamond" to make us remember of this unforgettable day.

 To view photos of our 60th Birthday celebration, please click this link.

March 3, 2007 - (S.O.S.) Dreams & Decisions: We commend Mary Aguilar and her committee for the innovation and the great program they implemented this year. The theme this year was "Be a Role Model". The girls were invited to participate in a fashion show which it was one of the motivations to get them in on a Saturday. Also three workshops took place: "Taking Good Care of Me", "Relationships" and "My Space" all of them given by experts in those fields. We had close to 300 girls attended the workshop.

March 28, 2007 - Making a Difference for Women and Women Helping Women Awards Luncheon: Co-Chairs Jean Easum and Karen Spiegel organized this event and they did a great job selecting and surprising all these deserving awardees. This luncheon was so full of emotion, tears, laughs, and love, Isn't that what we are all about? "Women helping women."

May 23, 2007 -Scholarship & Violet Richardson Award Luncheon: Seema Lechner chaired the High School Scholarship Awards, Sylvia Fleming the Intermediate Scholarship Awards and Tracy Mauser and Linda Holmes Co-chaired the VRA. Again, more emotion in the room, the tears running with the stories of these teens that deserve a hand to help them continue with their education. The excellent planning, the presenters, the counselors and especiallythe students made this event another signature from our club.

Lastly, let's include in this successful year of service, all the volunteers who dedicate the time, the skills, and the efforts for all of these events to happen. Thank you all, SI Corona members for your dedication and love to help women and girls and to make of Soroptimist the "Best for Women"

By:

Marcy Decato

SI Corona - President Elect 2007-2008

This year president Shawn Dredla started a beautiful tradition to offer a rose, a flower, a card, or something to thank a member who made a difference for one of us during that particular week. This corner of the newsletter will be dedicated every month to our club's roses, so keep track of whom you have honored and why you did it. We want everyone to know why we are so special!!!

From Jane Lavin:

I have given roses this year President Shawn and President Elect Marcy Decato for doing such an awesome job and being so passionate.

I gave a rose to Mary Aguilar because of her efforts prior to dreams and decisions. 

I gave roses to Denise Hammer because she was so responsible for me continuing in club and has always been warm true friend.

I gave roses to Deb Miller because she handles so much and I just don't get how she does it!

From Marcy Decato:

I honored my CWJ Marketing Committee (Cyndi Monroe, Laurie LoFranco and Paola Ringer) for helping me put together and economic and effective campaign.

I brought chocolate bars to the Nomination Committee (Debora Murphy and Debbie Miller) for helping me with such big responsibility of selecting the upcoming slate of officers.

I gave a rose to Frances Armenta for hosting one of our meetings giving us all kinds of make up tips and colors that go with our skin tones.

Every issue will feature a Life Member and a Regular Member. Please make sure to submit your bio and photo for our library.

Life Member:

Marsha Calvert:

Marceline "Marsha" Calvert, who rose from the poverty of the Depression in Los Angeles to become the matriarch of a Corona business and political family.   She was born on December 22, 1927 in Los Angeles, CA. where she spent her childhood and attended local schools. Her family's home was in the back of a barbershop on the main road to Los Angeles International Airport. She attended nursing school in Los Angeles during World War II, expecting to join the Army. The war ended, and she ended up being a nurse in Hemet. That's where she met Ira Calvert, who had a rock and sand business in Idyllwild. They married in 1949. They moved to Corona in 1953 and had three sons, Craig, 57, of Sandy, Ore., and Quint, 57, and Ken, 53, both of Corona. They are all graduates of the Corona Norco School District and all graduated from college. Quint recently retired from teaching at Corona High School. While raising their children, the Calverts established family businesses in Corona and opened the Corona Bowl and Jolly Fox Restaurant.  Marsha was very important to the success of the family businesses as she handled the accounting.  

Marsha was an active member of the community and had served on the Board of Directors for the Corona-Norco YMCA, as President of Soroptimist International of Corona, and as President of the Corona-Norco Republican Women. Marsha was also a long-time member of the Corona Chamber of Commerce and actively involved with the Corona-Norco Navy League. Marsha was a devoted wife and wonderful mother who enjoyed reading, golfing and gardening. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ira "Cal" Calvert, who was a city councilman, mayor and businessman in Corona. Marsha passed away on January 17, 2007. 

Regular Member