THE ISLANDER NEWS JUNE 2019

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF

UNIVERSITY WOMEN WHIDBEY ISLAND

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE (submitted by Evie Novak, President)

This year has flown by so quickly. I would like to thank

the Board, Committee Chairs and Committee Members

for all their hard work this year. I have seen so many

people work diligently to support young women on

Whidbey Island. Scholarships, Stem Awards, Tech Trek

and Women in History will help to advance gender

equity for young women and girls.

This year we completed a survey to determine what was

important to the membership. There is a committee to

create a 2019-2020 Paper Directory. Our Mission

Statement was updated. Our membership has grown

and there is a Grant committee that is learning to apply

for grants.

It was challenging this year to find members to fill some

leadership roles. We need a Fundraiser Chair and

committee. There is an opening for the supporting

position of Publicity. Let me know if you are no longer

leading an interest group or committee or if you want to

take up another role. We will update our special

interest/committee documents and Web Site. Sign-up

sheets for Committees and Special Interest Groups will

be available at our Fall Meetings.

A beautiful hand-made quilt was donated for

fundraising. We will raffle the quilt this fall.

Wishing you all a wonderful summer on our beautiful

island.

ANNUAL INSTALLATION BRUNCH

SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 2019

9:00 am – Social (with a no-host bar) 10:00 am – noon – Brunch and Program

Whidbey Golf and Country Club 2430 Fairway Lane, Oak Harbor

At our Annual Installation Brunch we will be installing new

members of the AAUW-WI Board of Directors for the 2019-

2020 year and saying farewell to those board members who

will be stepping down this year. New members for this

upcoming year are Jane Alexander as Co-Vice President of

Programs, and Gunda Vesque as Co-Vice President of

Membership. Departing member is Elree Harris, Co-Vice

President of Programs; we thank Elree for her service to the

branch.

In addition, we will be announcing the 2018-2019 Named

Honorees – those who have been active in and for our

branch over the past year.

The winners of the raffle for two iPads will be announced;

raffle tickets will still be available at the brunch up until the

time of the drawing.

We will also be collecting dues for the upcoming year; the

dues will once again be $85.00 for the year. Wanda will be

available to collect the dues and will be able accept credit

card payments for both the dues and the raffle tickets;

there will be a 3% charge for using a credit card for

payment.

Elree Harris and Candi Rohr Co-Vice Presidents - Programs

THE ISLANDER NEWS JUNE 2019

MAY PROGRAM – SPOILED DOG WINERY May 11, 2019

(submitted by Candi Rohr, Co-VP Programs

Karen Krug, owner and winemaker at Spoiled Dog

Winery, educated and entertained us at her winery for

our May meeting. A graduate of the Colorado School

of Mines, Karen first worked as a petroleum engineer, a

field that she found too male-dominated. Then, with a

law degree earned at night, and using the Russian she

learned in high school and college, she worked in

Tajikistan doing petroleum negotiations. Needing to

return to the U.S., Karen selected as her new home

Whidbey Island, where she had sailed in the past. She

loved wine and determined the area was good for

growing Pinot Noir grapes.

Karen created Spoiled Dog Winery from the ground up

using online research and winemaking classes. She

visited Oregon frequently because the growing

conditions are similar to here. Her son and daughter-

in-law recently joined her in the business. The winery

uses sustainable organic practices and hand or

mechanical weeding to protect birds. On a short

vineyard tour we learned that pruning, done solely by

Karen and her son, is important to preventing powdery

mildew on the grapes. Her Pinot Noir vines are grafted

on root stock for disease resistance and earlier

ripening. Spoiled Dog Winery produces a number of

wine varieties, and all but Pinot Noir are made with

grapes carefully selected from other growers.

It was clear from Karen’s details of the many

aspects involved in grape growing and winemaking

that her strong science background was a key to

her success. Spoiled Dog has won the Platinum

Best of the Best award for its Pinot Noir for two

years in competition with other winemakers from

Oregon, Washington and B.C. Spoiled Dog wines

are sold only to local restaurants and in a few small

island markets, not marketed to supermarkets or

off-island. Our visit to Spoiled Dog Winery ended

with a tasting of a number of their wines, and quite

a few bottles departed with our members.

Karen Krug, Owner and Winemaker

Raffle for WiFi iPads Win one of TWO brand new iPads donated by MAGIC Computer Club

Raising Money to fund Scholarships (sponsored by AAUW Whidbey Island Branch)

Tickets will still be on sale at the June 8, 2019 Installation Brunch meeting, or you may send a check to AAUW, P. O. Box 1332, Coupeville, WA 98239-1332. If mailing a check, the check must be received by June 4, 2019 Cost: $5.00 per ticket; 3 tickets for $10.00; 8 tickets for $20.00

The drawing will be held on June 8, 2019 at the Annual Installation Brunch, Whidbey Golf Course. Winner need not be present to win.

THE ISLANDER NEWS JUNE 2019

MEMBERSHIP MATTERS – DUES (submitted by Sheila Saul and Gunda Vesque, Co-VPs Membership)

All members are asked to pay their dues by 6/30/2019. You may mail a check to

AAUW, P.O. Box 1332, Coupeville, WA 98239. For your convenience Wanda Grone,

Treasurer will also be at the June Installation Brunch receiving dues, by check or

credit card, for the next year.

New members who paid during the Shape the Future do not need to pay dues again

this year.

Summer Vacation!

AAUW-WI will not be holding general meetings during

the summer months of July and August. The Board will

meet on August 15 for the Leadership Summit.

Also, the AAUW-WI newsletter, The Islander News,

will not be published during the summer. Publication

will resume with the September 2019 issue; items for

that issue must be submitted to Nancy Kenyon, Editor,

no later than August 20, 2019.

If you have important news for the members please

submit the item to Evie Novak for approval, and then

an email will be sent out to the membership.

For the Special Interest Groups, please contact the

group chair for the summer schedule.

While you are out enjoying WI's beautiful summer

weather, you may get some questions about our

group. Be aware our Whidbey Island Branch has

placed a full page color Ad in the local free paper, the

Whidbey Weekly, (WW-June 6th-13th, 2019) to honor

our young women scholars, like we did at Scholarship

Recognition Night in April. We think its great news,

shows our purpose, and Eric Marshall, WW

Editor/Publisher did too. He offered 2nd page

placement to catch everyone's eyes. Be in the know &

grab a copy.

We hope this creates good island bzzzz about AAUW-

WI, so we are updating our tri-fold brochure as well to

be distributed to new members in their application

packets, and to our local realtors, libraries, grocery

stores, and bulletin boards around our fair isle, to

catch the eye & interest of new residents or past

AAUW members to join.

We want to thank Sheila and Gunda for their great recruitment of 5 new members this year. Enjoy your summers and keep the bzzzz going!

What’s the Bzzzz? (submitted by Jane Alexander)

THE ISLANDER NEWS JUNE 2019

TWO MILERS WALKING GROUP

Wondering what to do this summer while our AAUW branch is not holding meetings? Why not join the AAUW-WI Two

Milers Walking Group?

We meet at 10 am on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month and hike at different trails throughout the island. Most

trails are not steep. Some do require a Discover Pass for parking at the trail head. Men and dogs on leash are welcome

(only dogs are required to be on leash!).

The scheduled hikes for the remainder of the summer are as follows:

6-13 at Pratt Trail at Ebey's Landing 6-27 at South Whidbey State Park in Greenbank 7-11 at Admiralty Inlet Preserve in Coupeville 7-25 at Windjammer Park in downtown Oak Harbor 8-8 at Del Fairfax Preserve on Zylstra Rd. in Oak Harbor 8-22 at Joseph Whidbey State Park on the beach trail

Contact Sue Norman or Sheila Saul for more information and to let us know that you will be coming so that we will wait for you at the trail head. Reminder emails with details will be sent closer to each hike.

JUNE, JULY, AND AUGUST BIRTHDAYS

June Pattison, Mary 06/02 Teker, Virginia 06/04 Cave, Betsy 06/10 Hughes, Jan 06/21 Nichols, Betty 06/23 Grone, Wanda 06/28

July

Zimmerman, Ann 07/03 Mackaman, Sarah 07/04 Jordan, Betti 07/13 Moats, Christina 07/19 Reid, Ora 07/19

August

Vesque, Gunda 08/02 VanDerMeer, Erlene 08/09 Christiansen, Clare 08/12 Gardner, Jan 08/12 Hodges, Nancy 08/15 Eisenbraun, Meg 08/17 Labuhn, Karen 08/21

Happy Birthday. Ladies!!

THE ISLANDER NEWS JUNE 2019

WOMEN IN HISTORY – THANK YOU!!

In March 2019, several of our members portrayed significant women in history and visited some of the 5th grade classes

on the island. Students at the Oak Harbor Intermediate School wrote thank you notes to AAUW; some of them are

provided here for you to enjoy – including the students’ own words with their own spelling and pictures that they drew.

Thank you for teaching us about women in history.

Something interesting how many times have you

done this. I learned that a girl flew a bomber a long

time ago.

Dear Speakers of AAUW,

Thank you for telling me about women it [sic] the war.

I a specily liked Mary Anning’s presentation. I have an

intrast in scince and fassils too.

Dear Gertrude Bell,

Thank you for being Gertrude Bell, I enjoyed you the

most because you show that women can be strong

and can do whatever men can.

THE ISLANDER NEWS JUNE 2019

MORE WOMEN IN HISTORY – THANK YOU!!

Thank you Emily Post for making books about

manners so we can have better manners.

[No picture]

Dear Women in History,

Thank you for teaching us that women can do

great things to. Even though I am a male I still

support women for who they are. Brains over

Bronz am I right or wrong? But thank you, not a

lot of people get to do what they want because

they are girls so this shows that we all have the

poser to change the world. So I hope you women

keep inspiring other people male or female. Don’t

give up because there are people who need a role

model.

TY for being a good women idieater (good job) for

kids to follow their drum, Libby Riddles

To Jackie Cochran, Libby Riddles and Marie Tharp

Thank you for presenting these important women

you guys make it seem so real! And you did a

great job with the presentation. And I think it’s

important because you guys inspire people and it

makes me and other people happy.

(No picture)

Dear women in history, Thank you so much for

visiting our school. I loved all of your

presentations! Also I thought you all of you were

the actual people you were presenting!

THE ISLANDER NEWS JUNE 2019

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS

Gourmet #2 Baker’s Dozen

Baker’s Dozen lunch group will meet at the home of Vonnie Secketa at 11:30 am on Friday, June 7. Vonnie has chosen Mexican for her theme.

Book Group #1 The Book Club

AAUW Book Group 1 will meet on Monday, June 3 at Nancy Hodges’ home at 10 am to discuss Becoming by Michelle Obama.

Book Group #2 Joie des Livres

Joie des Livres will meet all summer on the 4th Wed. of each month. Contact Marti Thomson for details.

Book Group #3 Cheryl’s Readers

Cheryl’s Readers will meet Wednesday, June 26,

10 am at the Coupeville Library. The title is Britt-

Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman. The group

will also meet on Wednesday, July 24, 10 am at

the Coupeville Library and will discuss The Bear

and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. In

August, the group will meet on Wednesday,

August 28, at 10 am at the Coupeville Library

and the topic will be Girl in Translation by Jean

Kwok. For more information contact: Pam

Troug, Chair

International Affairs

International Affairs will meet Friday June 21, 10

am to noon at the Coupeville Library. We will

discuss Chapter 5, Decoding US-China Trade in

the 2019 Great Decision Book. All are welcome.

We will not meet in July or August. For more

information contact: Betti Jordan, Chair

Garden Group

The Garden Group will meet on Tuesday, June 25 to visit Rain Shadow Nursery and Elree

Harris’ Garden where we will have lunch.

On Tuesday, July 30 we will go to Bellevue Botanical Garden by shuttle with the Senior

Center. We will have a docent at the garden and lunch nearby.

On Tuesday, August 27 we will visit Greenbank Farm Educational Garden and Betty Nichols’ and Judy Moore’s Gardens with lunch at Judy’s All are welcome. Contact Vonnie Secketa if interested