Finally free

For two years, I was the President of one of the MOMS Club chapters here in town. At first, it was fun! It was a great way to be involved with my kids' social schedule and connect with other moms in our city. I really loved it, but it didn't last long.

Being in an organization of 50+ women, there is bound to be some drama. In each of the three years that I served on our board, there was some kind of nonsense to deal with. Moms having power trips and becoming playgroup nazi's, moms throwing tantrums because we needed to re-organize playgroups and they were no longer in the same group as their best friends (god forbid they try and make other friends), moms who felt like they needed to email International board members to complain about our chapter, and moms who would complain about anything at the drop of a hat. It got old and tiresome. It drained on me as a person and on my family. I began to dread board meetings and decisions that needed to be made because there was certainly somebody who was going to bitch about something and nobody gave a shit about the effort I put into our chapter.

The straw that broke the camels back for me was during the organization and planning of our annual charitable fundraiser. This year was the biggest, most involved and most successful fundraiser our chapter had ever done. It was a children's fashion show and silent auction to raise money for a non-profit in our city that helped single parents become financially independent and free from government assistance. There were tickets to be sold, items we needed for donation and more work than I ever imagined. It was so successful mostly in part of our Admin VP who put her head down and trudged through the challenges, overcoming obstacles and powering through the drama. She was amazing and it wouldn't have happened without her leadership.

I mentally gave up after people started complaining about it.

What got to me the most was when people were complaining about how they were asked to help sell tickets and promote the event, by a member who is known for her blunt and curt personality. Because they were not asked as they felt entitled, people began to boycott and protest the fundraiser. I wanted to knock some heads together, hoping it would spark some common sense.

"Here you are, bringing your Starbucks coffee to playgroup every week, being a stay-at-home mom, living in a $300,000 home, driving two cars and taking family vacations and you're going to punish single parents and children in our community, WHO HAVE NO IDEA WHERE THEY ARE GOING TO SLEEP THE NEXT NIGHT, just because you don't like how you were asked to help sell tickets????"

I actually said this to people. I wanted to scream at them. I did scold one person pretty harshly. It was the most petty, ridiculous, selfish complaint I'd ever heard from a grown woman.

And I gave up. That was it for me. I was done.

I did a half-assed job for the next few months until my term ended on July 1st. It's been a month since I haven't had to field complaints or go to board meetings to make decisions that people didn't care about. It's been a month of freedom! So much less stress, so much more time to focus on things that are positive in our life. It's been eye-opening, to say the least.

We're still members of the chapter, but I'm not going to hold another position in any organizational aspect. This chapter in our life is closing and I feel like I'm finally free.

Pink Playgroup!

This morning The Club had Pink Playgroups to participate in the Passionately Pink for the Cure fundrasier for one of our volunteering projects. It was a lot of fun! We had pink foods to eat; cookies, pink lemonade, watermelon & pink yo-gos for the kids. I brought pink balloons for the kids to play with & pink leis for everyone to wear (most of the kids in our group are boys who don't own pink shirts). We took lots & lots of pictures. I'm really excited to see the pictures from the other playgroups (there are four, all divided up by age groups).

In celebration of our Pink Playgroup, I'm turning the blog pink today. I'm also adding links to donation sites if anyone feels inspired to be generous & make a donation:

You can Click to Give
This is really, really easy. All you have to do is click the button & the sponsors on the site will pay for mammograms for those who cannot afford them. I click every day because I had an ultrasound paid for. They would have picked up the tab for a mammogram if I needed that too.

You can donate directly on the Komen website
As part of our Pink Playgroup today, we asked for $5 or more donations from all of the moms. Komen suggests many different donation options.

You can also visit the online stores of these sites to purchase pink items where proceeds go towards ending breast cancer.


If you make a donation of any kind, please leave a comment!!!

Pay it forward
Sometime last month in one of our Club board meetings, we were asked to help think of ideas for our yearly service project. MOMS Club is a non-profit organization & in order to keep that status, we have to have a certain amount of money in the bank account & provide a service in the community at least once a year.

This got me really excited. I really love doing service projects & volunteering for those in need. While I was still active in the church, I participated & helped organize events with Habitat for Humanity, "adopted" needy families at Christmas (& did "Christmas in April too), I got friends together & made cookies for the homesick missionaries, the list really goes on & on. After I left the church, I didn't have as many opportunities to volunteer as much, but I still organized free fitness seminars & talked to elementary school kids about health & exercise.

Paying it forward means so much more to me now that our family has been on the receiving end of community services. Without these support systems in place, I wouldn't have been able to get the ultrasound needed to check out the lump last month or the dental exam that I had last week (because we don't have dental insurance & this was before Bill made his career change). I was going to come to our next meeting with a list of ideas for The Club to vote on because I had a sense of personal responsibility to give back to those that gave to me.

In our Club meeting last week, we voted on a lot of projects. We're going to make blankets for traumatized children (by abuse or other horrific life experience) so they have their very own comfort item. This was important to us as mothers with children who have many lovies & soft blankets. We understand how import these are to our own kids. I brought the Komen Foundation suggestion, where we will have a Pink Playgroup day. Everyone will wear pink & make a cash donation to the foundation (lots of pictures & details will come from that day in a few weeks). We will also make a cash donation a the end of the year to the womens resource center who works with the Komen Foundation here in town.

I was the contact for the resource center because not only were they the ones who facilitated the ultrasound for me, but they were the ones who found a dentist for me too. It was purely by chance that I found out how desperate they were for funding. I was there for my dental consultation just days before our monthly meeting & told them that I would make sure to suggest helping the center too. They were thrilled, to say the least.

They called me a few days ago asking if I could meet the director for coffee. They wanted to talk about organizing an event for next year. Of course I said yes & told my photographer/workout friend who is also the co-president of our chapter. We all met this morning while Logan & Little M ran around & had fun together.

We are in the works in organizing a huge event in our small town. We're putting together a family "moms & tots" 2 mile (1 hour) stroller walk for next spring where the resource center will pull permits, organize a pre-walk breakfast, have a post-walk park playtime & advertise this all over town. This is unbelievably exciting & I'm so happy that I can be a part of it. I hope we can have a successful event that raises enough much needed funds for our community. For me, this is really paying it forward.