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Soroptimist International of Billings |
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6/26/2008 Young Artists Awards Reception Held
at YAM
Soroptimist International of Billings is pleased to announce
this year's 2008 recipients of their YOUNG ARTISTS AWARD
PROGRAM.
Judging was done by Rocky Mountain College Art Teachers
Professor James A. Baken and Professor Mark S. Moak. Museum Co-Ordination by Linda Ewert Education
Director at YAM over-saw the display of the Young
Artists’ Show. This year’s event commemorated the
seventh year of the Young Artists’ Gallery at the
Yellowstone Art Museum and the 12th year of the YOUNG
ARTIST PROGRAM.
Young Artist Winners 2008
The Young Artists competition provides art students the
opportunity to receive recognition of their talents, and
for their work to be sold for the benefit of the
community. The Young Artist's display is at the
Yellowstone Art Museum and will be on display through
this summer. Congratulations to all the student
participants.
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PRESS
RELEASE:
5/15/2008 A successful fund raiser at Bone Brewery (Doc & Eddy’s Plaza) was held for Tiffany Metzler Special Needs Disability Trust to help Tiffany purchase a much needed wheel chair. Current funds are at $7,900 and $10,000 is needed for this wheelchair to accommodate the tall 6’1” beauty who was paralyzed after an automobile accident in 2001. Blue 22 Clothing (www.blue22clothing.com) held a fashion show to premier their new exclusive clothing line. Owners Clint Schultz and Levi Vantyne donated the proceeds from the sale of their exciting stylish clothing at this event. Several raffles and door prizes were also awarded. A highlight of the fund raiser was when Soroptimist of Billings President Joey Voto present Tiffany with a check for $1,000 from the club’s One-to-One Fund. This fund is a special needs fund the Soroptimists have to enable them to directly impact the life of a single individual. The One-to-One fund enables Soroptimist to continue to “Improve the lives of women and girls in our local community and throughout the world”. The One-to-One fund originated when memorials were donated to the club honoring some of their departed members and continues in their memory today. Additional funds can be contributed to the Tiffany Metzler Special Needs Disability Trust at Wells Fargo Bank, 175 North 27th Street, Billings MT 59101.
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Soroptimist International of Billings 2008 Awards and Recognition Event Soroptimist of Billings www.shopmt.com/sib recent twentieth anniversary fund raiser "A Night of Wine and Roses" www.wineandroses.info enabled Soroptimist to continue support of their various community projects and programs. The 2008 Awards and Recognition Event was held at the Petroleum Club at the Crown Plaza. "A Night of Wine and Roses" is a wine tasting and silent auction fund raising event. Intermountain Distributing has been instrumental in the success and support of this fund raiser for the past twenty years. Many of the Silent Auction featured items are art pieces requiring framing. Fred Magers of Framing by Fred whose creative generosity has been a great asset to many of our items. High School students' art is featured by The Young Artists' program. The students winning art is displayed at the Yellowstone Art Museum, and then placed in the Silent Auction to benefit the community. Curt Wheeler of The Frame Hut has for the past seven years beautifully framed the student art. Other generous supporters include Carolyn Korb of City Vineyard, Tom Nelson of Tom Nelson Catering, Gene Burgad of The Rex and Jim Berry of EconoPrint. Club supporters include all the Soroptimist members and especially Peg and Dick Dare of Western Awards, Linda and Greg Gordon of Shop Montana, Sue and Howard Sumner of Howard Sumner Real Estate and Mary and Kurt Stickney of DataCorp.
The evening was opened by
President Joey Voto with the Soroptimist Grace.
Additional programs include:
Soroptimist honored this
year's winner of the
Violet Richardson Award,
which is a recognition program for
young women ages 14-17 engaged in volunteer action within
their communities or schools. It is given to young women
whose volunteer activities make the community and world a
better place. The award is in honor of the president of the
first Soroptimist club, Violet Richardson, a woman of
action, whose indomitable spirit and sense of personal
responsibility were demonstrated by her lifelong commitment
to volunteering in her community. This year’s winner is
Melinda Jean Field and her charity she supports is Eagle
Mount, both received a cash award. Melinda has gone on to
also win at the Soroptimist Regional level, winning an
additional $500.
The evenings' events
concluded with Wine and Roses co-chairs Gerri Voto-Braun and
Leah Harvey presenting Intermountain Distributing,
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Fundraiser benefits culinary program at passages by CATHY ULRICH When the Billings Soroptimists host the Night of Wine and Roses on Jan. 26, the group will be helping out the new culinary program at Passages, the pre-release center for Department of Corrections offenders, on South 27th Street. "This is something that we've committed to for a year," said Gerri Voto-Braun, the Wine and Roses chair. "We're impacting a good number of women." The program is expected to start in January, and donations from the Soroptimists will provide the startup funding. "What we'd like to do is have from eight to 12 female offenders come in and work with our chef on site," Passages Director Jan Begger said. "It would be a combination of classroom training and hands-on training." The Night of Wine and Roses, sponsored by Intermountain Distributing, is the Soroptimists' annual fundraising event, held at the Billings Depot. "This is our primary fundraiser for the whole year," Voto-Braun said. "All the money we give out comes from this fundraiser." The event features a silent auction, a wine tasting, hors d'oeuvres by Tom Nelson Catering and music. The Night of Wine and Roses also plays host to the Soroptimists Young Artists Competition, which features award-winning artwork by local high school students. The artwork is judged by the staff of the Yellowstone Art Museum, and the prize-winning pieces will be up for auction. "Hopefully the young artists will also be in attendance," Voto-Braun said.
Previous Night of Wine and Roses fundraisers have helped sponsor the club's identifying project, Baby Think it Over. The Baby Think it Over project provides computerized babies to local high schools for health classes, so students can learn about the responsibilities of being parents. "This project is at the end," Voto-Braun said, citing the lack of a new high school as a reason the Soroptimists are discontinuing the project. "All we can do is just maintain the current babies." When it came time to choose a project to sponsor this year, the Soroptimists chose the Passages culinary program. "That's just one way we thought we could have an impact in a really quick way," Voto-Braun said.
Allan Maust, the chef at Passages, will lead the culinary program. He currently has inmates at Passages working with him to prepare meals for their fellow inmates as well as the men at the Alpha House. "Within the first couple of weeks, they're pretty well trained," he said. Maust has a staff of four full-time employees helping him in the kitchen, plus eight inmates whose parole eligibility dates have not yet come up. When the culinary program starts, he'll be training pre-release clients. Jan Begger, Passages Director, said there haven't been any issues with staff and inmates working together. "Pretty much when people come and apply with us, they know what kind of work we do," she said. "They understand they're working with women offenders. We haven't had any problems. It's been a great program." Passages, located in the former Howard Johnson hotel on South 27th Street, is home to three programs: Pre-release, alcohol and drug treatment and the assessment and sanction unit. The pre-release center is housed on the first floor, and is home to female inmates who have six months or less of their sentence. The assessment and sanction unit on the second floor determines the level of care and custody for offenders; many in the program will head on to the pre-release center or probation. The alcohol and drug treatment program is located on the third floor. The inmates in that program are in classes from 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. "It's treatment, treatment, treatment up here," Jan Begger said. "Very structured, very good treatment here." The goal of Passages, Begger said, is to prepare the clients for their return to the outside world. "Reintegration is what we're focusing on," she said. Passages officials hope the culinary program will help with that goal by giving participants a background in a high-demand career. "The Soroptimists were really excited to do this, especially in a market like Billings, where there's a real demand for people with hotel experience, restaurant experience," Begger said. Voto-Braun agrees. "When they get out of the pre-release center, they can apply and get jobs in the restaurant or hotel industry," she said. "They'll be more able to substantiate or support their families." Print |
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