Postcards in the Time of Pandemic

Postcard by Azul Tellez

Along with just about everything in all of our lives, Covid-19 put a major crimp in the member-to-member engagement that makes our organization special. With summer socials and World Cafes off the table, the membership team at ninety-nine girlfriends wanted to find a way for members to feel connected that didn’t involve screens. The Postcard Project was the result, where team members hand-illustrated blank postcards to send to one another. Take a look .

There were drawings, such as Heidi’s Yewman’s poignant sketch of two faceless humans in an embrace. The caption read, “I miss hugging.” Lan Fenders sent three pictures of the smiliest dog you have ever seen. In “Things I’ve Learned To Do or Started Doing During Quarantine,” Amy Vargas revealed that she now cuts the hair of everyone in her family, grooms the dog, colors her own hair and is taking an online meditation class. My own postcard depicted the Eiffel Tower, along with a plaintive note (en francais) about how much I miss traveling. Nancy Johnson designed the postcards and assembled a slideshow of the whole project. Vaune Kemp donated the printing. For anyone who wishes she could have been part of this, girlfriend Kaye Gardner O’Kearny (klokearny@gmail.com) has volunteered to coordinate an expanded postcard project.

— Grayson Dempsey

Postcard by Nancy Johnson

Postcard by Grayson Dempsey

Spotlights Ready to Shine

The last time I had an in-person meeting on Girlfriend business was a lovely breakfast upstairs at Café Du Berry in late February. Five of us met to begin planning our Spotlight Study Series -- four teams to research and present out on topics that members had identified as priorities. The coffee was strong, the conversation was stirring and I left energized and excited to begin the work.

Three weeks later, our world completely changed and we wondered if we could go ahead at all and if so, how would we do it. With a pandemic coursing through our nation and the planet, would enough girlfriends be interested? Was this the right time to launch the project? After much discussion, and with some trepidation, we decided to move forward.

The spotlight is now shining on the 28 team members who researched, wrote reports and are planning virtual presentations. You can access their written reports here and sign up to attend the virtual presentations (formerly called Discovery Forum) here.

I very much look forward to the next time I can have breakfast out with a group of Girlfriends and plan another project together in person. And the experience is a wonderful reminder of what we can accomplish, even when we are only coming together in the virtual world.

— Barbara Hilyer