Chapters

August: Eghosa and Gertrude

eghosagertThe delivery of the cards reminded me why I love being a Glamour Gal. I arrived at the Hallmark in Battery Park around 3:00 PM with my kid brother Quincy, a GG supporter of course, and Gertrude had no idea that we were on our way. After checking in, we went to visit Gertrude in her room. Her room was decorated with her paintings, and sculpting. One that particularly caught my eye was a sculpting of an elegant vase decorated with brown flowers. As I entered her room, she immediately lit up and in awe exclaimed, "Aww the GlamourGals." I presented her the silver gift bag stuffed with hot pink tissue paper and said smiling, "On behalf of the Thomas Edison GlamourGals chapter we present to you 100 birthday cards for your 100th birthday!" She was so overwhelmed with excitement that she began to cry! She then invited my brother and I to take a seat while she read through a few cards. She smiled at all the joyful messages the cards held. For the past two weeks, there have been celebrations for her 100th birthday but, as she put it, "this is like non other, you guys are amazing. I don't no how to repay you." I reassured her and said, "that smile on your face is the best compensation." I am so that we embarked on this project, and Gertrude sends her gratitude to all of the GlamourGals, as well.
 

July: Deana's First Year

WOW! I cannot believe it! I have been involved with GlamourGals for a whole year! This year has truly been the fastest of my life! Last Wednesday, News 12 Long Island filmed my chapter's makeover at the Maple Pointe Assisted Living Center. The makeover was awesome!
 
This makeover was very special, exciting, and rewarding for many reasons! Long Island News 12 came and filmed this makeover for a segment highlighting Long Island native and GG founder Rachel! The segment is called “12 Making a Difference” and it focuses on Long Island residents/natives who have make a significant contribution to our local and global communities. At the makeover, the South Side High School chapter had 12 members present, who along with Rachel Doyle, multiple other people from GG national including Lauren, Philicia, and Katrina and even Real World alum Johanna Botta, all completed more than 30 makeovers and manicures! The segment is airing on Long Island News 12 this Friday, July 30th! The segment will also be highlighted on Long Island News 12 website that day and be permanently saved in their archives! Check it out on their website from that day on… http://www.news12.com/index.jsp .
A special shout out to the four members of the Half Hallow Hills chapter that helped in the makeover!
 
The makeover seemed like a culminating event for my chapter's inaugural year in GlamourGals. This past year has been truly rewarding and exciting. Through my conversations with the women at Maple Pointe Assisted Living, I have gained a greater appreciation for how much opportunities afforded to women have progressed in their lifetime. Women like them have helped to pave the road for our generation to take advantage of so many wonderful opportunities. My favorite part of the day was hearing some of the women being interviewed and speaking about their experience with GlamourGals. It was truly amazing to hear just how much my chapter has positively impacted their lives. Although I know most of the women by name, I definitely know all of the women by their personalities and the stories they shared. Most of the women have been with us from the beginning and have attended most of our makeovers and events. During this past year my chapter has been privileged to develop meaningful relationships with the women.
 
During this makeover, I was lucky enough to be painting a lady named Jenny's nails. I noticed that Jenny was wearing a bracelet that said "I am a unique and precious bean." Of course I had to question her about it. She shared with me how "I am a unique and precious bean",  was actually the first line in a prayer or a saying. She described how the whole poem or saying is about how each and every one of us is special and worthy and how with the right amount of care, love, and confidence we will all, like a bean, grow and blossom. She told me that she said this to her children and her grandchildren to instill the belief in them that they are all special and amazingly capable of doing amazing things. She theorized that if every child were told this, they would grow up believing it and eventually grow to be a confident and productive adult. This idea seemed like the perfect metaphor for my experience with GlamourGals. It made me realize how an idea or a desire, like starting my own chapter, like a bean, could come to fruition and flourish with lots of tending and hard work and especially the support of amazing people like the girls in my chapter and GG national.
 
This story is just a slice of the amazing and equally inspirational stories and memories that I have heard from and made with the ladies.
 
Writing this journal has been really reflective and enjoyable for me. I am really disappointed that this is my first time journaling. After every makeover this year, my heart and mind were so filled with emotions and memories that I planned on journaling about. Unfortunately procrastination and anxiety of feeling incapable of writing something as wonderful as I felt robbed me from sharing all of my wonderful experiences that I have had this year! As a parting note I would like to highly recommend journaling to all GlamourGals. Talk about your experiences with GG or any other experience or topic that you deem worthy . Even if no one reads your entry, you will still have created a collection of memories, ideas, feelings, and thoughts that you had as a youth. These journal entries are something that you will be able to enjoy later on in your life. The reflective nature of journaling and the experience of writing about topics that are meaningful to you, instead of writing on assigned topics like in school, will be immensely valuable when it is senior year and you will have to write multiple essays to apply to college.  
 
Hope everyone is having an amazing summer...I am so glad that I am a GlamourGal.

 

   
 

June: Jordyn and Esther

Today our chapter had our last makeover of the 2009-2010 season. There wasn't a whole ton of women there and we didn't have all our volunteers but it was a great makeover. We went up to get one of our favourites, a woman named Esther, from her room upstairs.
 

May: Jazmen joins GG!

I have just volunteered to join the GlamourGals chapter at my school. I can't wait to provide my services to the women the GG members interact with.
 

April: An Amazing Visit

Today, was an amazing experience for me with our GG crew at Thomas Edison! Rachael and Juila were so inspiring and I had an amazing time talking to them. After we left school, and our GG-ed out conference room (haha)- which was so cute!, the makeover brought more memories. The nursing home was decorating so nicely and the women were so excited! The woman that I spent most of my time with was a woman named Victoria. From the moment I walked into the room, her warm smile struck me and I knew I wanted to get to know her more. She enjoyed my company and I could tell because she was doing all the conversation starting! - i had to try to keep up! She told me about growing up, and about her siblings. She also kept talking about her nephew and his wife who often visit her. The nail poilish that she already had on her nails were done by his wife. She later told me that she was never married and she never had any kids. I realized then why she had such a close relationship with her nephew. She said " When your single!- YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT"! I couldn't help but giggle when she said that. While I was doing her nails she kept saying I love this color!, and i realized how thankful and aware she was. She told me that she couldn't read or write and that she had only gone to school up until the 8th grade. Although, this saddened me I took it as an oppurtuinty to get closer to her. I read her the card that I wrote to her, and she looked at me with tears in her eyes. She said " can I keep it?", and I said of course you can. She said that her nephew is coming to visit her tommorow and she can't wait to show it to him. I also gave her a pink balloon, which made her really happy

One of the funniest things that she said was that she Italian but she can't speak it! The only two words she knew was SLEEP AND EAT! haha. After the makeover I took her back to her room and in the elevator she said "can you do my nails next time your here?" I asked her if she could tell me her room number and said 527! AND DONT FORGET IT! For every visit that follows me I will be sure to make my way to room 527 to say hello to Victoria. She is a remarkable woman. She also told me that she loves red roses, but no one ever brings her any. Before my next makeover, I plan to make a stop at the flower store!

It was amazing. Once again GG has given me an amazing memory!

 
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