Thursday, December 30, 2010

Rest and Remembrance

Roger and I have had some opportunity for rest and relaxation over the last few days.  For those of you who don't know, we retreated to the VA foothills (Charlottesville area) for some time at a B&B.  It was nice to have not much of an agenda and to truly rest and regroup.  We got to visit a few wineries in the area and re-stocked for the year.  I must say that I love living in Virginia!

As many of you know, the anniversary of Charlotte's death is January 7th.  We have decided that we would like to mark the day with an informal moment of remembrance.  This will not be anything fancy or super-structured.  Sunset is at 5:07 PM and given that Roger and I both need to work earlier in the day, we will be holding "the moment" at 4:30 PM in front of the Butterfly Bush (at our house).  The plan is to release a few pink and purple balloons, sing a song or two, and maybe share some memories. 

Anyone who would like to attend is welcome.  We have an official invitation on our Facebook site.  Maybe we'll have some hot chocolate afterwards.  Contact us if you have any questions. 

If you do not live close by or cannot attend and want to hold your own Moment of Remembrance, we encourage you to do whatever you feel is right.  If you release a balloon, please use natural twine if possible (it's more eco-friendly). 

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Onward to 2011

Sorry that the blog has been kind of quiet lately.  There have been a couple of reasons for this.  Although we haven't had any official Foundation events to promote, I am happy to report that since our last post we have received some very generous year-end donations.  Thank you for helping us keep our mission alive.    

Another very exciting announcement is that CJSTUF is hiring its very first paid employee.  In assessing our goals and needs, the board determined that the best way to accomplish our aims was to have a part-time Foundation Administrator and Event Coordinator who can help us accomplish this.  In a perfect world, it would be great if Roger and I could fill this role but our other professional obligations are keeping us otherwise occupied at the moment.  Anyway, we received a LARGE number of applications and have narrowed the field to a few select candidates.  We hope to have a decision by the end of the year.  We're very excited about this so stay tuned!

Finally, in case you haven't heard through the grapevine, Rachel has started her very own personal blog.  She's aiming for it to be an equal mix of social commentary, personal musings, and cultural discoveries.  If you want to follow some of her "non-foundation-related" writing, check it out. 

We hope everyone is staying warm during what is definitely WINTER weather.  If you have a chance to make a snowman, take a picture for us and email it or post it to our Facebook page.  Here are some of our favorites from 2009: