By Lois Downing
Houlton Council of Catholic Women met in the parish center of St. Mary of the Visitation Church November 2 on Sunday following the 11 a.m. celebration of the Eucharist. It was the first meeting for the Sunday change in date and time. Twenty-seven members attended with Betty Ann Childers, president, in charge. Guests of Cruz-Cruz were Melissa Berube and Irene Bouchard were introduced and welcomed. Pastor and moderator Rev. David Raymond, and Deacon Albert Burleigh were also present.
Traditional prayers were recited and President Childers introduced Charles Daly, operations director for Stepping Stones in Houlton. “Chuck” as he is known gave an overview of the organization, stating that it was a project of Luetta Goodall and started in 1999. Young women were in jeopardy of losing their child and were crying for help. Stepping Stones was started as a mentoring resource for mothers who wanted to choose life changes in order to keep their child. Stepping Stones has a 70 percent success rate and is funded by Maine Care. Literature was distributed and each member received a writing pen.
Father Dave then spoke to the ladies and asked them to pay special attention to their spiritual health. In January, Father Dave would like us to focus on prayer and sharing our service out of love. Margaret Casey volunteered herself and Judy Reid for a luncheon during the January time of prayer.
President Childers told members she is involved in the safe medicine program. She advised them to please not put unused prescriptions down he flush as it contaminates the water. Betty Ann will be supplied with bags to put the pills in and an address to send them.
Betty told us that she and three other members attended the Maine Assembly October 26. HCCW was presented a certificate for the most patron fund members of the group.
Sister Carol Martin, former parishioner of St. Mary of the Visitation Church, has been installed as moderator of MCCW and will be making a visit to Houlton when the time is ready for her.
Lynnette Dobbs gave the treasurer’s report in the absence of Bernette Roach. Lois Downing read the correspondence . Ethel Mersereau gave the secretary’s minutes. Janet Barker thanked everyone who worked on the annual rummage sale and said the sale was a huge success.
Margaret Casey will be chief cook for the Thanksgiving dinner and HCCW gave a substantial sum of money for the costs of the dinner.
Deacon Burleigh spoke about the council day of recollection in January and said all ministries need to have a day of prayer to be nourished and get graces of the Holy Spirit.
Mary Grant told the group, that 106 letters were sent out relative to the Giving Tree. The Christmas tree will be set up in the church before Thanksgiving.
A Yankee swap will be the Christmas program. Members are asked to please bring a wrapped gift, not exceeding in value of $5.
A sum of money was given to Rick and Cindy Hannigan because of their recent fire in which they lost everything.
Birthdays and anniversaries were recognized. A collection for the seminarian fund was taken up. Rita McDade won the door prize.
The ladies were thanked for the food by the refreshment committee.
The next meeting will be December 9. Members are asked to please watch the church bulletin.
The Happy Losers meeting was held Nov. 5 at the Congregational Church vestry in Island Falls. We opened with our roll call followed by our ups and downs exercise, and two other exercises.
We had ten ladies weigh-in and seven attended our meeting.
Lois Green was the loser of the week, and runner-up was Shirley Sides.
We decided to have another contest between the orange team and the purple team. Good luck to both. It will end Dec.10. Our Christmas party will be Dec.10 also.
Reports were given by our secretary and treasurer for the week.
We had no program for the week, instead we discussed other matters pertaining to losing weight, like keeping weight charts, and getting more exercise.
Joanie Sides was the loser of the month of October.
Please feel welcome to our group of people every Wednesday 7:30-8:45a.m. weigh-ins and meeting start at 9 a.m. Call 365-4884 for information.
Take Off Pounds Sensibly, Chapter 233, of Houlton met at the Aldergate building on High Street for its Friday, Nov. 7 meeting.
Twelve TOPS ladies attended and four KOPS (Keep Off Pounds Sensibly).
Joyce Estey was the leader and had charge of the meeting. Charlotte Marley was the official greeter.
Joyce welcomed former member Opal after she transferred from a Bangor group and then Margaret Dudley, absent for a few weeks.
Loser of the week was Denise Kinney with Charlotte Marley as runner-up.
The mystery gift was won by Gerry McAfee; Melva Folsom won the 50/50 money and Charlotte Marley won the skinny dish.
Janette Nelson gave a treasurer’s report and Joanne Scott reported on the weight recording.
Joyce revealed those who went to the workshop in Presque Isle: Melva, Joyce, Cleo Joslyn, Gerry McAfee and Elinor Harvey. Joyce read a letter in reference to the P.I. workshop from Janice Cote, representative to our chapter. She referred some paperwork to Paulette Soliere and also said the leader has to check everything before it is put in the mail and as regular mail. Cleo also read some note she had taken there as well.
Joyce proposed a budget committee. Said we would table the idea and give a response next week. Also at the talking stage was the Christmas party. Charlotte called Bob Locke about planning a party at the Oakfield snowmobile clubhouse. We will decide on this next week also.
We did 10 minutes of exercises led by Barbara Troy and Margaret Dudley demonstrated some she was doing at a program she is attending.
Joyce distributed the mileage program sheet around and each person wrote her mileage for the week. It was decided that to walk from Houlton, ME to Hathorne, FL will constitute 1,574.93 miles.
Denise Kinney, in charge of contests, will reveal a winner in the current “house” program.
Melva Folsom, charm lady, presented charms to the following in a special presentation: KOPS in leeway for August, Lois Downing, Barbara Grant, Charlotte Marley, Janette Nelson, Donna Parent, and Melva Folsom; KOPS in leeway for September: Lois Downing, Barbara Grant, Betty Ivey, Janette Nelson, and Donna Parent.
Also, perfect attendance for July-September: Donna Parent, Elinor Harvey and Aileen Smith; loser of the month, August, Vicki Little; loser of the month, September, Anita Nason. Vicki Little loss 35 pounds; Anita Nason, 30 pounds loss; Elinor Harvey, 20 pounds loss; Aileen Smith, 10 pounds loss and Juanita Warman, 10 pounds loss. Ladies with no gain, July 25 through September 5, Vicki Little and Elinor Harvey. All these members were congratulations for their efforts.
Weigh-in time is 8:00-8:45 a.m. every Friday. The meetings begin at 9 a.m. and usually end at 10 o’clock.
If you need more information on the chapter, you may call Charlotte Marley at 757-8483 or Betty Ivey at 532-9653.
Everyone is welcome.
