February 2013 Volume 21, Issue 5 Editor: Tammy Vitek vitek4@austin.rr.

com Next Meeting: Monday, February 25, 2013 Fredericksburg Elementary School Library 4:00 p.m. Social Time 4:20 p.m. Meeting Hostesses: Dolores Klussmann, lead Carolyn Kuhlmann Paula Ahrendt Helen Usener Carolyn Otto Patsy Hejl Debbie Klein Program: Living Well College

THE DELTA KAPPA GAMMA SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL

BETA ZETA BUZZ

FREDERICKSBURG, TEXAS
Mission Statement: The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International promotes professional and personal growth of women educators and excellence in education. Vision Statement: Leading women educators impacting education worldwide.

Our Presidents Message

By Karen Loeffler I just love Valentines Day! Its a great time to let the ones you hold dear know that they are loved and appreciated. We all love to hear that! Well, we have the opportunity to pass on this message to our local teachers. As I mentioned at our January meeting, DKG is asking our members to have a Week of Caring on March 3rd 9th. The vision for this project is just to let our community know that our chapter cares and can impact the state with our acts of kindness and service. (See the Lone Star News Winter Edition 2012.) Beta Zeta chapter is going to show our appreciation to our local teachers that week. (Its also Texas Public Schools Week!) pa Gamma cares and appreciates all that they do. (Well also provide some information about Beta Zeta and Delta Kappa Gamma, just in case they have never heard of us and are interested. OK, I admit this is a bit of public relations for our society, but our sentiments are genuine!) Wont you please sign up to bake/buy a few goodies? Ill have a sign-up sheet at the February meeting. Ill be glad to handle the deliveries (and anyone else who would like to help can let me know.)

Presented by Beth Pyka and daughters Carrie and Lindsey

Facilitators: Helen Usener, Amy ONeil, and Beth Luckenbach

Our chapter cares and can impact the state with our acts of kindness and service.
Wouldnt it be a treat for our teachers to have a tasty snack waiting for them in their teachers lounge? Well have a nice note along with the treats letting them know that Delta Kap-

Purpose #6: To stimulate the personal and professional growth of members and to encourage their participation in appropriate programs of action Music: Make This Day! Service: peanut butter for the Fredericksburg Food Pantry; items for Boys and Girls Club; preschool books for the Needs Council Reminder: $7.50 for the Founders Day Banquet and Beta Zeta Birthday Celebration Chapter website: www.betazeta.weebly.com State website: www.alphastatetexas.org International website: www.dkg.org Upcoming event: 84 Texas State Convention Renaissance Hotel, Austin, TX June 20-22, 2013
th

Living Well and Loving It!

By Barbara Heinen At Februarys meeting we will learn about a local program for adults with special needs. Beth Pyka and her daughters Lindsey and Carrie will explain how Living Well College began, about its purpose, how it operates, how these adults help our community, and how we can help them. Beth is a graduate of Tivy High School and UTSA. She is the founder of Living Well College and has served as treasurer of the Living Well College Board for the last 5 years. Beth taught at St. Marys School for twentyeight years and coached all girls athletics for fourteen of those years. Lindsey and Carrie are graduates of Fredericksburg High School and have received many Special Olympics medals. During the program, Lindsey will use a device to help her speak clearly, and she is very proud that now she can be understood. This program will also inform members of volunteer opportunities. Remember to bring items for the Boys and Girls Club and preschool books for the Needs Council.

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Hickey Inspires Members at January Meeting

By Dolores Klussmann At our January meeting, Phyllis Hickey, Operations Services Administrator, International Headquarters in Austin, gave a very interesting and informative presentation about Delta Kappa Gammas World Fellowship Program established in 1948 and the newer Schools for Africa Project founded in 2004. She emphasized that although these are international programs our local chapter is very much involved as a part of their support as stated in our vision statement. The first World Fellowship recipients were four German women educators who spent 8 weeks of study in Sweden during the spring of 1948. This was very soon after the end of World War II. In 1972 the DKG World Foundation became part of the Personal Growth and Services Committee and two years later part of the Constitution. In the 70s, many of our older members may remember that it was customary for chapters to donate $1.00 per member each year for the WFP. In a brochure entitled 20122013 World Fellowship Recipients and Extension, it was noted that two current scholars are attending universities in Texas Texas State University and Texas A & M University. The Schools for Africa Project, founded by UNICEF, the Nelson Mandela Foundation, and the Hamburg Society for the Promotion of Democracy and International Law in 2004, operates in eleven of Africas neediest countries. One of these countries, Mali, has been in the news of late. Bordering Algeria, there is much unrest in Mali at present. Examples of what donations can do range from $10.00 which provides a learner kit containing a bag, stationery, a mini atlas, and math tables for one student in Mali to $250.00 which provides school-in-a-box kits containing similar learning materials plus transportation cost for 80 children in Burkina Faso, a country bordering Mali to the south. A collection basket was provided at this meeting for members to donate money for Schools for Africa Project, and members were inspired to donate $187.00

Phyllis Hickey, Operations Services Administrator of DKG International Headquarters

An Evening with Annie and Friends At the Founders Day Banquet and Beta Zeta Birthday Celebration
By Barbara Heinen

Annie Webb Blanton and friends are honored guests at Beta Zetas birthday celebration.

When Annie and a few of her friends are here on Monday, March 25th, members will learn about the Delta Kappa Gamma founders from the founders themselves! As Annie Webb Blanton conducted her affairs with masterly

efficiency, you will want to be on time! Time: 6:00 p.m. Date: Monday, March 25 Place: Memorial Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall, 607 North Milam Street, Fredericksburg, TX Meal:

Soup, salad, and of course . . . birthday cake! Price: $7.50. Please bring your check made payable to Beta Zeta to the February meeting or mail to Janet Hext, 804 West San Antonio Street, Fredericksburg, TX 78624.

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Beta Zeta Donations for Children

By Janalee Hannemann In the past two months, you have all come up with some great ideas of items to share that will help each and every child learn something new . . . and to just plain have fun! $25 Wal-Mart gift certificate $13.00 cash 1 pencil bag 1 box crayons 1 card game 33 books 1 calendar 1 sticker book 1 homework helper math book 6 coloring and activity books 2 game activity books For the Hill Country Community Needs Council, you brought:

They Say Its Your Birthday!

Tammy Vitek Helen Weiss Catherine Davis Vondell Jordan Andrea Hudson Feb. 3 Feb. 4 Feb. 17 Feb. 25 March 23
And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. - Abraham Lincoln

4 games 11 coloring books 10 puzzles 23 books $10.00 cash Thank you for your generosity which knows no bounds!

Peanut Peanut Butter!

Sending out a call for peanut butter! The Fredericksburg Food Pantry needs nutritious foods to replenish the stock that always runs low after the holiday season. Peanut butter is always needed as a kid-favorite, protein-rich treat. Please bring a jar or two to the February meeting. (You can also make a donation, and we will buy some more jars to donate.) Its one more way we can help the children of Fredericksburg. The Food Pantry is always in need of food and cash donations to help those who need assistance with nourishing food for their families. Call them at 830-997-9383 to make a personal donation.

The BETA ZETA BUZZ

Collecting, producing, and disseminating information about the goings on in the Beta Zeta hive.
Tammy Vitek, queen bee Jerrie Dooley Carolyn Otto Helen Usener (honorary worker bee) Dolores Klussmann Janalee Hannemann Barbara Heinen

The Beta Zeta Buzz is published seven times per year, September through April, excluding December. Send news items at least two weeks before the meeting to newsletter editor Tammy Vitek at vitek4@austin.rr.com, or mail to 112 S. Llano Street, Fredericksburg, TX 78624

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Connecting Communicating Collaborating

A Report from the 2013 Leadership Seminar
By Jerrie Dooley With thirty other excited DKG sisters, I arrived at the 2013 Leadership Conference in Dallas on Friday, February 8th. Wide-eyed with anticipation, we wondered just what we were in for! Would we have to make a speech? Sing the DKG song solo and a cappella? Do awkward ice-breakers? None of this happened, of course. Instead, we were met by a welcoming committee of women who had worked tirelessly to make a special weekend of learning, sharing, and bonding. We met amazing women who were already leaders in their chapters and schools. We listened to experts and worked in teams. We learned about ourselves and others. We renewed our commitment to working for the greater good in DKG and beyond. It was all that and much more. We learned the importance of leading from your own personal strengths rather than trying to copy others who have very different strengths. We understood that to inspire others, one must instill a sense of trust, president, Joanne Davis, led us on this journey. Most of all, we now have thirty more very good friends to call our own from El Paso to Beaumont, to Amarillo, to Corpus Christi. The Leadership Seminar is a remarkable

During a tour of the Texas State DKG headquarters in Dallas, Jerrie Dooley pauses in the beautiful foyer with International President Dr. Beverly Helms and State President Joanne Davis.

compassion, stability, and hope in those who follow. Our international president, Dr. Beverly Helms, and our state

event to learn new skills and make life-long friends from across the state. Think about applying. The next one is in February of 2015.

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Unifying Project for 2013 State Convention

By Jerrie Dooley Helpful may we be are words we sing in the Delta Kappa Song. Lets put those words into action by participating in the unifying project chosen for the 2013 DKG Texas State Convention in June. Our state organization is partnering with Hands on Central Texas to gather much-needed school supplies for early childhood and middle school students in the Austin area. A call has gone out for individuals and chapters to donate these specific items: bilingual board books, washable markers, safety scissors, construction paper, school glue, kid-friendly or classical music CDs, calculators, #2 pencils, map pencils, pens, white board markers and timer/ stop watches. Look for a special tree at the February meeting where you will find the names of the items hanging from ribbons. Choose a few items to bring to the meetings tion in Austin will deliver the items from our chapter. (See the convention article in this newsletter.) Hands on Central Texas will distribute the items to children in need of a little help for Back to School. In the past, Beta Zeta has generously participated in each unifying project including the United Through Reading Military Project, Treasure Boxes for hospitalized children, and a book drive. Lets show the DKG spirit in Beta Zeta with our gifts for this project! Deeds for others Is the leaven That inspires our band.

in March and April. Beta Zetas who attend the state conven-

Women Shaping Texas

By Helen Usener Take a step back into the Texas that your mothers and grandmothers knew, and discover how their contributions helped forge the Texas that you live in today. The story of Texas wouldn't be complete without the determined women who stepped out and stepped up to fight for rights, improve public services, and help create the state that we know today. "Women Shaping Texas in the 20th Century" is the special exhibit featured now through May 19th at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin. Among the women featured are two of our DKG founders, and DKG is one of the featured organizations. Women are still shaping Texas today check it out!

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Join Us for a Capital Convention

By Jerrie Dooley The countdown has begunjust four more months and a couple of days to blast-off for the 2013 DKG Texas State Convention. Its just a hop, skip, and a jump down to the beautiful Renaissance Hotel in Austin on June 20-22. The list of Beta Zeta participants is growing, with plans to top, maybe double, our 2012 participation! Will you be one of the lucky ones at this always-fun event? Hotel rooms have been reserved for us to share and cut costs, but if you only have a day to spare, plan to go to one day of the event. We have carpools forming if you hate driving in Austin. No excuses just plan to go! Whats happening there? Well, our state president and Beta Zeta sister Joanne Davis will preside before passing the gavel to our new state president. Karen Loeffler will shine in the Belles and a Broadway Beau presentation of chapter presidents. The Broadway Beau is dreamboat performer David Gaschen, best known for performances in Phantom of the Opera in New York and across Europe! He is sure to wow us with his concert performance.

Historic Headquarters
Gleaned from The

Delta Kappa Gamma Society International website by

Helen Usener Have you ever wondered how buildings or locations become part of the Operation Services Administrator National Register of Historic Places? It is Phyllis Hickey and International President Dr. Beverly Helms proud- a process that inly show the plaque. volves research and time. First is an important question is the property old enough and does it still look close to the original? If the property is 50 years old and maintains the integrity of its era, the property is nominated, reviewed, goes through an evaluation and, after meeting rigorous standards, is granted the distinction. Society Headquarters in Austin, Texas opened in the downtown area in 1956. The interior has been decorated since the original pink and blue color scheme but remains much the same in furnishings. In 2012 the building was recognized as a property of the National Register of Historic Places. Dr. Beverly Helms, international president, and Corlea Plowman, executive director, will work with Phyllis Hickey, operation services administrator, Nita Scott, membership services administrator, and Dr. Linda Eller, information services administrator, to establish the ideal location for the distinguished plaque. Congratulations, DKG!

David Gaschen has played the Phantom 1,500 times. There is the always sparkling Birthday Luncheon, the elegant Founders and Presidents Banquet, invigorating programs and speakers, meeting new friends and connecting with old friends from across the state, and the best part bonding with our fabulous Beta Zeta sisters. Its a fact every one of our Beta Zetas who attends a state convention goes back again and most times again and again and again. Yes, it is that good! Registration forms will soon be available on the Texas State Website. Keep watching for more details, and email Karen today at karenjo56@gmail.com to let her know you are going.

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Historical Marker Honors Annie Webb Blanton

Gleaned from The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International website by Helen Usener The Texas Historical Commission has recognized educator and leader Annie Webb Blanton for her significant role in Texas history with a historical marker. The marker will be dedicated at 1:30 p.m. March 1, 2013 outside the Denton school district's Blanton Elementary, 9501 Stacee Lane in Argyle, TX. County Judge Mary Horn and Denton ISD Superintendent Jamie Wilson will speak. Born in Houston in 1870, Blanton began teaching at age 17 in a one-room school in Fayette County. She was hired to teach English at North Texas Normal College, now the University of North Texas, in 1901 and held the rank of associate professor at the Denton school until 1918. She was elected the first woman president of the Texas State Teachers Association in 1916. In 1918, Texas elected her superintendent of public instruction. She was the first woman elected to a Texas public office. Blanton died in 1945.

Dr. Annie Webb Blanton founded Delta Kappa Gamma in 1929.

Scholarships for Aspiring Educators

By Barbara Heinen The Aspiring Educator Award ($500 $1,000) is designed to aid women who are not members of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International who aspire to enter the field of education by taking college hours toward certification or a degree in education. Applicants must be recommended by a Society member. Last summer, Beta Zeta recommended two Texas Tech at Fredericksburg students who won this scholarship, April Fischer-Trujillo and Valentina Salinas. The deadline to apply is March 1st. See Leola Mills for an application. Beta Zeta also gives one $500 Grant-inAid scholarship per year to an education student doing her student teaching in the coming year. Students in Gillespie, Kendall, and Mason counties are eligible to apply. See Leola Mills for information.

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Scholarships Available for Our Members

By Barbara Heinen Do you need money for education? The Texas Organization of The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International has almost $2 million in scholarships available to its members. There are scholarships for graduate studies, continuing adult education, and educational travel. The deadline to apply is March 1. For scholarship guidelines, go to the Alpha State website http:// alphastatetexas.org/ and look under the Scholarships tab. At the chapter level, you are eligible to receive a $100 scholarship from Beta Zeta for conferences, workshops, and continuing education not paid for by your school. Contact Leola Mills for information.

Time to Invite New Members!

By Jerrie Dooley

84th Texas State Convention Austin, Texas June 20-22, 2013 2013 Southwest Regional Convention Branson, Missouri July 28-20, 2013

Dont forget to forward this newsletter to a prospective member, and invite her to attend the February meeting! Recruiting is in full swing. Any current or retired professional educator is eligible, so look down the hall at school, among your fellow retired teachers, or at other educators in our community, and invite one or more of them. Let them experience firsthand the close bonds we share, the informative programs, and the potential for learning new ideas and serving others. Its time to share this gift by offering the benefits of membership to more outstanding educators. If you already have someone in mind and she wants to join us, email Jerrie Dooley at jemdooley@austin.rr.com for directions on the recommendation form. Or fill out the form by yourself: go to http://alphastatetexas.org/pdfs/form11.pdf. The form is interactive and can be filled out and printed from this site. Return it to Dooley at a meeting or mail to 611 Persimmon Court, Fredericksburg, TX 78624. We will vote in April on potential new members, so now is the time to invite them!

BETA ZETA CHAPTER OFFICERS President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Karen Loeffler

The JW Marriott is the site of the International Convention in Indianapolis, IN

First Vice President (programs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Helen Usener Second Vice President (yearbook) . . . . . . . . . . . . Andrea Hudson Treasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Janet Hext Recording Secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beth Luckenbach Corresponding Secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Amy ONeil Parliamentarian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tammy Vitek

July 28-August 1,
2014 Sharing Our Vision Strengthening Our Society