Villa Cabrini Academy Alumnae and Friends
Installation of Officers-January 24, 2009
Smokehouse Restaurant, Burbank, California
12 Noon to 3:00 p.m.
May I begin by offering a heart-felt thank you to each of you for all of your prayers and good wishes which have been offered for my husband's continued recovery.
Today we mark the beginning of our 9th year as an organization. It is now time to pass on the baton, but before I do, we must briefly look back over the accomplishments of 2008. For it is indeed those very accomplishments that will, as foundation, help set the direction for 2009.
Because of my distraction since July, I'm afraid I was not able to gather all of your Blue Ribbon Score Sheets. And so, though my information is not complete, nevertheless, it will be sufficient to set out enough accomplishments for which we can all be very proud.
We began the year having raised in excess of $11,000.00 for the benefit of the Woodbury Library, formerly our Cabrini Chapel.
In November of 2007, we designated $5,000.00 of these funds be used for furnishings for the new Raymond E. Enkeboll Courtyard adjacent to the library. This courtyard had its grand opening celebration March 9th, 2008.
I know that our members have continued to support and contribute to the library fund but we have not yet received a financial accounting for 2008.
Today I will pass on to our new President, the solicitation form that we have included in our past mailings of the Villa Voice. We will continue our campaign and, with the appointment of a new library fund chairperson, be back on track in 2009.
In April we gathered for our spring outing taking a ride on the Fillmore and Western Railway. We had a relaxing lunch on our way to Santa Paula. It was quite a gathering of Villa girls, husbands, daughters, mothers, grandmothers, grand children and friends. Plenty of time to visit, make new relationships, and renew the relationships forged so long ago.
The weekend of June 28th and 29th was our weekend to shine. It was time for the long awaited grand opening and champagne reception for Maria Francesca Cabrini: A Woman Before Her Time, an exhibit of historical significance. A year in the planning stages, we alone through our research, our words and our artistic talents brought this exhibit into being. Each of 44 pieces depicts the fulfillment of St. Frances Cabrini's vision for the foothill location she chose in Burbank, California in 1906. Added to that is the history of what became the Villa Cabrini/Woodbury University campus from 1927 to the present day.
We were not to know that Rose Nielsen, President of the Woodbury Library Associates and wife of Woodbury University President Ken Nielsen would gift back to us almost $5,000.00 of the funds we had raised for the library to pay for the professional framing of our exhibit which now hangs in perpetuity in the Los Angeles Times Library Annex on campus.
I believe this to be our crowning achievement, one which Woodbury has decided to include in its ad brochures and on its web site as an important point of interest at the University. This exhibit will continue long into the future to introduce and spread the Cabrini legacy so vital a part of our Mission Statement.
Our fall outing, another reason for Villa girls to gather was held at the Gene Autry Museum with a delicious luncheon that followed at Mimi's Café in Glendale.
Now, neither of our outings, the champagne reception nor our luncheon here today would have gotten off the ground with such ease without the creative genius of social planner, Gisela Slonneger. A big thank you!
Each special event Gisela planned enabled us to raise a little money. After the terrible storm in Swaziland of December 2007, Gisela mounted a letter campaign raising another amount of money specifically for needed repairs to St. Philip's Mission.
And, we must not forget the fabulous and fanciful scarves lovingly made by our Sister Regina and sold to raise more money.
These funds were distributed by the thousands to the Cabrini Mission Foundation in honor of St. Philip's Mission, Swaziland, but we also gave to Dubbo Catholic Mission, Ethiopia, Casa Cabrini, Baguio City, Philippines and our adopted St. Bernard's Elementary School in Los Angeles, California.
These are the big things we have accomplished this year, but they are by no means the only things we have done.
We have continued to reach out to the elderly and shut-ins with visits or assistance to and from doctors and hospitals. Sometimes it is those small things done for someone when no one else is looking that mean the most. Perhaps it is those acts that truly spread that Cabrinian charism which has been instilled in us by the good sisters and is spoken of so often by them.
And we must not forget Mikie volunteering to read to youngsters in the literacy campaign and Sr. Regina's remarkable one woman show as Mother Cabrini where adult parish organizations one after another all over Southern California really get a taste of what Mother Cabrini must have been like.
This year has been full of worthwhile endeavors, and we have stepped forward to embrace the work in full measure. Each of us has given freely of her own time, talent and finances in order to breathe life into our reason for being here. I thank you, ladies, for allowing me to be your President for the last 2 ˝ years. It has indeed been my honor to serve you in this capacity. So, as I must now pass the baton to our new President, I look forward eagerly to new projects not yet revealed. May we continue to experience many more years of joy in these relationships we have forged over the last eight years.
Natalie Cirello Bloxham '60
President, Villa Cabrini Academy Alumnae and Friends