Maumelle Civitan

"Building Volunteer Leaders in Clubs Around the World."

D E C E M B E R
V O L U M E

SPECIAL
POINTS OF
INTEREST:
Invite a friend to
come with you
at the next
Maumelle
Civitan meeting.
Dont miss the
Holiday Lights
Display at Lake
Willastein.
Donate a door

INSIDE THIS
ISSUE:
Holiday Lights
Event

Wheelchair
Ramp Project

Civitan
Volunteers

2 0 1 0

I S S U E

1 V

Heeding The C.A.L.L.

he third line of the

Civitan Creed professes: My ears hear
the cry of children and the call
throughout the world for peace,
guidance, progress, and unity.
How appropriate that last
weeks speaker was Mary
Carol Pederson, Executive
Director for The Children
of Arkansas Loved for a
Lifetime (The C.A.L.L.). She
quickly tied in the line from
our creed with her presentation about the mission of her
organization.

prize for our

next meeting.

1 ,

Pederson provided some

startling statistics on the desperate situation of many of
the foster care children in
Arkansas.
Mary
Carol
Pederson,
Executive
Director
for
The
C.A.L.L.
speaks
at a recent
Maumelle
Civitan
meeting.

Did you know that there

are currently over a thousand
foster children in our state
and only 250 or so foster families to care for them?
Over 500 children are available for adoption in Arkansas.
And our state is ranked No. 2
in the number of moves that
children make while in foster
care.
The children are in these
situations through no fault of
their own, Pederson pointed
out, and are desperate for
homes, She called on a sense
of good citizenship as one way
to lead people to consider
becoming a foster care family
and encouraged volunteers to
love and help heal these children and support them in

becoming good citizens themselves.

The mission of The C.A.L.L.
is to educate, equip, and encourage foster volunteers,
said Pederson, and its goal is
to have families waiting to
care for children, instead of
children waiting for foster
families. Unfortunately, there
is currently a need for around
350 more foster families to
handle the childrens care in
Pulaski County alone.
The C.A.L.L. largely works
through churches, linking
members with fast-track
training approved by the Department of Children & Family Services.
Pederson
supplied
handouts, as well. The one
titled, 13 Ways You Can
Serve Children in Foster
Care lists ideas for how
members of the community
can help, including becoming
a foster family, providing respite to foster families, adopting a foster child, supporting a
foster/adoptive family, praying
for the program, spreading
th e w or d , s u p p o rt in g
The C.A.L.L with donations,
Continued on Page 3

PAGE

Maumelle Holiday Lights Program Kicks Off, Dec. 13

The city of Maumelle will
officially mark its Holiday Lights
display on Monday, December
13 from 5:00 to 6:00 pm at Lake
Willastein Park.
The walk-through path features
holiday light displays set up by
local sponsors.
Maumelle Civitan members
are encouraged to attend. Several volunteers helped build the
Civitan display near the front of
the path a few weeks ago.
The scene features a large
lighted Christmas tree against a
backdrop of strings of white

MAUMELLE

CIVITAN

lights, as well as a Civitan logo

banner tied between the trees.
Maumelle Civitan volunteers
purchased candy canes, business
cards, and ribbon, and tied the
bows and cards to the candy
canes to hand out as treats to
visitors at the event Monday
night.
A charity concert sponsored
by First United Methodist Church
will commence at 5:00 pm at the
path entrance.
Admission to this concert
will be canned food items
that will be given to
charity.

VOLUME

1,

ISSUE

1V

PAGE

Volunteer to Help Build Wheelchair Ramp

C

hristmas time is a time

for giving, and what
better way to do so than to
volunteer to help someone
who may be unable to help
themselves?
Maumelle Civitan club members are being given the
opportunity to volunteer to
help build a wooden wheel-

chair ramp for a disabled individual whose home is located in

Bryant, Arkansas.
The building project will take
place Sunday, December 19
beginning around 1:00 pm. Both
men and women are welcome
to volunteer. If you are interested in helping out for this worthy
cause, please contact:

Fred Norman at
(501) 256-4747
for information
on location and
directions, tools
or materials
needed, etc.
Hope to see you
there!

Continued from Page 1

& more! If you or someone

you know is interested in
becoming a foster parent or
volunteering to help out
The C.A.L.L, there will be
an informational meeting on
January 10, 2011, at two area
churches in Little Rock:

1.

Markham Street
Baptist Church

2.

Victory Missionary
Baptist Church

Maumelle Civitan looks forward to joining with The Call in

2011 for a fundraiser or other
special project to help bring
attention to the needs of foster
children in Arkansas. Some
ideas for projects include:

Donations of kids clothing

to The Call Mall.

Walk-a-thon to raise
money and awareness

A party for the foster

children

To find out more about the

mission of The C.A.L.L. in
Pulaski county and throughout Arkansas, or to volunteer
for or donate to the program, please visit the organizations website at:
www.thecallinarkansas.org.
You can sign up online to
follow them on Facebook,
as well.

And the winner is .

Member Lisa Snow was the recipient of the door prize at Tuesday nights
meeting. Attending members names were placed in a basket and a drawing was held for a $25 gift certificate to OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE. If you or
your business or organization would like to donate a door prize for an upcoming meeting, please let President Christy know. Its a great way to get the word out about
a business. Or, why not ask your favorite businesses to donate for some extra PR for their
location? Prize ideas include a product or samples from your business, a gift certificate, a gift
card, or anything youd like to donate. Its a good way to encourage members to attend,
as well!

Civis Out-N-About
Members of both Little Rock and Maumelle Civitan
Clubs have been busy. Below are some photos from
some of their activities. Thanks to all our members

whove so selflessly been active and helped out with

various good causes around Central Arkansas.

Volunteers helped serve Thanksgiving dinner to families

of area hospital patients at Little Rocks Guest House Inn
near St. Vincents Medical Center. Maumelle Volunteers
included Carol Busselle, Mindy Mosier, &
Jennifer Reeves.

Little Rock Civitan club volunteers man a concession

stand at each Razorback football game held at
War Memorial Stadium. Maumelle member
Carol Busselle helped serve up food to fans at a
recent game.

MAUMELLE CIVITAN LEADERSHIP

President: Christy Piechocki

Civis Fred Norman (LR) and Carol Busselle (Maumelle)

were recent guests on KATVs Saturday Daybreak program discussing Civitans Christmas Fruitcake Fundraiser
& a recipe for Dishpan Fruitcake Cookies. To view the
segment and the recipe, go to www.katv.com & search
Civitan Fruitcake Fundraiser.

Directors:

President Elect: John Luallen

Carol Busselle

Secretary: Sylvia Zickel

Paul Fimpel

Treasurer: Ceil Wright

Janice Miles

Chaplain: Lisa Snow

Sargent at Arms:
Stephanie Pruss

E-mail:

maumellecivitan@yahoo.com

Website:

civitan.net/maumelle

Facebook:

Maumelle Civitan Page

Newsletter Editor: Tena Dick, tenardick@yahoo.com