ALPHA UPSILON CHAPTER

MISSISSIPPI STATE ORGANIZATION (ZETA STATE)

THE DELTA KAPPA GAMMA SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL

Members Spotlight

2020 Chapter Officers

Lady Bruce, President; Tammy Krutzfeldt, Vice-President; Belinda Pearce, Secretary; Denise Costello, Treasurer
 

2020 New Members

Lady Bruce, Michele Lee, Lydia Jelinkski

(Not pictured) Carol Ann Davis, Victoria Chargois, and Nancie Simmons

 

Alpha Upsilon STARS

Lady Bruce, Belinda Pearce, Marilynn VanCourt, Jeannine Stone, and Lynda Gilmore are our first recipients of the Alpha Upsilon STAR pin. Alpha Upsilon STAR is a program to encourage and reward members who fully participate and commit to our chapter and DKG throughout the entire year. 

 

Congratulations, LaKeisha Jones

 

2021 Kathy Pair Grant-in-Aid Recipient

Savannah LaFontaine, Alpha Upsilon’s Kathy Pair Grant in Aid recipient, is from Bay St. Louis. She is a 2019 graduate of Hancock High School. While attending HHS, Savannah was a student of Career Pathways and was employed at South Hancock Elementary as a teacher’s assistant. She continues to work as a teacher’s assistant at South Hancock while enrolled at Pearl River Community College in the Teacher’s Assistant Program. Savannah will graduate with her associates degree in May and plans to transfer to William Carey to enroll in their Teacher Education Program. When asked why she entered the field of education, Savannah wrote, “I absolutely love seeing the progress of our children daily. It is a feeling like no other.”

 

2020-2021 Projects

Community Service Project: Backpack Buddies

This year we are supporting two backpack buddy programs, Backpack Buddies of Poplarville and First Baptist Church of Bay St. Louis Backpack Buddies. Both of these programs provide food over the weekend for school-age children who face food insecurity over the weekends. Backpack Buddies makes sure the food gets directly into the hands of the children who need it. Suggested donations are: snack sized Chef Boyardee spaghetti or ravioli; individual Easy Mack & Cheese bowls; pretzels; peanut butter crackers; individual size Goldfish; fruit cups; snack-sized raisins; vegetable cups; juice boxes; cereal or granola bars; individual cereal boxes, oatmeal packets; and pudding or jello cups. 
Once again our members went above and beyond! We ended up with 3 car loads of food for these backpack buddy programs. Thank you to everyone who went the extra mile to make sure none of these children went hungry during the Christmas Holidays.
Alpha Upsilon put Purpose 6 (to stimulate the personal and professional growth of members and to encourage their participation in appropriate programs of action) and Purpose 7 (to inform the members of current economic, social, political and educational issues so that they may participate effectively in a world society) into action this year.

Annual Silent Auction

The Professional Affairs Committee and World Fellowships Committee organize an annual Silent Auction to raise money for our chapter Kathy Pair Grant-in-Aid, the MSO Emergency Fund, the International World Fellowship Fund, Schools for Africa, and our general fund.
 

Supporting Early-Career Educators (SEE)

TEACHER SUPPLY BASKETS

Each year we support early-career educators by supplying them with a basket of "goodies" for their room.  Each recipient has the opportunity to supply a list of "goodies" specific for her room.


This project lasts all year long as we mentor those women educators who are just beginning their teaching careers. One way we do this is through our ECE (Early Career Educator) Baskets. 


This year's recipients are: Carol Fontenot, who teaches at East Hancock Elementary; Emily Pace, who teaches at Poplarville Elementary; and Kimberly Thompson, who teaches at Anniston Elementary. 

Carol Fontenot and Emily Pace received their SEE baskets at our September meeting.  Kimberly Thompson’s basket will be delivered to her.

 

Teachers Night Out

To reach-out to potential new members we attended a Teachers Night Out events sponsored by Infinity Space Center. We gathered information on  prospective members and invited these women to learn more about Delta Kappa Gamma. Hopefully we will gain new members.

Nancy Smith and Karen Fayard shared information about Alpha Upsilon.

Lady Bruce presents one of three door prizes to a lucky winner.