August 18, 2010

Dear Friends:

As we end the summer season and begin our 2010-2011 meeting schedule, I hope this finds you well and everyone had a great summer. Our meetings will be begin after our summer break on September 16th –please check our website for all our meetings monthly and topics of the month. We hope you all will attend the meetings and share the evening of discussion and speakers.

On August 14th, our annual Scholarship Banquet was held at the UNF University Center. Scholarships were presented to ten recipients. As each one of the recipients spoke before receiving their $1,000 check for the Fall Semester, we all realized why this project is the most amazing thing our chapter has accomplished. This year boasted another wonderful group of recipients who will also receive an additional $1,000 at the beginning of the Spring Semester if they keep up their hard work and meet all the requirements. Many thanks are extended to our two past recipients, Emily Rokosch and Ernie Selorio who spoke so eloquently. A special thanks and appreciation also go to Ryan Miller, Coordinator of the UNF LGBT Resource Center, for his welcome remarks and his continued support.

Thanks to Dan Harris and Dean Fountain of Dan Harris Photo Art, Andy Barber for his harp entertainment, Maria Taylor for reading the PFLAG Vision and Mission, the gorgeous flower arrangements by Michael Smith of Wilson’s Limited, Rabbi Mona Decker’s invocation and Debbie Carter and Sandy Barnhart for checking all our guests in. And we cannot forget the wonderful Master of Ceremonies, Wayne Blackburn, who always does a stellar job.

All of the evening would not be possible without our Partners in Scholarship who contribute to our recipients and allows us to give $2,000 scholarships. Please think about becoming a partner also. Our Scholarship Selection Committee and all of you who attended and made this the largest dinner we have ever had. We appreciate all of you. The next large project for us will be the Billboards. Keep an eye out, they will be up during Gay Pride in October this year. Thank you to all whom have contributed to this fund.

Before I let you go, I invite you to a look through our brand new website brought to you by Communications Strategists, Inc. and Jonathan Stem. Jonathan worked to bring a new image to PFLAG of Jacksonville and did our chapter justice. We are looking forward to a year filled with seeing all of you at the meetings.

Sincerely,

Frieda Saraga
President PFLAG of Jacksonville