March 2025 March 2025 | Page 10

A10 March 2025 Charbonneau Villager

Charbonneau Women’ s Association

By BEE BENESH

The managing director of Broadway Rose Theater will speak at upcoming meeting

As I am writing we have just finished enjoying our February Luncheon Tea. The decorations team of Carol Riley and Barb Patch

BENESH really embraced the

theme of Valentine’ s Day plus the early 1900s era of Georgiana and Henry Pittock, who were the subject of the day’ s program. We had lace fans and red napkin roses on the tables. The buffet table by It’ s Party Time also looked lovely and included tiered plates of tea sandwiches, scones and little tarts. Mary Hutchins portrayed Mrs. Pittock and her husband Mike, as her chauffeur, chimed in with parts of the story. It was a fascinating glimpse into Georgiana’ s trip on the Oregon Trail as a 9-year-old and the history of the early years of the city of Portland.

Now it is on to March and our luncheon and general meeting on Monday, March 10. We will have a very special guest speaker that day. Dan Murphy, managing director of Broadway Rose Theater in Tualatin will be with us to speak about their“ electrifying” 2025 season. Mr. Murphy is well known in the Portland area as he and his wife, producing artistic director Sharon Maroney, founded Broadway Rose. His theater credits extend well beyond Oregon too. He has acting and directing credits in places such as Birmingham, Alabama and Lancaster, Pennsylvania as well as the riverboats which travel the

Teena Barnett, of the program committee, greets Mary Hutchins, who is in costume as Georgiana Pittock.

Mississippi River. He is not only knowledgeable, but also passionate about musical theater and a very engaging speaker. I am sure that those of us in the Charbonneau community who are familiar with Broadway Rose will be delighted to hear that he will be presenting the program that day. If you are not familiar with Mr. Murphy, I urge you to come and hear about the excellent musicals on stage just a short drive north on I-5. The cost for our luncheon is $ 32 for members and $ 37 for non-member guests. You may attend one CWA event as a guest before joining the group. The sign-up book is available in the closet of the Activity Center until noon Thursday, March 6.

CWA has a luncheon coming up April 14 and then a luncheon and fashion show on May 12, which will end the club activity year. Our events, which serve as our general meetings, are almost always held on the second Monday of the month from September through May. The board including the committee chairmen meet on the first Monday of the month for about an hour starting at 9 a. m. We are beginning to gather names

COURTESY PHOTOS

New Charbonneau resident Cynthia Tesitore chats with Amy Day at our Valentine Tea. of members who will be willing to serve on next year’ s board. Every year some of the board members“ retire” and so we always need new people to work, and it is good for the organization to have new people in leadership. You are never“ too new” to the club to volunteer and we would also welcome back those who may have served in the past. Most positions are filled with more than one person and we all cover for each other and pitch in when needed. You need not worry about being expected to be able to make every meeting. Please consider joining in the camaraderie and fun of helping the CWA continue to prosper and provide fellowship for the women of Charbonneau. I am happy to speak with you at any time about being part of the leadership team.

Solo Sisters

By CANDY FERGUSON

Great year ahead for Solo Sisters

Following our inaugural 2025 Solo Sisters meeting in January and a very successful planning committee meeting in early February, I am feeling very good about the future of our organization. Recently, I had been unhappy with my role as co-chair because I

FERGUSON have held it for over six years now, was feeling stale and was beginning to think I should step away and allow new people with new ideas to take my place. Fortunately, without resigning, we do have two new members on our planning committee and I for one feel re-energized. We did lose Shirley Wilkinson, as she pursues other interests. Shirley brought in several new programs while on the committee, including painting and crafts at Red Chair Farm in Canby, and the beekeepers who spoke to us last year and were very informative and popular with our attendees. We will definitely miss having Shirley on the committee.

We have added two new members, and they are Gail Mann and Joann Caravalho. Gail is wonderfully organized, creative, detail oriented and thorough on any project assigned to her. Joann, who I am just getting to know, has a wonderful sense of humor, asks sharp questions and isn’ t afraid to speak up during discussions at our meetings. Welcome, ladies! I felt a huge boost in energy when you two joined our team.

In January, we held a potluck dinner( not just salad and apps) which was very popular with our members. When I went home from that event, I was bursting with positive energy. In the course of two hours, I had two additional members express interest in joining the planning committee, another member said she would like to be a presenter and her subject was very interesting. A third person offered to write a Solo Sisters Villager article for me. Now that was an amazing offer and the first of its kind in six-plus years! Thank you, Georgia, I will be taking you up on that.

So the future of Solo Sisters shines bright. As we worked on plans for 2025, we came up with several topics we would like to find speakers for, we discussed a couple of new restaurants we would like to check out for possible happy hours and we came up with a new idea for our February meeting, an Accessories Swap. In a future article, I’ ll let you know how that goes!

And if you are a single woman living in Charbonneau and would like to meet some lovely women with whom to make friends, please contact our membership chair, Deanna Morgan at deannamorgan @ gmail. com, and she will be in touch.