Portales Meet Ups

The Cannon Spouses Club is starting its first ever Portales Meet Ups group! This group aims to help Portales spouses connect and find new places to enjoy. Portales meet ups in the future will include nights out to ENMU arts performances, museums, and is overall about exploring our town. On our first night out we will be visiting the gorgeous wine bar inside of Vines Italian Restaurant, on the Down Town Square, September 10th at 5pm. If any CSC Members are interested in Portales Meet Ups, please contact Kimberli at kimberlirothcsc@gmail.com.

CSC Volunteers in Community

The Annual Ride for Bully Awareness was on Aug 25th! Volunteers, families and about 200 bikers from all over New Mexico came out to support this amazing cause. Our own CSC 1st Vice President (do you think my name would be more appropriate?) was out there representing us and working hard to help the American Legion cook up hundreds of burgers and hotdogs for all those hungry bikers! We wanted to thank all of the families who came out, had fun and showed their support in efforts to stop bullying.

Birthday Cards for Local Children's Homes

By Sarah Berg, Secretary
 
When I volunteered to be the secretary for the CSC I figured I would be responsible for taking notes at meetings, getting the mail, and other basic secretary responsibilities. Upon meeting with Nikki Schmidt (last year’s secretary), I found out one other aspect of my job: sending birthday cards and Wal Mart gift cards to children living in shelters and orphanages in our area. I had no idea the CSC did this! It has become my favorite task every month. I purchase $20 gift cards with CSC funds and tape them inside a birthday card. I write a personal message to each child and send them on their way. The CSC sends approximately 75 cards every year! This is such an amazing way to positively impact the lives of children in our communities. I am humbled and honored to be the catalyst for this gift--- but it is our membership funds and thrift store income that make this possible. Joining the CSC is not just about attending socials and making new friends (although those are two pretty good reasons alone!). When you become a member of the CSC you join an organization that makes a difference in the lives of children in our area. And we can all feel good about that! 

A Note From Our President

Hello, Members!

What a HUGE success!!! Thank you so much for making the first CSC social of the year the best one yet! We had over 60 attendees who mixed and mingled to make speedy connections. I know I made connections with new spouses and I hope you did, too.

Welcome new members who joined our club. I hope your experience as a member of the Cannon Spouses’ Club will help to make your time at Cannon AFB a rewarding experience. 

We have plenty of opportunities for you to get involved and get connected to your community. Please know that the CSC is here for you. We are not just a group that hosts monthly socials. We are designed to be a support system for ALL Cannon spouses: active duty, civilian and retiree spouses alike.

Putting together an event like this is no easy feat so I need to take the time to thank the Elizabeth Stegin and Kimberli Roth for coordinating the event and the CSC board for working together to make sure the night ran smoothly. We have a fabulous, dynamic group of ladies who have a passion for serving all of you.

I’m excited to see what the rest of the year has in store for the CSC. Thanks again and I look forward to serving as your 2013-2014 CSC President.

Sincerely,

Priscilla Swantner

The Cannon Thrift Shop

Did you know that the CSC Spouses’ Club has an amazing Thrift Shop? Did you know that the Thrift Shop operates on a shoestring so that very nearly all of the proceeds can be donated? Did you know that the Thrift Shop is completely staffed with volunteers? The CSC is not just a social club, but also a club committed to raising money to support many worthy organizations such as Wounded Warriors, Spouses Scholarships, and the Portales Children’s Home, just to name a few. A large percentage of those funds come from your Thrift Shop.

We are in need of volunteers! This is a wonderful opportunity to give back to the base community, meet new friends, and earn Volunteer Rewards Points. Volunteers at the Thrift Shop sort donations, organize the shop, help customers, and keep the shop clean. It takes many hands to keep our shop so beautiful! Never been to the Thrift Shop? Come check us out! We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how wonderful it is. 

Your CSC Thrift Shop is in need of donations! We accept furniture, clothes, household items, toys, and shoes just to name a few. Items should be in new or like-new condition. Not sure if your donations can be accepted? Please see the list on the Cannon Thrift Shop FB page for items that are not currently accepted or give us a call. The Thrift Shop re-donates items it cannot carry to the Lighthouse Mission so that every item finds a good home. 

The Thrift Shop is open on Tuesday and Wednesday from 10AM – 2PM and on Thursday from 1PM – 4PM. We are located in the building next to the Library. For more information contact Marci at 575-748-7878 (during Thrift Shop hours only) or 575-218-0880 (cell).

Speed Meeting: Success!!!

Did you have a great time at the Speed Meeting? We sure did! What an incredible turn out we had for our first social of the year - over 70 people came to the Drop Zone. Amazing! It was such a blessing to meet so many positive and sweet ladies (and one gentleman!) that are ready to jump in.

We're so glad that so many of y'all turned up at the social. The Drop Zone did a phenomenal job at providing food and drinks for everybody and it looked like everyone was enjoying the atmosphere. The pre-determined questions made for a wonderful and easy environment. The three minute switch came too quickly all too often for a lot of our ladies!

A huge thank you to all the ladies that worked so hard to make this night happen (especially the free childcare!) - it was so appreciated! Here's to what looks like an incredible year for the spouses of Cannon Air Force Base!

We hope you had as much fun as we did and we can't wait to see you at the next social!!!

CSC Volunteers in Community

Cannon Spouses' Club volunteers are all over the Clovis and Portales area! You can catch our spouses at all sorts of events, like Stuff the Bus this past Saturday (August 3rd) in Portales. We are proud of our community and supporting our Airmen is just a part of what we do as a group. Keep watching our newsfeed for more of what we are up to!

Stuff the Bus collected school supplies for children in need in Portales, NM. Two of our members, Alison Paige and Kimberli Roth, donate their time to the cause.

August Social: Speed Meeting

Meet new people and make new friends - fast! Awesome opportunity to get to know the other members of the Cannon Spouses' Club in a fun and relaxed atmosphere. Join us in the evening for our first social of the year. It's sure to be a great time!

Check out the details on the flyer below! You can read a recap about the event here!

Stay Tuned: This Year's Auction Information

We are busy gearing up for the 2nd Annual Cannon Spouses' Club Charity Auction! Look for more details as the fall goes on - we are working on getting a date solidified. Last year's Auction was a huge success thanks to all of you. So, get your businesses and squadrons ready to attend and show your spirit - you won't want to miss out on this exciting evening.

Silent auction items at the CSC Auction 2012.

Auctioneer Col. David Piech gets the crowd going for an item.

 

An item up for bid - a squadron-made wine basket.

The CSC Gives Back: Last Year In Review

We are all looking forward to the coming year and all of our upcoming events but we thought it was important to share with you our successes from the year  we just finished!  We loved getting  together each month and mingling with other spouses, playing fun games, eating  yummy food!  We have made great friends through the CSC and we have had a good time each and every time we got together. However, we never lost sight of one of our main goals - to raise money so we can support the men and women of Cannon Air Force Base, Clovis and Portales Community organizations and events, and national charities near and dear to our hearts!  Last year was our most successful year in recent memory - we gave away over $20,000 and pledged $9,000 to our scholarship winners to be sent off this fall!

We contributed more than $5,000 to many very worthwhile National Charities, including, Air Force Village, Wounded Warrior Foundation, Special Operations Warrior Foundation and the Air Force Assistance Fund.

We were able to support the surrounding communities of Clovis and Portales by donating over $3,000 to organizations including the Humane Society, The NM Children's Homes, The Local Veteran's Home and The Brickstreet Player's Theatre Group to name a few.

The majority of our fundraising dollars stayed right here on Cannon - supporting the men and women of the 27th SOW.   Diamond Sharp, Cannon Top 3, Welcome Spouse Program, Cannon Air Commando Society, CAFB Company Grade Officers Council, Cannon's  Softball Team, and our Random Acts of Kindness campaign as well as our scholarship winners have all benefited from the money we were able to raise at various events and through the sales at our thrift shop.

We  have already pledged $9,000 this year in scholarship funds to be paid out this fall and we are looking forward to supporting even more organizations and events this year.  Please come out and join us  - it is an opportunity to meet a lot of terrific people and raise a lot of money for fantastic causes!

Play Games with the Gals

One of the many special activities we have at the CSC is our Game Group.  We are a group of spouses who get together once a month to act like kids, get competitive, have fun and play games!  We also open up our game nights to our active duty counterparts to add to the fun!  Often, we will form teams and compete men vs. women - unfortunately the men are up on us if you tally the wins!  Please send your email address to Kim Schumpp (schumpps@mac.com) if you are interested in joining our group.  We will start meeting again in August or September after taking the summer off.   I hope you will join us - food, drink, great company and lots of fun!