Programs and Events 2019-2020
Executive Board Meetings
Meetings take place on Thursdays at 9:30 a.m. in WWPS board room.
April 9, 2020 canceled
May 7, 2020
Luncheons with General Meeting
Luncheons begin a 12 p.m. at SeaTech on the WWCC campus
April 13, 2020 canceled
May 11, 2020
Walla Walla-Columbia School Retirees Association – Services
Retirement Seminar – Service Project
The Walla Walla-Columbia SRA sponsors a Retirement Planning Seminar for public school employees in the local area.
The seminar is held annually on the third Wednesday in October in the Walla Walla School District board room. In 2019, the seminar was held on October 19. The next seminar will be held in October, 2020.
Each attendee receives a packet containing current materials pertinent to the retirement process.
Representatives from The Department of Retirement, The Health Care Authority (PEBB), VEBA and the Walla Walla School District attend the seminar and make presentations. They provide information about Retirement Plans I, II, and III for TRS, PERS and SERS employees, health insurance (PEBB), health care reimbursement (VEBA), and the retirement procedure at the school district level.
If a school employee is considering retirement, even if it is a few years away, this seminar is a good place to start learning about the retirement process. Most people attend several times before their actual retirement because there is a good deal of information to learn. Each time one attends seminar she/he understands more about the retirement procedure.
No registration is necessary to participate.
Teddy Bear Tea – Fund Raising Activity
Teddy Bear Tea – History
In 2005 Jackie Ormsby suggested to the executive board of the Walla Walla-Columbia School Retirees Association that the unit attempt a new way to fund scholarships – by holding a Teddy Bear Tea. The board agreed and put her in charge of it.
The first Teddy Bear Tea was held in 2007. Jackie became the first chairperson of the tea, assisted by Harriet Michael. Jackie went on to be the lead person for the following ten years. In addition to her leadership, Jackie is also an expert seamstress and bear maker. And for years her basement has been used as a storage area for bear-a-phernalia.
Currently
Jackie has turned over some of the work to others, but she still sews bears and attends the annual event held on the last Saturday in February. Now, she is the unit’s Teddy Bear Tea advisor and bear enthusiast-emeritus.
Some of the attractions at the Bear Tea are: five-course near-high tea, bear store, win-a-bear raffle, silent auction, coloring table, story corner, photography booth, and display tables of “visiting bears” made by local artists, including the “Depping Bears,” and bears made by residents of Washington State Penitentiary.
The fifteenth annual tea was held on February 29, 2020. It was the most successful fund raiser – ever – and the most fun.
The purposes of the tea are:
- a source of income for the scholarship fund – over $25,000 in the first twelve years,
- a community social event,
- a service event for school retirees.
How can you help?
The Teddy Bear Tea needs many volunteers to make the event work. Here are some examples how you can help:
Distributing yard signs, helping with set-up, food preparation, dishwashing, kitchen and hall cleanup.
Help by serving at the tea, baking cookies, donating chocolate, sewing bears and bear apparel, donating items for the bear store or the silent auction
You might help by setting up a display, or reading to children, or greeting guests at the door, or inviting others to attend the tea, and by purchasing Teddy Bear Tea tickets for family and friends.
The next tea will be held in February 2021. Let’s make the sixteenth tea the best ever!
For more information contact: wwcsra@gmail.com
Scholarships – Service Project
Scholarship applications are closed at this time. Applications will reopen on January 1, 2021
The Walla Walla-Columbia School Retirees Association established a memorial scholarship fund in 1982. During that time the association has helped sixty-five prospective teachers by providing scholarship funds during their student-teaching assignments.
Two scholarships are given to students who have graduated from high school in Walla Walla County or Columbia County and are ready to student-teach or do an internship in a school-related program.
The applications are available each year in January through the Blue Mountain Community Foundation. Recipients are honored at the Walla Walla-Columbia School Retirees Association May luncheon.
Mini-Grants-Service Project
Each year WWCSRA provides thirty-two $200 “Mini-Grants” to Active Members of the the Association throughout our region. In the fall and in the spring active members in the outlying school districts of Dayton, Dixie, Columbia Burbank, Prescott, Touchet and Waitsburg and in the city districts of College Place and Walla Walla are invited to submit project applications for the Mini-Grant drawings. Projects are intended to benefit students in a variety of ways (books for classrooms, special field trips, funds for sport activities, etc). Eight names from each of the two districts (outlying district and city district) are drawn at the retired member luncheons in October and again, in February. The recipients are presented with a check for $200. At the April luncheon a presentation is given to retirees to inform them of how active members have used the mini-grant dollars. For more information contact:
Goody Bags-Service Project
Goody bags are assembled twice each year by current school retirees. and distributed to active members (those members who are actively employed and are members of Walla Walla-Columbia School Retirees Association. The bags, containing cookies, candy and a application for one of the $200 mini-grants for the betterment of kids, are delivered to nineteen different locations in Unit 31.
