October 25th- Corsicana Daily Sun
CORSICANA - A home tour like no other will set in motion a VOICE fundraiser with Christmas cheer in Corsicana.
The Holiday Gala Home Tour, set to take place from 5-8 p.m. on Dec. 3, will give participants an early opportunity to get in the Christmas spirit with a tour of seven festively decorated Corsicana homes and sample hors d’oeuvres throughout the evening.
Local businesses including Canterbury Court, Victorian Sample, Cassidy’s and jewelry sold by Tressa Watkins will be set up in the homes to give participants an opportunity to begin their Christmas shopping. A percentage of the proceeds from those sales will be given to VOICE.
“It’s something that has never been done here before,” said event co-organizer Fran Townes. “It’s very flexible. There are some nice choices. Some people might just go to the houses for the shopping experiences.”
“It will be a fun-filled evening with a lot of holiday spirit, good times for all and something for everybody,” added event co-organizer Lynda Sloan of VOICE.
Carol singers will perform Christmas songs outside several of the homes as the tour takes place.
Horse drawn buggies and limousines will also be on hand to transport visitors from home to home at no extra cost if they choose not to use their own transport.
“When you tour the homes not only will you go there and see the home, but you will also have the opportunity to have an hors d’oeuvre. There will be several at each home and they will be decorated for the holidays,” Sloan said.
Addresses have not yet been revealed, but the tour will begin on Elmwood Avenue in Corsicana, where folks will be given a ticket or button allowing entrance to the remaining homes and a brochure. The tour will conclude at an address on Governor’s Drive, said Fran Townes, a co-organizer of the event.
Once the tour is concluded, the evening will continue at the same address with the beginning of a separate gala event from 8-12 p.m.. Heavy hors d'oeuvres will be served and the evening will be filled with live entertainment, dancing and Christmas cheer.
Raffle tickets with a grand prize will also be sold at the Gala evening. Four couples will receive a spa service of their choice at the Corsicana Downtown Spa and be taken to the Wicklow Inn. A large gift basket will be given to each couple full of donations from local businesses. The couples will then be picked up by a limousine for a progressive dinner to be held at four different homes before being returned to the Wicklow for late night European snacks and aperitifs. They will then stay the night at the Wicklow Inn and be served breakfast in the morning.
Money raised from the home tour, gala and raffle will help VOICE pay for programs including the Freedom School, the Navarro County College Achievement program, the Training Our Leaders program and La Voz Para La Familia (The voice of the family program), said co-organizer Toni Brown.
Sloan said Brown and Townes have been working 72 hours a week in support of VOICE and described them both as “wonderful volunteers.”
“This has been generously supported by the merchants and the people who have donated their homes for this. It’s been an overwhelming response to support this,” Brown said.
“It’s critical for us to get local support like this because it lets other donors know that we are valuable to the community, that we provide a service that is needed,” Sloan added. “We can’t continue offering all of the programs unless we do receive this local support.”
Prices for the tour are $60 per person. Prices for the separate gala are $125 per person. A combined package for the home tour and gala is $150 per person. Tickets must be pre-booked by calling Gina Dieterichs at VOICE on (903)-872-0180 between now and November 28th. Raffle tickets will cost $20 per ticket or six tickets for $100.
By Deanna Brown Corsicana Daily Sun Thu Apr 26, 2012, 09:25 PM CDT
Corsicana — A sure sign of spring is the VOICE Inc. Spring Luncheon, which was held Thursday at the Cook Center at Navarro College.
Bird cages with candles and greenery along with fresh fruit centerpieces added to the festive spring flair of the Cook Center for this event, in which pulled pork sandwiches, chicken salad, and key lime cupcakes were served, prepared by Bob and Donna O’Toole. Waiters for this event were male leaders in the community and political candidates.
This was the eighth annual spring luncheon for VOICE Inc., which provides services to families and children over an eight-county area. According to Lynda Sloan, CEO of VOICE, over 30,000 children and families were assisted in the last year with programs and services designed to promote healthy lifestyles and healthy families.
Hors d’oevres were served while guests browsed the silent auction items, which included a garden package, a “date night” basket, a “Me Time” package, Texas wines, travel, and more.
C.L. “Buster” Brown III, chairman of the VOICE board of trustees, announced Eric R. Meyers as the recipient for this year’s Gioia Keeney Service to Children Award. Meyers is the president of Oil City Iron Works, the Office of Emergency Management coordinator, vice chairman of Go Texan, is on the board of the Texas Chapter Foundry Education, and has served in the past on the VOICE board of trustees. He is a father, husband and son, and was unable to accept his award in person due to a surgery on Tuesday. His wife, Angela Meyers, accepted the award on his behalf.
“Eric always admired Mrs. Keeney,” she said. “To receive this award in her honor is a highlight to his career.”
Leslie Norris Townsend, comedienne, was the speaker for the luncheon, and began her schtick with a couple of songs, including one called “This List” about her husband and a honey-do list to the tune of Faith Hill’s “This Kiss.”
A married mother of two boys, Townsend lamented about the “honeymoon phase” being over in her marriage about 10 years into it, when her husband’s idea of a big night out is a trip to Wal-Mart to get duct tape.
Originally from Pensacola, Townsend’s career took her to Los Angeles, where she met her husband, who was production manager for Loretta Lynn. He proposed and mentioned living “on a farm,” and in her mind, she pictured Gone with the Wind.
“It wasn’t that way,” Townsend said. “I was pregnant, and one morning he woke me up saying ‘Let’s go pull a calf.’ I said, ‘You know I don’t like aerobics.” So wearing her $65 Reeboks, she saw their prized cow “hunched over really ugly, and the moos were just awful.”
After being a comedienne on the road for 20 years, doing things like “The Tonight Show,” Townsend decided to make a sacrifice to stay home when her sons were little. She found herself yelling at them increasingly, so she began praying for help. She also tried drinking during Oprah Winfrey, just to relax. Going to church, she enlisted more people to pray for her.
“On the fifth year of praying, a miracle happened,” she said. “The school bus came to my house — and the angel of the Lord was driving. He said he’d pick up my son at 8 a.m. and drop him off at 4 p.m. I said, ‘Thank you, Jesus! How much is this going to cost? Can you come on Saturday and Sunday too? The moral of the story is, never give up!”
Sloan followed the speaker thanking the VOICE board, underwriters, sponsors, in-kind sponsors, and Melissa Stacy and the luncheon committee, which includes Tresa Darby, Sue Lagomarsino, Faith Holt, Paula Butler, Rev. Leslie Byrd and Gina Dieterichs
|
Corsicana — Think like a child and learn to laugh at yourself, was the advice from Sally Baskey, keynote speaker at the annual VOICE luncheon Thursday at the Cook Center.
Putting various props on to illustrate her points, Baskey at times wore a tiara, a half-slip to simulate silky blonde hair, a paper doctor’s gown, and finally a full-scale color explosion of mismatched garments that also included a fruit and vegetable-laden hat. “You’ve got to lighten up,” she said as her alter ego Ida Mae Fudpucker.
Read more...
VOICE provides family fun for 'El dia de los ninos'
Read more...
|
Sunday, 05 September 2010 17:06
To Empower children and families to lead healthy and productive lives