Rummage Sale 2012

Yard Sale

Okay spouses, after attending conference I got a TON of fun ideas. . .so be excited for this summer and the coming year!!! At the end of May we will be doing a Yard Sale and letting all students, staff, and faculty from the Dental school get rid of their junk and the profits will go into a scholarship for one or two of our students!!!!! So as you do your spring cleaning and send your unwanted items with your spouse to school. They can drop all donations off at Linda Gleason's office and they will be picked up and brought to me to get marked up and sold!!! This may be especially nice for you 4th years wanting to get rid of stuff before you move! We will be taking larger items as well and just scheduling pick up dates for us to come and get those items from you! 

2012 Conference, Stone Mountain GA

Hey Y'all 

I just spent the last 4 days in Stone Mountain GA at the Alliance of the American Dental Association Conference. It was AWESOME!!!! I loved every minute of it! 

I met a fellow student spouse, Aimee, at the airport so that we could ride to the hotel together.

Little did we know that we were the ONLY student spouses at the conference! We felt like celebrities! Everyone wanted to meet us and talk to us and offer any help, advice, and friendship they could! 

We had meetings that were q & a about what we could do with our own alliances, leadership, legistlation, community, and education. It was so amazing! I learned so much and I was SO nice to be surrounded by dental spouses the whole time and be able to ask questions about things that we are going to be facing!!! My eyes were opened to so many things that I had never even thought of! 

This is one of my dear sweet friends Miss Nancy! We had way to much fun together on this fun trip! 

We ate like queens and got treated like royalty. . .here are some goodies we came home with as gifts from the Alliance.

I LOVE that necklace hanging off the bag-good thing we got that bag too because I needed it to put all the extra stuff I got in, so that I could make it home!

Guess who we got to meet?!

(Me, Aimee, Dr. Calnon, Becky, Sue)

That is Dr. Calnon. . .he is the PRESIDENT of the American Dental Association!!!!

We were not disappointed at all in this conference, we loved every minute of it and I brought home more knowledge then I dreamed I would! I can't wait to go next year!!!!

I applied for the "first time attendee" grant and if you want to go next year you can too!!!! I will be applying for the student spouse grant next year because I wouldn't want to miss the fun at Branson MO next April!!!
I can't wait to get somethings set up for upcoming months to share all that I learned! 

Ready Set Brush

For the Ready Set Brush presentations, we made up "goodie bags" we put a brush, toothpaste and sticker in each bag for the kids.

I set up with the Marquette Day Care Center to come in and read to their 2 pre-school classes, as well as 4 pre-school classes, 2 kindergarten classes, and 2 first grades classes from a local school. It was a blast! I took my little boy and he was my “helper” and we read the books and talked to the kids about brushing and going to the dentist. Our secretary Suzi McAffee also went in and read to 2 of the classes with her husband and daughter as well! The kids all loved their goodie bags, and many of the parents talked to me a few days later informing me that their children had come home and taught them the proper way to brush their teeth!

I had SO much fun and can’t wait for the next opportunity I have to go and teach in the schools again! We

bought extra of the baggies so we are all set for next time! All of the classes we went to this year want us back next year and hopefully we can add some more too!

Bake Sale SUCCESS

The bake sale was a success!

We sold out of almost EVERYTHING!

AMAZING!

Thank you to all who contributed in any way!

1st Annual Bake Sale

We are excited to have our first annual bake sale!

Whoever wants to donate goodies and help man the table will be in for a real treat come January when we do something fun with our earnings!

Opening Social Re-Cap

First of all I want to thank those who were able to make it to the Opening Social last night! It was great to be able to explain and talk about some of the things that the alliance has to offer. For those unable to make it I wanted to do a quick re-cap so that we can get some things going if you want to participate in the Alliance this year. 

FIRST-Membership, to become a member of the AADA (the alliance of the american dental association) there is a $5 membership fee. You need to go to http://www.allianceada.org/membership.php and become a member-by doing this you can not only participate in our activites and gain access to all that the alliance assists us with, but it is a HUGE networking tool. I encourage EVERY member to go through and check out the site after you join and pay your $5. ALSO and this is IMPORTANT if you will go and become a member before next week & then let me know that you did so, there is a wonderful woman by the name of Debbie Schrank who is a good friend of Kasey Bruch-Nenn (our facilitator and liaison) she is a BIG believer in the Alliance and she has offered to match everyones $5 membership fee and give us $5 for each new sign up to go into our treasury. This treasury is what we can use to do our different activities. It will be a VERY worth while $5. Especially if you will go through the site and make use of the tools that are available to you. 

SECOND-I cannot stress enough the benefits of becoming members-but the greatest one that I see for us at this point in our lives is the networking it gives us. Not only with other student spouses going through similar things as us, but to the community of NATIONWIDE Dentists. Making connections with dentists all over the country who have gone through graduating and leaving Dental School and starting their own practices/joined practices/or have become employed by some other entity (military, large corporate dental facilities). Their knowledge is priceless and they are SO willing to help. There have many students, who's spouse is active in the alliance, who have gained jobs and found practices to join because of their connections through the alliance. 

THIRD- I have some of the documents that I handed out last night. The first is a small explanation of the things that membership can offer along with the websites of the blog that we have MUSOD, the facebook page that WE have, the facebook page the alliance has, and also the alliances website. The second attachment is a tentative schedule of activities that we will be doing-once again-participation in these activities is contingent on you going to the alliance website above and becoming a member and paying your membership dues. The last is a copy of the grant application if you want to attend conference in April. If you would like copies of these I need you to email me at musodspouses@gmail.com 

Baked Goods Sale:

On December 7th-9th we will be AT the dental school selling baked goods that the members make and books that have been donated for us to sell. The money from this baked goods sell will go into our treasurey for a night out social that we will be doing in January. ALL goodies need be delivered to Brittney Checketts in Cedarburg by Tuesday night the 6th OR to Kasey Bruch-Nenn in Milwaukee. They need to be individually wrapped or wrapped to sell. We want them to look festive. IF you do not have the time or resources to wrap your goodies they need to be delivered by Monday or at the LATEST Tuesday morning at 9:00 a.m. to Brittney. Also if you plan on making goodies please reply to me that you have paid your membership dues and what you plan on making! We would love volunteers to come and help man the table. They will be up from 10-2 Wed-Fri. ANY help that I can get manning the table would be MOST appreciated. 

Brushing is Fun:

In February we will be going to different schools and child care centers to read them a book about brushing their teeth. We will then donate the book to that classroom & I we are trying to get some funds from a few different organizations so that we can get the children goodie bags with toothbrushes and toothpaste in them to give at that time too. If you have a school or program you would like to read for and donate goodie bags I need to know ASAP so I can get a hold of enough books and goodie bags for your location. ALSO you MUST be a member of the alliance to participate in this as they are the ones who donated the books we will be giving away. 

Lastly, the attachment with the application for the grant for the conference. Each year the alliance has a conference. We are invited to attend, if you apply for the grant and are awarded it you they pay for your tickets to the events at the conference-which you MUST attend. They will also give you a $600 allowance for refunds on airfare/hotel/food/car rental. You can bunk with other members. There are a handful of members looking into going this year. I am for sure going (as long as I get the grant) so COME it will be fun and a GREAT way to find out ALL the benefits the alliance has to offer! 

Thank you all again! And PLEASE go and sign up for your membership! REMEMBER the $5 you spend will go right back to you for our January night out! (I would LOVE some idea's on what you would like to do for that night out! & Depending on how well the baked goods sell goes it could be really only be limited by what we are willing to put in!)

I TRULY believe this is an AMAZING program and I highly encourage you to put something forth and give it a try! You will get more back then you put in! And the more you do put in the more you will get back!