2019 Favorite Emails

 

Some of My Favorite Emails

Email Sent March 31, 2019

Happy April, TAC'ers!

 

 

 

Be happy -- Don't be an April Fool!

Hope you are enjoying remarkable spring days with family and friends!  Happy Eighth Blast of this eighth year of our scholarship program!  The new donation total is $10,488.25.  To see the current list of donors click on the drive total above or the pictures of Sharon or Janet.

We're about half-way there - to our goal of $20K!  I know.  I know.  I wrote this last week. We're up a bit.

When I think of each of you who has donated, and I think I know most of you, I feel joy!  As I read your name on our TAC report page, I smile.  Your support makes me happy!

I'm going to extend the drive a week or two in the hope that we can get near our drive total of $20,000.  And share the happiness!

 

 

Our Drive History

Our current situation has caused me to think about our drive history, with a focus on mostly my decisions.  To read my complete article click here or on my picture below. To read selected parts keep reading below.

 

  1.  In 2011, then Principal Chris Simpson (soon to be District Superintendent) and I began the first ‘website’ scholarship drive: I would run the drive; he would collect the money.  I explained my values were the result of my community college teaching experience of non-academic, job-oriented  students.
  2. An early decision of having a school committee select the recipients remains very important.  We raise the money; they select the graduates.
  3. With the introduction of the Tiger Pride Alumni Association, the selection process was reviewed by the TPAA directors with website members and school administrators with the result of the three criterion of students, (1) being in good academic standing and at least a “B” average; (2) having demonstrated the Core Expectations; and (3) that financial need is important but not the sole criterion.  To see current students who are meeting the second one click here or on the image below.  You will be moved to Principal LeCrone’s TAC articles.
  4. Now.  We have proof that our process is helping students finance additional schooling.

Please see my comments below, in closing, about connections with us being one county and the connections of happiness and health.  

 

 

Sharon's Challenge!

Sharon Hobart, Class of 1977

Special Attention, Classmates of 1977!

Classmates of the Class of 1977, you are being challenged to donate to the 2019 Scholarhip Drive!   

Your Classmate, Sharon Hobart, will match your donations up to a total of $500. 

Now is a great time!

 

  

 

TPAA VP Stallard

  

Brenda Stallard, TPAA, Vice President

Below are excerts of a longer statement.  Click here

or on Brenda's picture to read all of it.

 

My name is Brenda Stallard. I am currently serving as an officer for the Tiger Pride Alumni Association, and I am a business teacher at Richland County High School. I am not a graduate of Richland County (East Richland) High School. I am a graduate of West Richland High School and a former teacher of West Richland High School. I am a Wildcat at heart, but I have come to love the Tiger.

As a parent of children who were affected by the annexation, I can say the annexation provided them with opportunities they would not have had at West Richland. As a parent and a teacher, I can say that we were made to feel welcome from the very beginning.

We are no longer East and West, we are one.  Our students are Richland County students – we are no longer divided. The success of these students has an effect on all of us in Richland County. I challenge those of you who previously supported West Richland to now support Richland County.

You do not have to be an alumni of East Richland to support Richland County. The division is gone. These kids need your support. Please consider making a contribution to the Tiger Pride Alumni Association.

Brenda Stallard

Vice-President, TPAA

 

 

 

 

To Donate!

Please Mail Checks to

Janet Everette, Treasurer, TPAA

906 East Cherry Street

Olney, IL. 62450

Please make your check out to Tiger Pride Alumni Association

Remember: the Tiger Pride Alumni Association, Ltd., is a charitable, tax-exempt, 501(c) (3) organization.

Janet will mail you a (legal, for your taxes) statement acknowledging your donation.  To do that she needs your help.  Please be sure she knows the donor's name(s), the return mail address, and any special requests.  

Some donors request anonymity.  Some wish their gift, when posted on TAC, include an honor of someone special.   Some request that a challenge to classmates to donate be included. 

 

Remember one hundred percent of your scholarship gift goes to the scholarships! 

(Also, just so that you know, we can accept donations up to a total of $250,000 a year.  I'm just saying.  Richard's Note)

 

Click here or below to visit our Volunteer List

2018 – 2019 Volunteers of 

 Tiger Alumni Center (TAC) and

Tiger Pride Alumni Association (TPAA)

 

 

New Section on TAC: Noble

Click on the above title to visit a new section on TAC that I hope will welcome WRHS alumni to a place with us here at TAC.  

For some time now I've wanted to have something here on TAC to let WRHS alumni know that we wish them well! 

What to do?  First, Welcome to this corner of TAC!

 

Happy Days!

Do you know that there is a direct connection between being happy and being healthy?  There certainly is!

From the Dr. Rudy Tanzi

Here Are Six Ways To Keep Your Brain Healthy:  http://fortune.com/2018/03/20/keep-brain-healthy/

SHIELD (For Your Brain)

  • Sleep:  Get 7 or 8 hours
  • Handle–Manage Stress:  Try not to dwell on worry  -- (the sensations that fears cause is the problem)  Don’t let stress overwhelm you.  It’s the small stresses that are damaging.  Be positive!
  • Interact:  Socialize!   Be social.  Loneliness is a stress.
  • Exercise:  8000 steps.  No need to try to be Superman.   Exercise removes the plague that causes in inflammation leading to alzheimer's
  • Learn:  Learn New Things
  • Diet: Mediterranean/Veg

 

Richard Notes  

All six points above are important.  Sometimes the second, avoiding worry, or being "positive!," is just too challenging. 

You know my greeting to you: Happy Days!  Being positive, having joy in your heart, is very important in good health as well as enjoying life. 

Keep in mind we're talking about the small stresses, ones that we really could/should be able to control.

I learned as a very young teacher, that I had to be in command of my feelings:  Others can try to get in my head by upseting me, hurting me by making me angry.  Try, but they will fail if I remember: I am in command of my feelings.  Said yet again, but in a positive manner, I decide to be happy.

It's normal to feel guilty. Normal to take responsibility.  If you care about people, and you do, you will be open to assuming their anger, their guilt. Don't do that.  Remember Shakespeare's (the father's advice to his traveling son) advice to Hamlet:

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.

(Click on quotation to read the rest of the advice.)

I have a very good friend who follows that advice as a mindset. For example, I have never heard him in over fifty years ever speak badly of anyone!  Even in times of trouble, never.  On the many occasions when I have expressed something negatively, he remained silent.  If I pushed him, he remained calm, not accepting my point of view, but well aware of my feelings.  To this day, he addresses my feelings in some kind way, in positive suggestions.  He may summarize my points; then ask if I have thought of (another view).  Be still!  Think!  Respond when appropriate, appropriately -- positively.

Another example.  At times I was a passenger in my mother's car and witnessed her prevent an accident, being caused by a careless driver.  I can still hear her say, mostly under her breath, "You owe me one!"  In similar situations, too often, I got upset and vented.  When I have avoided such, remembering her 'You owe me" comment, I am pleased.  

Last example, when my son has reported facing hostility, I've advised him,  "When being provoked, 'Be still and smile'."

Being positive, being calm, living in joy, is a mindset.  It takes practice.  Lots of it!  

If you value Shakespeare's advice, then practice and practice it.  Like me you will slip at times and 'vent.'  It is human to error. But many times when we react unkindly, negatively, the situation is really very minor, as we almost immediately realize, and we could have been silent.  Like me, I bet you've wished you would have remained silent.  Maybe thought a second before we opened our mouth.  When such happens, be in command of your feelings and be positive.  To share help; to share joy.  Yes, it's demanding; it's work.  But it does get easier over time.  And, yes, too, it's very rewarding.

 

Okay, enough of me,

Happy Days!

Richard

March 31, 2019