Meeting Recap for December 17, 2012
As you might imagine, Monday’s 80th Annual Daughters’ Day luncheon took on added meaning and provided even more joy and appreciation than usual for the hundreds of guests gathered at the Red Lion Woodlake Hotel to participate in the family-oriented event.
With the room filled with the happy sounds of daughters and granddaughters ranging in age from three months to “would not disclose,” once again the ladies took over meeting management—pushing President Peter Dannenfelser II from the podium (they didn’t have to push too hard).
Kalyn Ruland, granddaughter of Steve and Twila Ruland, grabbed the gavel from President Peter. Kalyn is a senior at New Met High School, a dependent charter school in Sacramento, and a veteran of numerous Daughters’ Day luncheons.
Once again the Lowden family played a significant role in the day’s activities, with 13-year-old Sierra Lowden providing the thought for the day and older sister Taylor acting as Sergeant at Arms. They are the daughters of Daughters’ Day committee chair Jay Lowden. Sierra is an eighth grader at Cooley Middle School in Roseville and Taylor is a junior majoring in speech pathology at Sac State.
Another “sister act,” Audrey and Isabella Solis, led the pledge of allegiance. Audrey is a fifth grader and “Bella” is a first grader, both attending Holy Spirit Parrish School. They are the daughters of Eric and Araceli Solis. They were followed by 12-year-old Jamie Portillo, granddaughter of Elfrena Foord and Bruce Hester, who sang the national anthem. Jamie is in seventh grade at Smythe Academy.
Assisting Taylor Lowden with her Sergeant at Arms duties was 13-year-old Amaya Barnes, an eighth grader at Carden School of Sacramento and granddaughter of Steve and Dorell Heath. She also helped hand out flowers to the daughters and granddaughters as they departed, assisted by Anna and Greta Crumley, daughters of former Daughters’ Day chairman Doug Crumley.
The daughter who traveled the farthest to attend this year’s Daughters’ Day event was Amira Elmallah, daughter of Amin Elmallah, who had come all the way from Egypt to be with her dad.
Carolyn Carr won the prize for the daughter who has been to the most Daughters’ Days (61!). And three-month-old Evelyn Marshall, granddaughter of Norm Marshall, got the prize for the youngest attendee as she began her quest to top Carolyn.
Entertainment was provided by Rachel Deatherage, niece of President Peter, who offered up a stunning array of operatic arias and holiday songs, accompanied on the piano by our First Lady Lori Dannenfelser. Rachel has taken private voice lessons for 10 years and recently graduated from Sonoma State University, majoring in Applied (Performance) Music.
And right on cue, Santa Claus showed up—thanks to Burnie Lenau, who apparently is close friends with the “Jolly Old Elf.”
Once again, Jerry Smith and his crew from Bill Smith Photography took portraits of family groups and Jim Relles of Relles Florist provided the flowers handed out at the end of the meeting.
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The club will be dark the next two Mondays (for Christmas and New Year’s). The next regular meeting will be Jan. 7.