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Foundation grants help resource center mission

The Board of Trustees and I thank the Oxford Community Foundation for two grants that help us fulfill our mission to promote self-sufficiency for families in the Talawanda School District. The first grant paid for postage to send post cards announcing the free tax preparation service through The Family Resource Center starting

Feb. 3. The service is directed to taxpayers who are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit. The postcards were sent to all families qualifying for free or reduced price lunches through the Talawanda School District.

The second grant assisted with collaboration that the FRC has with Help Me Grow to distribute free car seats to income eligible families. The grant will be used to purchase the car seats that will be distributed Friday, March 30, at the FRC.

We appreciate their belief in our mission to create, provide and maintain coordination of The Family Resource Center; to offer referrals, selected basic living essentials; and promote self-sufficiency for individuals and families in the Talawanda School District.

Mary Jo Clark

Administrator,

Family Resource Center

Girl Scouts make citizens, not just cookies

Girl Scouts have been ringing your doorbell, greeting you at the grocery and calling you up. It's cookie time. But as much as everyone loves Girl Scout cookies, that's not what Girl Scouting is all about. It's about building tomorrow's leaders today.

Take Emily, for example. Emily joined Girl Scouts as a shy first-grader, and she joined for fun and friendship. Over the past seven years, the fun and friendship have been constants, but so has the leadership development.

As Brownies, Emily's troop decided what activities to pursue. They explored hobbies, learning what they liked and what they didn't, and they gingerly tried leading meetings in pairs. They marched in parades, they took trips, they learned songs.

As Juniors, the girls led every meeting. They had adult support, but the girls ran the show. They chose when to meet and how often, and how to spend the time. Crafts were popular, but so was service. The girls used cookie sale proceeds to buy flowers for a park, to support a food bank and to help an ailing mother. They worked through disagreements on how to raise money and how to spend it, and made progressively tougher decisions as individuals and as a group. They discussed values, too, sharing evolving feelings on friendship, boys and society.

As a Cadette now, service is an even more important part of Emily's life, and a more important part of her learning. By joining in a councilwide project on giving shelter — to either people or animals — Emily is putting her skills, experiences, feelings and knowledge to work to help make the world a better place.

If you were to ask Emily what she gets out of Girl Scouts, she might still say fun and friendship. Her parents, however, see something more when they look at their Girl Scout. They see a girl who stands up for what she believes; a girl who thinks about the world and her place in it; a girl who is a problem-solver.

That's terrific, because that's the mission of Girl Scouting: to build girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place.

Emily and the thousands of other Girl Scouts you'll see this month are those girls.

Barbara Bonifas

CEO of Girl Scouts,

Great Rivers Council

Family of Art Miller says thanks to community

The Family of Arthur F. Miller wishes to thank everyone for their loving care, visits, food, cards and phone calls. We appreciate the many kindnesses during his illness and at the time of his death from Dr. Terry Hunt; Michelle, his nurse; family members; McCullough-Hyde Hospital ER and everyone on the second floor; neighbors and friends; Wren Oxygen; Oxford United Methodist church members and the Rev. Fred Shaw. God bless everyone.

The family of Art Miller

Oxford