May 2019

On Thursday, May 23 at our annual meeting, Nominations Chair Karen Smith presented the following awards for 2018-19!

The FCS Professional of the Year Award recognizes and honors a member for her/his leadership in their profession and outstanding service to this organization. This is the highest organizational award a member can receive.

It is with great pleasure to announce the selection of Susan Vance for this award. Susan epitomizes the criteria for this award because she is a FCS Professional member who has continually given of herself within our organization.

Brian, Susan’s husband, sums Susan up perfectly on Facebook. He said “spent her birthday in the same way she lives her life, full of selfless love for others.”

Since becoming a member Susan has been our newsletter editor & blogger. She coordinated & planned our tour at US Bank Stadium. Susan is the one suggesting we have a Laundry Camp meeting at Mona Williams featuring Patric Richardson. Both of these events had high, high participant raves!

Words that perfectly describe Susan are:

· Kindness for all

· Friendly

· Sympathetic

· Punctual

· Resourceful

· Exceptional

· Thoughtful

· Dependable

· Inspiring

· Admired

In addition to volunteering and sharing her time with Food and Consumer Science Professionals you’ll see Susan volunteering at her children’s school, her church, and in her neighborhood.

Susan has truly made a huge impact with her time and commitment to FCS Professionals over the years. Thank you and congratulations, Susan!

The FCS Volunteer of the Year Award recognizes a member who represents the community- involvement-spirit of FCS Professionals through community outreach/enrichment they perform.

It is with great pleasure to announce the selection of Vicky Cherne for this award. Vicky is genuine, authentic, incredibly kind, and helpful. She absolutely represents the community-involvement-spirit of FCS Professionals through the many community outreach opportunities she partakes in. Vicky is also a wife and mom of three and is very active in her church community, playing a large role in fundraising activities at the parish. She is known for spending her nights and weekends before a bake sale in the kitchen baking and setting up for the fundraisers, even if that means doing so only a few short hours before catching a flight for a work trip.

Vicky is the past national chair of the SOCAP Consumer Packaged Goods committee and the current SOCAP Minnesota Chapter President. As if she has time to spare, she served as President Elect this year for FCS Professionals and helped immensely on the Membership Sub-committee to brainstorm ideas for increasing our member numbers and traveling to local colleges to speak about FCS Professionals encouraging students to join. She is always willing to help us secure meetings at Land O’Lakes headquarters each year, works with the on-campus catering to plan delicious meals that feature Land O’Lakes products, and often volunteers to lead a tour through the Test Kitchens. We are beyond fortunate to have her serve as our FCS Professionals President this upcoming 2019-2020 year and are excited for all of the wonderful accomplishments we will have under her leadership!

Vicky gives of her time and many talents and represents FCS Professionals in the community doing this without seeking recognition. She is very deserving of this award as a small token of appreciation for all she does for FCS Professionals and the many other organizations she volunteers with on a regular basis!  Thank you and congratulations!

The FCS Professionals Spirit Award recognizes a member that’s shown particular championing behavior for FCS Professionals.

Who knows the importance & benefits of belonging to a professional organization? Who wants FCS Professionals to survive & thrive?  It’s our Membership Chair & longtime member Marge Ryerson!

Working to build a strong base for FCSP and keep FCSP strong, Marge:

· Reviewed & redesigned our membership brochure

· Assumed the lead & worked tirelessly on updating our bylaws

· Picked up the membership recruitment pace and diligently hand wrote personal notes to 75 plus non-renewing & potential new members.

· Presented to students at local universities/colleges promoting FCSP and encouraging membership

· Planned a new way to recognize new members at meetings. ($10.00 bill refund)

· Suggested changes for our website working with our administrative assistant

· Attended the Michael Brand presentation and is looking at ways to incorporate his suggestions

The following qualities have been used to describe Marge:

· dependable

· always prepared

· supportive

· organized

· courageous

· motivated

· dedicated

· writes eloquently

Marge has truly made a huge impact with her time and commitment to FCS Professionals. Thank you and congratulations, Marge!

The FCS Professionals Emerging Leader Award recognizes professionals who are new to their industry, have been members of FCS Professionals for 5 years or less, and have made a notable contribution to the organization.

The Emerging Leader Award goes to Lisa Krause. Lisa has been coming to meetings and has enjoyed the networking and learning that are a part of FCS Professionals. In fact, she has agreed to serve on the FCS Professionals Board in 2019-2020 as Nominations and Awards Chair.

Lisa has been in FCS education in the Becker School District. The majority of her career has been in ECFE as a parent educator and coordinator of the Early Childhood and School Readiness programs. Recently she changed positions and is a middle school FCS teacher in Becker. She is a life-long learner currently taking classes in Kitchen and Bath design!

Not only is Lisa an excellent educator but a wonderful mother and wife. She volunteers with her family at Operation Christmas Child, the St. Cloud Salvation Army serving meals together on Christmas Day, and Cyclehealth events.

In February Lisa received recognition at the MAFCS Symposium receiving a best practice grant to purchase funds for a classroom photography studio to be used in the eighth grade Life Skills class. She shared, “During the class experience students are taught basic food photography concepts that they then use in lab experiences as well as a final project. The studio provides all lab groups a professional experience to demonstrate the skills they have learned and are mastering. Students use the photographs to complete final evaluations of their culinary unit experiences.”

We are excited to welcome Lisa to the FCS Professionals Board and look forward to the leadership she will add to our organization. Thank you and congratulations, Lisa!

The FCS Professionals Behind-the-Scenes-Star Award recognizes a member who works diligently to execute programming, results, and/or innovation, within the organization but aren’t in any formal position on the board.

Who has a genuine big smile? Who is always poised & professional? Who loves the world of FACS? Who is supportive of FCSP programming? Who has been coming to our meetings for several years and joined this year?

It is Alyssa Ambrosius! Alyssa is our supportive & shining star. For our 2019-2020 year, Alyssa has volunteered to help programming with innovative & creative ideas and venues. Programming is looking forward to her suggestions!

In addition to Alyssa supporting and actively participating in FCSP programming, Alyssa has:

· Been a contributor to the MN FACS Frameworks collaborative project

· Diligently worked on MAFCS Annual Conferences recruiting presenters & creating conference themes

· Is an innovative and enthusiastic Family & Consumer Science Teacher at Monticello High School with a really cool indoor school garden in the FACS department

· Co-authored a Farm to School curriculum available at LearningZoneXpress

· Supports Twin Cities Girls On the Run

· Is organizing the 2nd Annual FCS Summer Career Pathway: Culinary Arts Farm 2 FCS Symposium on June 20th at St. Paul College

Alyssa has truly made a huge impact with her time and commitment to FACS in Minnesota over the last few years and I am honored to present this award to her. Thank you and congratulations, Alyssa!

The first attempt of our April meeting was sidelined by an unwelcomed April snow storm!  The skies were clear on Thursday, April 25 and FCS Professionals and their guests were treated to a fantastic program at the Mona Williams store at Mall of America.  Our speaker for the evening was Patric Richardson, also known as “The Laundry Evangelist”, owner of Mona Williams.  Participants snacked on individual meat, cheese and cracker trays and yummy desserts while learning from Patric!

Patric’s love of beautiful clothing began as a child growing up in Kentucky.  His granny loved designer clothing but there was not a dry cleaner in town so she learned how to wash the clothing herself and passed along this knowledge to him.  Patric also studied textiles in college and learned more about fabrics and their care.  He came to Minnesota when he was hired by Neiman Marcus and then went onto a management position at Nordstrom.  He opened Mona Williams first in Minneapolis and then moved the store to Mall of America.

Patric shared more tips and tricks about laundry than one could possibly put in a blog post!  For those that were unable to attend, Patric holds public “Laundry Camp” sessions.  Tickets are free but must be reserved in advance.  Click here for dates and times.  Also, Patric has a book that will be published within the next year!

Some highlights from Laundry Camp

• You can machine wash anything–except wedding dresses and fur coats.  Those can be washed in the bathtub!  Yes–you can machine wash your wool coat and favorite suit!
• Never use fabric softener or dryer sheets–they coat the fabric with oil making it harder to remove stains, increase fire risk, and contain chemicals known to disrupt your endocrine system! Use wool balls with drops of essential oil instead.
• If you have “crunchy towels” it’s likely they are full of detergent–we use way too much detergent.  One Tide Pod could wash 5 loads of laundry! Use 1 T soap or 3 T commercial detergent per load
• Always wash on “warm” cycle–never cold.  The cold setting is too cold to activate the detergent so the residue stays in your clothes
• Never use bleach
• Athleisure items and swimming suits should be their own load.  Add 1 T bleach alternative to the load to get them clean.  Bacteria tends to build up in spandex.
• If you have an extra dirty load of laundry, add 1/4 c baking soda.  He recommends getting the big bag from Sam’s Club or Costco
• There is no such thing as a “set stain”.  Some stains take more effort–but he believes you can get out any stain
• Treat the stain immediately before washing.  Do not pre-treat and then throw into the hamper for a few days

If you want to learn all of his tricks I highly recommend attending Laundry Camp.  His enthusiasm and wit are so endearing and bullet points just don’t do it justice!

• 

Mona Williams is located on the first floor between Nordstrom and Macy’s.  Thank you to Patric and his assistant Martha for a wonderful evening!