Charity League celebrates new members, accomplishments
Published 2:24 am Thursday, April 19, 2012
The Selma Charity League held its Spring Fling Tuesday to welcome and celebrate its 11 new provisional members, older members and incoming and outgoing officers.
New members completed three days of training, learned the history of the league and performed service projects that included tutoring in area public elementary schools, playing bingo with area health facilities such as Cahaba Mental Health, and a signature project that benefited The Salvation Army.
Outgoing president Kaley Atchison said every year the league does something to help The Salvation Army.
“We do the gingerbread wonderland, which is our signature project around Christmas. It’s a fundraiser where kids come and decorate gingerbread homes,” Atchison said. “We give all proceeds to The Salvation Army. We also helped with their barbecue lunch, we adopted 70 angels (Angel Tree) and helped to reestablish the Salvation Army’s mentoring program with adolescent girls.”
Atchison said every month, the league also conducts “infomercials,” where area charitable organizations come before the league and explain their cause and ask for donations or volunteer service.
Incoming president Laura Beth Boyd said under her leadership, she plans for the same fundraising projects to continue.
“I want to continue the good works of the Selma Charity League by meeting the needs of our community, and I also plan to implement other projects to help needy organizations through our planned 2012 fundraiser,” Boyd said.
Five-year members Courtney Utsey and Nan Callaway said they’ve enjoyed their time of service with Selma Charity League. Both are outgoing members.
“It’s a great opportunity to get out and be a part of the community,” Callaway said.
Utsey agrees.
“I really like working with all the community charities like Blue Jean Ball (Journey School), SABRA (and) Habitat,” Utsey said. “Good luck to the incoming class.”
The league’s mission is for charity and to foster interest in economic, educational, civic and cultural conditions of the Selma community.