The luncheon was held at the very beautiful Broetje House
(pronounced "Broach-ee") in Milwaukie, Oregon (www.thebroetjehouse.com),
planned and hosted by Queen Karlene Ernst of the Classy Red
Hatters in St. Johns, and Queen Jill Davis of the Crimson
Crones in Beaverton. Unfortunately, Queen Karlene was
in Arizona and regrettably couldn't attend, and Queen Jill hosted
with a bad cold. There
were 74 attendees at the 3rd Annual Queens Luncheon. Most were
queens, and some were Vice Queens or "Email
Femails".
Two Crimson
Crones, Marilyn Harris and Clara Kries, were
invaluable assistants greeting everyone at the registration desk,
making name badges, and handing out tickets for door prize drawings.
Queen Jill forgot to acknowledge and thank them in front of the
entire group, so I hope this will somewhat make up for the oversight.
Queen
Jill spoke first, introducing herself, and welcoming the many new
queens and returning queens from Oregon and Vancouver. She gave
a little history of the Red Hat Society in Oregon, which began
January 26, 2001 with nine chapters. Now four years and two
months later, there are more than 400 chapters and and it's still
growing. Photos from that very first meeting can be seen at www.crimsoncrones.net.
Click on Events Photo Album, then scroll to the bottom of the
Event List to view the very first red hat meeting in
Portland.
We then
went around the room, each gal introducing herself, her chapter name
and city, and any comments about successful events or other items to
share to help give each other ideas. At the same time, table by
table, hatters went to the buffet line to bring back a delicious plate
filled with quiche, Ceasar salad, pinwheels of meat and cheese, fresh
fruit, and chocolate & lemon mousse.
Many
queens donated doorprizes to go along with the items that Queens
Karlene and Jill had planned as gifts. Every 10
minutes or so, Queen Jill would announce it was time for more
door prizes and three or four were given out before the next queen
stood up to speak.
Photos
were taken during the luncheon and are shown below. The photos
in the first three rows were taken by Queen Micheil-Ann Gill from Ladies
of the Pioneer in Gresham, Oregon. The second three rows
were taken by Queen Verna Stultz of Babes in the Woods in
Estacada, Oregon. Thank you both so much for these wonderful
memories.
If
anyone else has photos they would like to share, please email them or
snail mail them for scanning, to Queen Jill Davis, and they
will be added to the website. Scanned photos will be returned
upon request.
The Queens'
Luncheon (or Tea) is always held on the first Saturday in March,
so be sure to mark your calendars for next year on March 4,
2006. The hosting queen will be Dee Brown Smith of the Red
Halos in Salem.
Please
remember to ask any queens that you meet if they know about the annual
Queens' Luncheon. If they don't, then they are not on the
list and we would like to add them to the list to receive
information about upcoming events. Would you please email Queen
Jill with their name and email address and telephone number,
or give them mine.
Thank
you and see you next year.