September 2009 Newsletter

Katy/West Houston Aggie Moms’ Club
P.O. Box 501
Barker, TX 77413-0501

281-394-8108 (hotline)

Howdy Aggie Moms!

We started the new school year with an exciting indoor Tailgate Party on September 3 rd. As we visited the information tables, we punched our football tickets and then put them in the cooler for door prizes. Guess what Aggie tradition our punches spelled?? That’s right, HOWDY-the friendly greeting Aggies give to welcome you to campus. We will have FUN at our meetings so come see what will happen next! Despite the storms, we had great attendance and our membership is truly growing. We already have 115 paid members. We have many new freshman Moms, transfer moms and “experienced” moms and supporters. All are welcome and I appreciate your interest in our club as we work together for the success of our students.

At our September General Meeting we did not have a guest speaker, so instead we spent the time welcoming and visiting with all of the new and returning members and learning about the Federation of Aggie Moms. Did you know that the Federation consists of more than 120 clubs, in 7 states, with over 8000 members? This year, the Federation’s theme is “Coming Home to Aggieland” and this year our club’s theme will be “Bringing Aggieland Home to Katy.” WHOOP! We also practiced our “WHOOP” and we learned about the Class of 2013. Did you know that the Class of 2013 is larger than the entire enrollment of Texas A&M when the MSC was dedicated in 1951? No wonder the MSC is closed for remodeling.

Thanks to Hospitality Chairs Deb Vaughn and Ellen Schulz for cooking delicious sloppy joes and for coordinating the tasty tailgate snacks. Thanks to the board members for providing refreshments and for their hard work at the first meeting of the school year. We appreciated each board member telling us about their committee and look forward to hearing more from them during the year.

We are proud to announce that the Katy/West Houston Aggie Mom’s Club has funded our second $25,000 Endowed Opportunity Award at the Texas A&M Foundation! The scholarship will be awarded this fall to a deserving student from one of the zip codes our club services and I will let you know the name of our student soon. Thanks to each of you for your support in raising money to fund our various scholarships. Please keep our scholarship fund in mind if you work for a company that will donate to a non-profit organization or if you are personally planning a donation at the end of the calendar year. You will hear more from our Scholarship Chair Val Reeves about the application process in the near future.

Please remind your Aggie Mom friends to join or rejoin our club. Mail your completed membership form to Sylvia Rowehl (her address is on the form that you can download from our website) or bring it to the October Meeting. Our Directory Chair Cathy McMasters will have our new directories ready for the November meeting, so don’t delay, join by October 10 and your name will be in there!

Our Ways and Means ladies: Mary Okrulik and Amy Schreiber will have wonderful Aggie items available for purchase at each of our meetings, at Seasons of Aggieland (October 30-31), and at Parents Weekend Boutique (April 16-17). As a special treat, both before and after our October Meeting, come shop for fall and holiday Aggie soft sculpture items and ornaments from Linda Drago at Quality Designs, Inc . She will make a donation to our club based on items purchased or ordered that evening, so don’t miss this shopping opportunity for those special occasions in your Aggie’s life. We love our new polo shirts, so don’t forget to order yours at the meeting.

Our first Social, at Santorini’s in the Villagio Shopping Center was a huge success! Over 25 ladies met for visiting and great food. Social Chairpersons Onaida Reichen and Theresa Ashton have planned more fun for us with refreshments at the Mercury Bar , and live music on the outdoor stage at Villagio, on October 15 from 6:30-9 PM . The elegant, No Smoking Mercury Bar will offer specials on their panini sandwiches, appetizers and drinks for moms wearing maroon! Also, mark your calendars for “Aggie Moms Appreciation Night” at Reed Arena as the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Volleyball Team BTHO of Colorado on October 17 th at 6:30 PM .

Fall Care Package order forms are available for you to print from our website. You can mail it to Tondi Branch; her address is on the form. Please complete a separate page for each of your students—a great goodie bag with some drinks and food snacks to help them to get through their finals. Quantities are limited, so remember to order now!

Grocery Rebate Program/Ink Cartridges: Please pick up your Randall’s card and Kroger UPC letter from Marie Rockwood so that you can register Aggie Moms as your designated charitable donation. At Kroger’s, you must go to Customer Service and register each year, but at Randall’s you registration carries over each year. These donations go directly to our scholarships. Please also continue to bring your ink cartridges to the meetings. We recycle them at Office Max for printing credit.

If you want the most up-to-date information about our activities and meetings, call anytime day or night to the Katy/West Houston Aggie Moms Club Telephone Hotline# at 281-394-8108.Ann Coker’s lovely voice will keep you informed!

Don’t forget to also go to the website: www.katywesthoustonaggiemoms.com to see our activities, download forms, read the Minutes/Newsletters or to contact Officers/Committee people. Contact our Webmaster Gail Wells if you have something to send. Check it all out!

Aggie Mom Fish Camp/Weekend Retreat : If you want to really learn what it is to be in the Aggie family and be an Aggie Mom: you will HAVE to go to Camp. There you will have a crash course on learning about Texas A&M, their traditions, have FUN like it is one long slumber party weekend, meet new friends, visit with your Aggie, tour the campus, learn Aggie yells (Aggies do not do cheers, they do yells), and do this all while camping at the Hilton. This event begins Friday, November 13 th –Sunday 15 th at noon . Many of our Moms have been several times and some of our moms have even been counselors. So make plans to go. Deadline to register is October 1 st, but the Camp Directors have agreed to take our registrations until our October Meeting. Camp spaces are limited, so please sign up early!!!

We invite you to our November General Meeting on Thursday, October 8 th at 7:00 pm at the Living Word Lutheran Church located at 3700 South Mason Road . The meeting room door that we use faces Westheimer Parkway . Remember this date is the second Thursday because we had a room conflict on the first Thursday, but in November we will go back to our regularly scheduled 1 st Thursday, November 5 th. Sorry for the confusion! We welcome our speaker Dr. Maggie Gartner, Ph.D., Director of Counseling Services at Texas A&M University who will speak about common student adjustment problems and how we can help our students with them. Please come join us for more Aggie fun at this meeting.

Y’all come!!!

Aggie Mom love,

Kay Pontious '79

Katy/West Houston A&M University Mother’s Club
President 2009-2010