My name is Michelle Dinger and I am honored to serve as the 2014-2015 President of The Junior League of Midland, Inc. When I joined the League as a Provisional almost 8 years ago, I was a stay at home mom to a 10 month old and a 3 year old. I was new to Midland and looking for a way to make some friends and get out of the house. I would like to say that I had very noble intentions of getting out into the community and making a difference, but I was more selfish than that. What I really wanted was to make a connection! I wanted to make Midland a home and to feel like I belonged.
With the growth of our population in the past few years, I suspect that we have many Provisionals, new Actives, and Transfers that are joining for the same reasons that I did. They want to make friends, feel a connection, and integrate themselves into the Midland Community. I was extremely successful finding the things that I just listed. I walked into my first Provisional meeting in August of 2006 knowing only 1 person in a room of over 40 women. In May of 2007, I walked out of my Provisional class with 4 friends that I consider my soul mates. These are women that I speak to on a weekly, if not daily basis. These women will be my forever friends. After being placed on various committees, I met even more wonderful women, who have become my best of friends. They are women whom I count on to advise me in the ways of the League and in the ways of life.
Somewhere along the way, I found something more than just a way to be connected. The Junior League of Midland, Inc. gave me a spark! I began serving on committees and found that I was valuable and useful. I could be a stay at home mom and use my skills to make contributions that would benefit our community! I could be creative, solve problems, and step outside of my comfort zone. We hear quite a bit about “getting out of your comfort zone” as League members. I have been challenged in ways I never really imagined. I found myself out of my comfort zone while speaking to a room full of women. It started with reports given at general meetings, continued into my year as a Provisional Trainer and has become a huge part of my life as a League leader over the past few years. I have stepped out of my comfort zone doing radio and television interviews as the Spring Fling Chairman, learning conflict management as a Placement Advisor, learning the structure and importance of Bylaws after re-writing ours last year, and by learning the basics of Parliamentary procedure as a Board member. None of these things came easily to me, but I am so much better of a person for having experienced them. These are little gifts that have been given to me by our League. They are all valuable and important, but the most important gift I’ve been given is belief. The women of this League believed in me. They had faith in me. They took a chance on me. The first time I was asked to chair a committee I was honored and quite frankly, shocked. I accepted the position and found that I could lead. I found that I could be successful because of our wonderful organizational system and because of the support given by our leaders. Not only have I seen my own spark grow, but I have also seen the spark grow in other women. Throughout the years I have seen so many women come into their own as League members. These women range from women with strong opinions to the "quiet" ones who stepped up and took on a role they never imagined. I've seen seen single professional women, working moms and stay at home moms alike all work together to better themselves and their community.
When I was a Placement Advisor a few years ago, a Chairman came in to review her job description in the placement manual. She said something that day that made a light bulb go off in my head. We asked her about potential leaders on her committee and she said, “They are a great group, but they are really young. I don’t know if they’ve figured out yet that they can lead. I’m not sure if they’ve realized their potential.” It hit me right then and there. This League realized my potential and brought out the spark in me before I even knew if was there. What an amazing blessing to be part of an organization that does that! So, with that being said, my theme this year is, “Finding our Spark, Realizing our Potential.” I would like to charge all of our members to look inside themselves and realize the potential that already exists within them. I ask all of us to realize our potential individually and in what we can achieve together. The mission statement of The Junior League of Midland, Inc. is “to develop the potential of women, improve communities, and promote voluntarism.” We will strive daily to develop the potential of our members through training and experiences. I ask us to take it even further. Instead of merely developing our potential, lets add to it the realization of how much potential each of us already has within us. Let’s think big, dream big, take risks, and strive to make an impact in ways that we never thought possible. Let’s put a spark in everything that we do! I ask all of our members to go into their placements in the coming year full of excitement and with the realization that we have the potential to change lives. Not just our lives, but also the lives of everyone that we serve in our community.
Last fall, our League voted to adopt an Issue Based Community Impact Program. In layman’s terms, this means that the majority of our community projects will focus around one issue, which is “Keeping Kids in School-Every Age, Every Stage.” By adopting this system, we are empowering our members. If anyone in the community (including our husband’s!) asks, “What does the Junior League of Midland do?” We have a very specific answer for them now. We "Keep Kids in School" by encouraging student success at "Every Age and Every Stage" of development.
This year, we will focus on community needs by investing our time and resources into our NINE community projects. We have two brand new projects that are League-created that we will begin this year. The first is Reading Olympics. This is a program that partners with the Boys and Girls Club and will promote literacy. Children that participate in this program will be led through exciting literary adventures that will help to foster a love of reading. The second new project is called Volunteers in Midland. This project is a volunteer clearinghouse. Non-profits in Midland can submit an application for the League to supply volunteers to their organization. If the partnership is approved, our members will volunteer their time with this partner. This will help our members to realize their potential to give back to our community and it will help other non-profits in Midland be as successful as they can possibly be.
Our Provisional class will continue to educate the youth of Midland about nutrition and childhood obesity through our Kids in the Kitchen program. Our Suits with Skills program will touch the lives of women and children at both Safe Place and Buckner Family Place. Our two projects, HopeWorks and Journey Summer Camp, that partner with Rays of Hope will speak to the children in our community who have experienced a loss of some kind and will enable them to realize that they have the potential to do great things in their young lives. Our partnership with Centers for Children and Families will continue through the Kids First program. Kids First allows non-custodial parents a chance to visit their children in a supervised setting. This partnership will truly show the Junior League of Midland’s goal to put "Kids First."
Two of our projects will grow this year. Scholarship Clearinghouse will partner with Midland College to help put on their "See MC" event. Face the Race will expand to all four Midland Junior High Schools. Every 7th and 8th grade girl that is enrolled in MISD now has the opportunity to experience this wonderful program!
Our In-League programs will also be full of realized potential. We will have our 4th year of a combined fundraiser in Shotguns and Stilettos. In October, we will have a one-time fundraiser that will solely support our Endowment Fund. It will be called the Next to New Rummage Sale. I hope that you will all attend and show your support. Our Project Research and Development Committee will evaluate our projects this year to make sure we are living up to our potential and meeting needs in the community to the best of our ability. Our Provisional Training team will educate our new members in a new and improved program. Our Tumbleweed Staff, Advisory Planning Committee, Placement Committee, Nominating Committee, Arrangements Committee, Public Relations Team, Webmaster, Grantsman and Operations Committee will all strive to put a spark in everything that they do and realize what they are capable of!
Anne Frank said, “ Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!" My sincere hope is that we will all realize our potential to do great things in the coming year. If we work together, I know that we can put a spark in our lives and into the city that we live in and love.
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