Gamma Gamma Ray
Newsletter of the Gamma Gamma Chapter
October 2026
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:
Tuesday, October 13th meeting at Our Redeemers
Tuesday, November 17th, AUCTION at Prince of Peace
Thursday, December 10th Dot Art and Dinner at Our Redeemers
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Please read the newsletter in its entirety – there is a lot of information!! Also, please note that we are collecting Children’s book for the Early Child Learning Center in District 54 at our October meeting.
A Sign -up to help with the Friendsgiving/Auction. (This is a different sign-up sheet than the Food sign-up.) will be available at our October meeting. This is for volunteers for different areas of the night.
*Silent Auction Information Sheets will be available at the October meeting for you to take one home to fill out the information for your Silent Auction Entry so it will be ready that day. This way you can avoid having to do it that day.
Book Club News
The Gamma Gamma Book Club usually meets the fourth Tuesday of the month via Zoom, but this fall there are some exceptions.
Upcoming books, dates, and times are as follows:
October 27 The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. Zoom meeting 7:00
December 3 (Thursday) Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. Zoom meeting 7:00
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COMMITTEE REPORTING:
From your treasurer:
No report
Society Business (Finance, Rules, Research)- Nancie Watkins
No report
Membership – Mary Wrobel
Mary will continue to send out virtual birthday cards to members. Membership committee has snacks for our October meeting.
Educational Excellence-Scholarship -Denise Pawelczyk
A big THANK YOU to everyone who contributed gift cards to be used in care packages to our undergraduates by our mentor team!!! Some of you contacted me asking if you could still bring them to our October meeting. Yes, yes, yes! I will be at the meeting, and you can give them to me then! (And, of course, bring those children’s books for the Early Childhood Center holiday gift drive, too!!!)
I am exceptionally excited about our Gamma Gamma auction! We have such a unique, new offering this year: Books to purchase for yourself or to give as gifts! Recently my team of talented wrappers met and wrapped up oodles of incredible books; each representing a plethora of genres. “Blind Date With A Book” is sure to be a hit–so make sure you come armed with cash to scoop up books to give as hostess or holiday gifts!!! Each book will be $20. If you would like to sip while you read, we will have a few bottles of wine available at $10 each to add to the fun. (Wine purchases are optional and are also cash only.)
Due to popular demand, we will be offering a live auction of homemade goods again this year. This will be the ONLY live auction items. We are not auctioning off any other items–so please be generous in your bids. Payment for these items can be made by check. (Example: You can buy several homemade products and pay with one check. Or, if you win a silent auction basket, you can add the homemade goods price onto the price of the basket.)
We will also have our wonderful Silent Auction baskets. If you donate a basket, please make sure all items are new and not used. Silent Auction sheets will be available at our October meeting for you to take with you, so you can fill them out prior to the auction. This year we are requesting that all increase bids be a minimum of $5. You can always make a higher bid, but the minimum increase is $5.
Programs– Kris Beaudette,/Marcy Dubinsky
Oct. 13, 2026
Tuesday
Relationships with your Adult Children
Mary Zajac will talk to us about the challenges of having successful relationships with your adult children. She has presented recently at Our Redeemer’s United Methodist Church and her program was well-received.
Hostesses: Membership
3:30 Setup/Social/Meeting
4:30 Program
Reflection: Linda Szymkowiak
Location: Our Redeemer’s United Methodist Church, 1600 W. Schaumburg Rd.
Service Project: New children’s books
Communication, Linda Wright
Don’t forget to pick up your yearly booklet at the October meeting. If you have a change in any of your information, please let Linda Wright know. We ask you to destroy (shred, burn) your old yearbook/directory. If you would like us to shred your old yearbook/directory, please bring it to the meeting. If you have a change in any of your information, please let Linda Wright know.
Service and Special Projects- Dayna Prochaska
Thank you, members, for your generosity with the gift cards provided at the September meeting for those scholarship students pursuing education.
For the October meeting, we will be collecting new children’s picture books for donation to Early Learning Center in December. Research shows that the best thing parents can do for their children is to read to them daily. Many marginalized and immigrant families do not have books in their home and they are afraid of giving out their confidential information to get a library card. Plus, many don’t have transportation to get to the library. Please consider donating new picture books for newborn-first grade. Since 27 languages are spoken at the ELC, Bilingual (Spanish, Polish, Ukrainian, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Chinese, Japanese, American Sign Language with English) options are appreciated. For those members who prefer online shopping, I have found a lot of titles at both Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com.
February has an international focus, and the committee is in the process of discussing the options offered by the DKG Illinois State Organization-TBD
At the spring celebration banquet in May, we will be collecting for Kenneth Young.
CARE TEAM NEWS:
Please contact Glenda Klein-Mali glendaklein@sbcglobal.net (and Madelynn Brossard, brossardmadelynn1445@gmail.com ) if you have any news for the Care Team. We also love to hear your good news and celebrations! Let us know what you would like shared with your Gamma Gamma sisters.
Many of our chapter sisters have health issues or other situations they are dealing with which prevent them from coming to meetings. If you haven’t heard from a Gamma Gamma sister in a while, please take a moment to call or email her. We can all do our part to check on our members and support them when they need us most.
To all our Gamma Gamma sisters, don’t forget to let us know if you need our support-
The Care Team
OPPORTUNITIES:
To our Gamma Gamma members who are in need of Professional Development credits (PDs), check out the “What’s Happening in DKG Illinois the Week of…” that is forwarded from Bev Johns! There has been, and will continue to be, opportunities to acquire PD credits by Zooming in on some of the programs listed.
Madelynn’s notes:
We had a wonderful meeting in September. We had sign-up sheets for our Friendsgiving and Dot Art activities. I will have them again at our October meeting. We will also have a sign-up sheet for volunteers for our Friendsgiving/Auction. If you can’t make our October meeting but would like to sign up for any of the above-mentioned activities, please text or email me.
WEBSITES TO REMEMBER:
(Hold down control key and click to activate link)
Gamma Gamma chapter: http://www.gammagamma75.org
Illinois State Organization: http://www.deltakappagamma.org/IL
International: http://www.dkg.org
Zoom links for DKG-ISO programs: http://www.ilsozoom.weebly.com (Note: this is a change.)
http://www.YouTube.com. Subscribe to this channel: Delta Kappa Gamma, Illinois, Key Women Educators. Many/most of the slide shows from Zoom programs are saved to this channel. The Zoom sessions are not recorded, but the slides that the presenters used are all saved here, for your convenient viewing.
Facebook Pages to visit:
DKG-Gamma Gamma Chapter
DKG-Illinois Key Women Educators
The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International
DKG-ILSOWIACAR- This is the Facebook page for the Illinois State Organization Women in the Arts Creative Arts Retreat (virtual.)
