The Bear

First of all, thank you for this honor of allowing me to spend a month with Philamena Bear! Philamena was such a good sport, she never complained when I asked her if I could take her picture.  She didn’t turn her head and look away, she didn’t put her paw in front of my camera lens, or run away to do her hair and makeup!  Luckily for the past several years I had the patroness position as chapter photographer.  Actually when I joined NCL five years ago, the current president at the time, Mary Jo Thomas, created the chapter photographer position just for me. I had a great time photographing all of the main events that our chapter held such as the Holiday Home Tours, Fashion Shows, Ticktocker Days, Philanthropy Fairs, Honors and Intro Events and a couple of the Senior Recognitions.  As chapter photographer, I was doing a job that I loved to do so it really didn’t feel like I was working! I encourage one of you patronesses to step up and volunteer for this position!  It was a great patroness job and an important one to document our girls as they grow up into beautiful young women. You will be glad that you have the photos when senior year comes around and you need those scrapbook photos!

To Philamena, I’ve added another item to your backpack. It’s a small photo album. I encourage each future patroness that receives Philamena, to photograph herself with the bear and her ticktocker, and put this photo in Philamena’s new photo album. That way Philamena can remember each wonderful patroness that took care of her!