2006 was a very exciting year for the Republican Women of Okaloosa, Federated. We saw an increase of over 60% in membership. A very warm welcome to all of you who have renewed and joined our club in the last year. This report is a recap of what we accomplished in 2006.

In January, the current officers were installed. We will serve a two year term which ends January, 2008. On February 11, a few of us braved the cold weather and walked (some rode) in the FWB Chamber’s Mardi Gras on the Island Parade. We had a new banner made for the parade and have used it at various functions throughout the year.

On March 11, we participated in the Women’s Expo at the Santa Rosa Mall. We did this with ECRW and SSRW and it was a good group effort. Many members from each club came and worked for a few hours. It was our first effort at matching tee shirts. I always enjoy our projects where we all work together.

In March, Henrie Banjavich, Gayle Jacobson and I represented our club at the FFRW Tallahassee days. Our club presented a Resolution on Eminent Domain at the Conference. Also, for the Conference, Barbara Morris made a beautiful gift basket which was presented to FFRW to be auctioned. Our theme was a “Campaign Chest“ and the basket was indeed a chest. The RWOF Board donated all the items that were in the gift basket. And our wonderful publicity chair, Jean Dutton had us all in the Daily News proudly displaying our basket. We also donated books to the Jeb Bush library while we were there. And, in March we began participating in the “Katherine Harris Ten to Win” project which ran for three months. Our club was proud to donate over $600.00 to Katherine’s campaign.

In March, I began giving angels to those who have gone above and beyond for the month by helping and giving freely of their valuable time to help us. It’s not much, but is my sincere token of thanks for what you, the members, do for our club. I gave out 137 angels this year and each month there has been an angel of the month. Kathy Foster was the angel of the year. Honorable mention is given to Marijo Strauss as a close second. There is now an Angel Hall of Fame and those who earn 6 angels will be members.

In April, we began our “Support the Troops” project and Chair Nancy Prater has been a tireless worker for the troops. All of you have been so generous in donating items each month. And the wonderful feedback we receive warms my heart. They are so grateful for everything we do.

We have donated money to the NFRW Betty Rendel, Dorothy Kabis and Marion Martin Scholarships. We also donated a book to the Fort Walton Beach Library in memory of past president Madalyn Boekenoogn.

In June we established the Republican Women of Okaloosa, Federated Scholarship for a young Republican Woman attending OWC. Our $500.00 scholarship will have matching funds in 2007 and will become a $1000.00 scholarship. In August we were proud to announce freshman, Sloan Robbins, as our first winner. Sloan was given an honorary membership in our club until the end of Dec. 2007.

In June we began having candidate forums at our monthly meetings and feedback from that was the members found these forums to be very helpful. We had County Commissioners, School Board, Superintendent of Schools and our own wonderful and unopposed newly elected State Senator Don Gaetz. We had speakers representing Charlie Crist and Katherine Harris. Our year was filled with many interesting and informative speakers.

The last week in June our members began working at Republican Headquarters and worked every Friday for 4 months until the election on November 7^th. A great big thank you to all of you for what you have done for the Republican Party this year.

July was a fun month because we not only marched, walked or rode in the Billy Bowlegs parade, we also helped build the float.

August became a busy month for us with the award of our scholarship and a District 1 meeting in Crestview. We began selling Chris Hughes famous smoked Boston Butts and sold the maximum of 40. The proceeds went to our newly formed Dictionary Project. And we began planning our “Meet and Greet” membership drive with SSRW.

Member and Past President, Lois Hoyt was appointed to the Mid Bay Bridge Authority by Governor Jeb Bush and I was appointed to the National Women’s Health Issues Committee by NFRW president Beverly Davis. In September I attended my first National Board Meeting in Indianapolis, IN.

We endorsed Superintendent of Schools candidate Alexis Tibbetts (who won handily) and did our best (with all the restrictions imposed) to support Terry Ketchel for Circuit Judge. We’re so proud of all our Republican candidates who were elected here in Okaloosa County. And just because we are a 100% Republican County, we will work as hard as ever to keep it that way.

In October we had our big Meet and Greet at the home of Marijo Strauss. Our honored guests were the newly elected county officials and we had a surprise visit from Lt. Governor candidate, Jeff Kottkamp. This was one of our two major highlights of the year. Many many thanks to Libby Hill and SSRW for co hosting this with us. It was a great team effort. With the expertise of Kathy Foster, we started our own web site: www.rwof.org. It looks great. Thank you so much Kathy.

November already seems like an age away so much has happened. Patricia Perri again graciously opened her home to us for her Holiday Magic event. We sold 95 tickets and it was a wonderful afternoon for all who attended. We were even treated to food from Perri’s restaurant.

We gave almost 500 dictionaries to 7 Elementary Schools in the county and have funds to start off next year with 500 dictionaries. We’re looking for other sources for funding for this project, so if you have any ideas, please let us know.

In December, we were treated to a fun Christmas Party by Program Chairman, Elaine Tucker. We played Christmas Bingo and I’m afraid many of us ate our chocolate board covers before the game began. Lucky for us Elaine brought plenty of chocolate. We also donated several boxes of books to Florosa Elementary School and presented Principal Carolyn Lulue with a check for $100.00 for the school.

Most of you who were at the luncheon completed our annual survey. I don’t have the final results and will give you exact details. The responses were mostly very good. But there’s always room for improvement and that was what we were looking for.

I may have missed a few of the things we did this year but we kept busy. I loved every minute of it and hope you did also.

There are a few things in store for next year that are already in the planning stages. If you love a parade, mark your calendars for January 15^th because we are going to participate in the Martin Luther King Day Parade. We’re going to participate in the Women’s Expo at the Mall again. Our FNFRW Tallahassee Days/Spring Conference will be April 22 and 23 and half day on the 24^th. More details will be forthcoming as plans are finalized. And sometime in the spring, probably May or June, we’re going to sponsor our own Women’s Health Fair.

You, the members, are our club. You are the backbone and we cannot do it without your help. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your hard work this year and your dedication to the Republican Party and humanitarian causes.

We’re looking forward to an even bigger and better year in 2007.

Barbara Wall, RWOF President