Brea is a relatively conservative community on the northern border of Orange County. Our club has been part of the Federation for 55 years and now has a diverse group of more than 100 club members. Many retired members enjoy coming to 9the regular monthly day meetings. However, we felt we were neglecting to include younger working women that were unable to attend our meetings during the day. Therefore, we began holding monthly evening meetings called “Briefs.”
Ours is not a satellite club. We provide education to those that are unable to come during the day. This puts a great deal of pressure on our fabulous 1st VP, Sue Hamilton, because it means we must locate more than one speaker per month. She has been amazing with this!
Working women need a shorter time frame and an excellent reason to stop by for an hour after a long day at work. Our evening meetings are more "topical" in scope. We provide education about such things as human slave trafficking about which our Congressman, Ed Royce, is actively perusing related legislation. We are also concerned with the increase in prescription drug usage and its effects on our community. In addition, Rebecca Friedrich was asked to present information about her court battle with the California Teachers Union.
With the aid of social media and invitations, these topics bring out not only our members, but also new women that are eager to learn about the topics and how they can get involved. The simple agenda for our Briefs is: We pray, pledge the flag, followed by a speaker and questions from the audience. The meetings are held in a member's home with light refreshments provided.
We also believe that we can "win" more people over to our way of thinking by showing love. Therefore, we do Caring for America projects and Caring for Brea projects. We have provided cookie baskets to our Police and Fire Departments, the VFW Hall, the Military recruiting offices and even the Post Office. With the baskets of cookies we provide literature about our club
In June, we purchased replacement flags for businesses that needed them, and we presented certificates of
Appreciation to several businesses that display our flag daily. By our recognition, they become aware that we are here in Brea and committed to our City.
We have wonderful projects around the holidays for our soldiers. These include sending them Valentines and Mother's Day cards so they can send them home to their loved ones. Our members love participating in all of them.
Our 3rd VP, Annie Ramirez, has been instrumental in providing fund raiser events that draw in many new women. Our 2nd VP, Sharon Paiz, has written many letters and made even more phone calls that haveand take their assignments enthusiastically. Truly, our board is the backbone of our organization!!!
Some women joined our club because we are actually "doing something" rather than just having lunch and listening to a speaker. Women want to participate in changing California politics. We view our activities as ways in which to increase voter turn out. We are a group of women that seriously cares about our city!
We, as Brea Republican women, quietly but consistently, go about the every day business of caring for our City and State. During elections, we work hard. In non-election years, we focus on increasing our membership using a formula that is working for us. We are on Facebook and just designed our own website.
Peggy Westerfield is President of Brea RWF of Orange County.
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GAYLON KASTNER
CFRW Membership Promotion
--- Email: gylnkastner@gmail.coms
