[TTA-Nashville] Reminder - no TTA meeting Tues. Dec. 23; and some good news

[TTA Nashville Chapter Mailing List]

Hello, everyone, I hope you're all ready to enjoy the holiday season.  

This is your reminder that our Christmas party on Dec. 6 took the place of our regular monthly meeting.  There will be no meeting Tuesday, December 23.  We'll meet again on Tuesday, January 27, when our speaker will be Kathleen Williams, executive director of the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation.  We will get together at our regular time of 7 p.m. at the Region 2 office of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency on the Ellington Agricultural Center campus.  Here's a link - 

http://atlas.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?latlongtype=decimal&latitude=36.064&longitude=-86.7425&zoom=7

Some great news - and thanks! :  Diane Manas recruited some "elves" and organized a gift-wrapping fundraiser on Sunday, Dec. 14, and on Sat. Dec. 20 at REI,  where generous customers netted $510 for the Cumberland Trail Conference's food fund for the BreakAway program (an alternative spring break during which college students volunteer their time helping build the Cumberland Trail).  Special thanks to Diane and to Karl Dupre, Libby Francis, Ann Hook, Tony Hook (Manager, Cumberland Trail Conference), Jenice Johnson, Sue Lefferts, Dorothy Lesch, Garnett Rush, Jill Tarchala, and Julie Walski. 

For those of you who may not be familiary with BreakAway and what it means to TTA,  here is a good synopsis from Diane:

"BreakAway is an alternative spring break program offered to colleges/universities across the nation where the students voluntarily give up an opportunity to vacation (and party) wherever, and to make a difference in the world (today and for the future), by coming to the Cumberland Plateau and lovingly help to build the Cumberland Trail. Currently, there are about 5-6 colleges signed up each week participating, and they each will send at least 8-12 students, after 4 weeks that's about 20-24 colleges and as many as 190+/- student volunteers. Colleges offer many choices to the students for their Spring Break alternatives so we are very fortunate to know that they REALLY sign on for this - and that THEY make this decision to come here! Keep in mind, it also takes many local volunteers to help with teaching trail building techniques, leading "teams" into the trail work sites, etc. and that this donation also covers their meals - we all know that no one works very well on an empty stomach."

Thanks again to all who supported the gift-wrapping effort, and holiday greetings to all of you.

Cheers,
Nora Beck
nora_beck at comcast.net
615-517-6486 cell
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