Donations & Services Provided
2000-2001
So far, For the year 2000-2001 we gave of ourselves in the following ways:
Volunteering time serving dinner to
friends of Grey Bears
January 6, 2001: Pictured from left
to right are Kate, Linda, Michelle, Catherine & Laurie who volunteered their time to
cooking and serving the homeless in Watsonville. Funny & gross image:
"Hot Dog Split" 
1999-2000
For the year 1999-2000 we gave of ourselves:
Our chapter donated monies to Bay Area Lupus, Toronto Children's Hospital, Multiple Sclerosis Canada, as well as other organizations.
Linda and Kate, and other chapter members sponsored walk participants in the 2000 MS Walk for Multiple Sclerosis. Linda could not physically participate this year, due to her pregnancy.
The chapter adopted a family (single mom with two young girls) at Christmas time. We shopped for each family member, and provided a $50 food certificate to a local supermarket. Chapter members Kate, Mary Ann, Michelle, Eve & Amber made personal donations in addition to the $200 total value that the chapter donated.
Kate, Eve, Mary Ann & Laurie donated time to the Watsonville Volunteer Center in December, sorting, folding & separating clothing according to age & gender.
1998-1999
Pajaro Valley Shelter Service's Mother's Day 10K Walk, May 9th, 1999
Kate Totten, daughter Andrea, and Kate's mother, Nancy Thomas participated
in this event to benefit one of our chapter's favorite charities, The Pajaro Valley
Shelter Service. The Mother's Day Walk event has existed for 15 years. This
was the first year Kate, Nancy and Andrea has participated in this Walk, but PVSS has been
one of Tau Beta's favorite charities for years.
The Pajaro Valley Shelter Service is a non-profit organization which was opened in
1983. Sister Marie Wagner founded the shelter in 1982, and is currently on
staff. It provides live-in shelter services to 19 women and their children for up to
3 months. In addition to the Shelter, it has 17 units of transitional housing.
Their services include job training and counselling. Another provision is
free day care to shelter residents, and a sliding scale fee to the transitional housing
residents. To volunteer, or to obtain more information, please call (831)728-5649.
1999 MS Walk for Multiple Sclerosis Sunday April 18, 1999
The MS Walk has been held every April, for 11 years in Northern California with 11 sites. The Monterey Walk Site (the site we participated in) had 200 walkers and raised over $21,000. A good increase from the past year (1998); 124 walkers raised over $14,000. The totals for all of Northern California was 2,404 walkers, who raised over 325,000.00.
Left picture is Tau Beta sister, Kate Totten with her daughter Andrea and
husband Jeremy. This picture was taken at the end of the 1999 MS Walk, after Kate
won a prize from the raffle (one night free at a hotel in San Francisco).
Center picture is the Wichelmann's; Karen, Kyle, Tom and Linda (kneeling).
Dogs: Bailey (Malmute), Elvis (Black Lab/Golden Retriever mix) and Rocky (Golden
Retriever). "At a certain point in the walk, we have a tradition to take a
detour, just a few hundred feet, in order to snap a few photos and to reward our
dogs; they like to run along the beach."
Right picture is the "Kids"; Linda, Kevin and Kyle with dogs, Elvis and
Rocky. Kevin is a friend and co-worker of Kyle Wichelmann (Linda's husband).
Kevin, Karen and Tom, along with Rocky and Elvis participate every year.
Our Tau Beta sister, Linda Wichelmann, has Multiple Sclerosis. She was diagnosed
April 7, 1994. Linda and Kyle's first MS Walk participation was in Gainesville,
Florida, April 1995. They lived in Gainesville for a year while Kyle was attending
the University of Florida for his Masters in Business degree. Linda has had her own
MS Walk team every year since 1996, after moving back to Santa Cruz. The name of her
team for their first year, April 1996, was "Reese's Pieces" (Linda's maiden name
is Reese). In June 1996 Linda and Kyle married, the team was renamed "Wic's
Walkers" for the next MS Walk (1997). Due to MS symptoms, Linda hasn't
"walked" the MS Walk since 1996, Kyle pushes her in a donated wheelchair from a
local pharmacy, called Horsnyder's. In 1997 Linda received a plaque from the
Northern California National Multiple Sclerosis Society for being the MS Walk Abassador
for the Montery walk site. She said a few words of encouragement and thank yous
before cutting the ribbon to start the walk.
If you would like to know more about Multiple Sclerosis, please follow this link: www.nmss.org
1999 AIDS Ride Sunday, June 6, 1999
Since 1994 The AIDS Rides have sent $55 million to AIDS charities across
the nation.
There are different locations, the one we volunteered for starts from San Francisco and
ends in Los Angeles. Tau Beta didn't have their own table, but joined the volunteers
of Trinity Presbyterian Church (of Santa Cruz) at their table.
Trinity's table was located at the
Davenport rest stop (the last rest stop on the first of five days). Trinity's
volunteers provided the riders with lemonade, water, fresh strawberries (donated
by Bruce Mowrey of Driscoll Farms), M&M's, and baked goods. The riders were
very appreciative of the snacks, no other rest stops that day offered such
"goodies".
Jennifer offering big, juicy and fresh
local strawberries
Mary Ann Cooper provided home made chocolate chip cookies even though she was unable to
attend the table. Jennifer (Mary Ann's daughter, and potential pledge) and Linda
Wichelmann volunteered their time at the table for several hours. "A great
experience to meet new friends and share in their adventure!"
said Linda.
Linda (left) & Jennifer (right)
Jennifer 
Jennifer pictured alone
Even though it was a very windy day which made it cold, the sun was out and the view was
beautiful!
Click on AIDS Rides to learn more.