Been waiting for pics but haven't gotten them yet so guess I'll just have to write 1000 words! That's hard for me to do so I'll just copy Kathy Patrick's announcement for our Southwest Louisiana Pulpwood Queens Book Club to have been honored with her Diamond Tiara Award! Queens you are fabulous!!!!
January 12, 2012
Jefferson, Texas - As the founder of the now 525 chapters of The Pulpwood Queens Book Club, making us the largest "meeting and discussing" book club in the world I would officially like to announce our award winners for this past 2011 year:
2011 Pulpwood Queens Books of the Year!
Pulpwood Queen Book of the Year - "Georgia Bottoms" by Mark Childress
Pulpwood Queen Bonus Book of the Year - "as the sycamore grows" by Jennie Helderman
Pulpwood Queen Teen to Adult Crossover Book of the Year - "Scout, Atticus, and Boo" by Mary McDough Murphy
Pulpwood Queen Children's Book of the Year - "Man in the Moon" by William Joyce
Other presentations and awards are:
The Doug Marlette Award - Teri Tanner, owner of A Real Bookstore in Fairview, Dallas, Texas. This award is giving in loving memory of Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist, author, and Pulpwood Queen favorite, the late, great Doug Marlette. Past recipients include Marly Rusoff, Mary Gay Shipley, and Sonny Brewer.
The Kat Award to Phil Latham, Editor/Publisher of The Marshall News Messenger. This award is given to someone in the media who goes beyond the call on promoting literacy.
The Diamond Tiara Award goes to:
Queen Mary Grove of The Pulpwood Queens of Anchorage, Alaska who has started five chapters of the Pulpwood Queens including one in a women's prison, The Pulpwood Queens of Hiland Meadows and now the NEW The Paroled Pulpwood Queens of ALASKA!
Queen Alyse Urice of The Golden Pulpwood Queens of Golden, Colorado for personally gathering books through the Literacy & Hope Project and distributed $16,700 books last year to homeless shelters, libraries, and schools and included creating an elementary school library too. Queen Alyse is also starting in February a new book club for homeless women.
Queen Kay Huck of The Pulpwood Queens of Southwest Louisiana for providing books and textbooks for an entire school since their chapter started in Nicaragua and even make mission trips there to provide the books.
This is a NEW award this year to recognize a Head Queen who runs a Pulpwood Queen chapter/chapters who set the standard for providing excellence and raising the bar in promoting literacy and thus being the "diamonds" in our Pulpwood Queen tiaras which like our motto, "Tiaras are mandatory and reading good books is the RULE"!
We are not your mama's book club. We are a book club that is not only having BIG TIME FUN while we are reading but we are making a BIG TIME DIFFERENCE!
The sole purpose of the Pulpwood Queens Book Clubs is to promote authors, books, reading, literacy, reading and help undiscovered authors get discovered in a really big way! Also The Pulpwood Queens have adopted The Dolly Parton Imagination Library atwww.imaginationlibrary.com as their charity of choice and raised over $6,000 last year for this project. Each year at Girlfriend Weekend, all 50 authors who attend donate a personal item that ties in with their book to autograph and silent auction. This year will be doing so again and if that is not enough another press release as follows:
PRESS RELEASE
$20,000 Granted to Northeast Texas Schools to Promote Literacy
$20,000 Granted to Northeast Texas Schools to Promote Literacy
Kathy Patrick, founder of the Pulpwood Queen Book Club, and Pulitzer Prize finalist author John Berendt will present checks to librarians from Jefferson and Linden-Kildare school districts during an awards ceremony at the 12th Anniversary Girlfriend Weekend Author Extravaganza in Jefferson, Texas. The checks being presented are from the Burt and Nancy Marans Charitable Fund with East Texas Communities Foundation. Totaling $20,000, the grants will be distributed to six Northeast Texas school districts allowing these area schools to purchase over 1,300 books for school libraries.
With ongoing budget cuts to school libraries, Patrick’s local book club chapter has stepped forward by working with donors to fund book purchases for school libraries. An advocate for literacy, Mr. Marans hailed literacy and education as keys to individual success and advancement in life. Prior to his death, he frequently participated in volunteer reading programs at elementary schools.
Kathy Patrick’s Pulpwood Queen Book Club is based in Jefferson, Texas, and is the nation’s largest book club with 525 chapters nationwide and in 15 countries. The Pulpwood Queens’ primary focus is promoting literacy.
East Texas Communities Foundation is a nonprofit corporation serving 32 counties in East Texas. In 2010, the Foundation distributed a record $4.89 million in grants and manages over $46 million in 173 unique charitable funds which support non-profit organizations and student scholarships.
Our congratulations to all the winners and for more information you may contact Kathy L. Patrick at 903-445-2353 or emailkathy@beautyandthebook.com.
Kathy L. Patrick
Author of "The Pulpwood Queens' Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life", Grand Central Publishing
Founder of the Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs
Beauty and the Book
608 North Polk Street
Jefferson, Texas 75657
