If there’s one thing the COVID pandemic has taught us, it’s how to roll with the punches, be able to adapt to new ideas, and certainly to ‘think outside the box.’

Three months after the shelter in place took effect in 2020, Santa Clara Chapter had a Daughter’s 50th anniversary with DAR. Problem was: how do we honor and celebrate this momentous milestone?

Regent Nancy Hughes thought we could perhaps wait out the “stay at home” mandate, and properly celebrate our “milestone member” at a meeting in the not too distant future. Well, here we almost a year later and still unsure as to when we will be able to once again have our meetings in person.

Not wanting to wait any longer, the decision was made to do a ‘surprise presentation’ at her home to be caught on our chapter Zoom meeting. The only people privy to this information were a couple of board members and the daughter of our unsuspecting chapter member.

While it might not have been the way we had expected to celebrate Paula Mortensen, it certainly was a lot of fun for the chapter members .

But why stop there? We celebrated other milestone anniversaries asking members with 10, 15 and 20, 25 and 30 years to join our meeting. Using the ‘sin of omission’ we surprised 10 year member, Mary Kay Davis, with the Women in the Arts Recognition Award for her outstanding contribution to the quilting community, both within and outside of DAR.