Membership
Report
(Click here
to go to the Membership page)
[membersonly/archives/applications/submitted_applications.htm]
Lisa Wolfe has decided to join our group!
Part 2 of her application is now available online.
Ralph Cunningham will follow up with his
proposed member today.
Greg Stewart "again" proposed Adam Pink of
Adam Pink Salon. Greg will get part 1 of the membership
application completed and then invite Adam to a meeting.
Social Report
(Click here to go to the Social Event page)
The holiday party is on December
3rd. Information was sent out in the mail. If you
did not get your invitation, please contact Althea Bussert.
Payments are due in advance. The deadline to pay is next
Friday, November 19th. There will be lots of
surprises throughout the evening so don't miss it!
Speaker Coordinator Report
(Click here to go to the Speaker Schedule)
- 11/19/04 Gus
Dekavallas
- 11/26/04 No
Meeting
- 12/03/04 Chris
Curran
- 12/10/04 Andy
Jensen
- 12/17/04 Roman
Okonowski
- 12/24/04 No
Meeting
- 12/31/04 No
Meeting
Treasurer Report
Lisa Schnaidt has copies of reports for the
last fiscal year if anyone that would like to see them.
Next quarter statements will be mailed out in 2 weeks.
39-44, 46-28, 20-41, 17-32, 23-29,
23-47, 23-02, 42-45, 12-26 (x2), 12-46, 18-13, 18-17, 24-38,
15-41, 13-32, 11-19, 11-17, 34-13, 34-23, 38-32, 35-30, 35-02,
03-13, 25-28, 25-23, 19-32, 09-28, 48-30.
Phyllis Prater
Parkway Gem Lab
The theme of Phyllis Prater's
talk today is "Gratefulness and Passion". One of the things
she is most grateful for is for being allowed membership in this
group. She sees the passion that we all have for our
businesses.
Phyllis's passion is her family
and it is the reason she works. She and her husband have been
together for over 18 years. He is a "super guy" but also a bit
of an introvert which is why we don't see him too often. They
have several children and grandchildren between the two them.
Phyllis has two daughters from
her first marriage. She was a single parent from the time they
were in grade school. At times they were very poor.
Phyllis's mother had money but she never offered and Phyllis never
asked. Their family believed in working for everything they
had and they trusted that God would provide. Phyllis passed
these beliefs on to her children.
Her oldest is Tara, 38. She
lives in San Francisco. She started with nothing but with the
help of her mom (first 3 months living expenses paid) and
$100,000 inheritance from her grandmother she now owns several
rentals homes, 8 yoga studios and a restaurant with her husband.
Her youngest daughter, Chrissy,
is 33. She has that adventurous spirit that has been passed
down through each generation. All of the females have it.
She hitchhiked from Iowa to Denver and traveled even more from
there. Now she lives in Spain with her husband.
Phyllis loved her dad. She
had a passion for him. He went to war when she was only 18
months and came back when she was four. She can still remember
waiting for him at the train station when he came back from the war.
She was a baby when he left so it was like meeting him for the first
time. By the time they got home from the train station, she
leaned over to her mom and said "I think I'm gonna like him".
They were poor but she didn't know it. They had a great time.
She remembers fondly waiting on the porch everyday for her dad to
come home from work.
Her dad had worked his way up the
ladder. To celebrate his accomplishments they went to Florida
on a month long vacation. They had a wonderful time.
Phyllis was 10 at the time. On the way home they had to stop
on the road because of road construction. She remembers her
dad getting out to stretch and then getting back into the car.
She normally would get out with him but this time she was
preoccupied with her new hermit crab. That was her last memory
of her dad. A truck driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and
crashed into the waiting cars.
The accident happened at 2pm.
It took them 6 hours to get the truck off of their car to get them
out. Her dad was killed by the steering wheel. Her
mother was badly injured. At first they thought Phyllis was
dead and laid her on the road next to her father and covered them
both up. Luckily someone noticed her finger move and they got
her on an ambulance. She finally got to the hospital where
they could treat her at midnight. She had suffered severe
damage to her right arm, two broken legs and brain damage.
They wanted to amputate her arm but her mother wouldn't allow it.
She had to learn everything all over again including how to walk.
Phyllis's mother remarried.
The couple got into the jewelry business. Although Phyllis had
a full-time job as the first female drug rep for Meade-Johnson, she
too helped out in the family business cleaning the shop and playing
gopher. This is where she learned all about the jewelry
business and made the contacts that she still has to this day.
Phyllis did not have a passion
for her step father. He was an alcoholic. But she never
said anything because of her love for her mother. When Phyllis
was 16 her mother got pregnant and gave birth to her "crazy sister".
This child was not born right.
She had many issues including drug abuse. In the 60's she got
involved with drug addicts and robberies. She swindled 1.6
million dollars from the government but they eventually caught her
and threw her in prison.
While there she learned that she
was pregnant. Phyllis begged her not to have an abortion but
to instead give the baby up for adoption to a good Christian home.
Her sister said "yah" right up to the end. Then she gave the
baby to the homeless father. This baby suffered horribly in
this man's care.
Phyllis and her husband were all
set to retire. Everything was planned out to the last detail.
But this was not their fate. Phyllis could not stand by while
her nephew was being abused. After spending over $100,000 in
court costs, Phyllis was finally able to bring this child into her
home. This little boy not only became her son, he became her
greatest passion of all and is the reason she keeps working.
|
Phyllis Prater
5+ year member
Member since August 2002 |
JEWELER
Parkway Gem Lab
1608 East Candlestick Dr., Tempe, AZ 85283
Phone: (480) 820-3838 • FAX: (480) 839-7778
PGL has been in the personal jewelry business for 20 years, specializing
in custom designed jewelry, and utilizing high quality precious
gemstones and precious metals to suit our customer’s specifications. We
also sell a complete line of pre-manufactured jewelry, made by the
finest jewelry fabricators in the country. We do remounts in gold and
platinum, and repair all fine jewelry. Business by appointment only.
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