Saskatchewan - Joan Helmsing,  Provincial Rep and Chair, Regina & area Royal Court

Our Royal Court provides Communication, Consideration and Cooperation to all our precious Jewels in Saskatchewan. The Southern Saskatchewan Royal Court of the Crown Jewels of Canada includes 12 chapters in Regina and 6 chapters in 5 rural communities in close proximity to Regina. There is one other Regina chapter and 7 other rural chapters who, up to this point, have not participated in the Royal Court. We generally meet in Regina because most of our members live in this community. One of my goals is to approach the non-attending chapters again to see if we can get them involved at a provincial level. Unfortunately, some chapters are in communities far away from Regina and travel on our winter roads is often a challenging proposition. We have had a few meetings outside of Regina and are certainly willing to consider an alternate venue if we are invited by chapters into their community.

Our Royal Court meets on the 3rd Tuesday of each month, except when there are Royal Court events. We encourage Queens and Vice-Queens to attend, and, if they cannot, to send a representative. At our gatherings we have a meeting to discuss current affairs, lunch and birthday wishes with goodies!! We laugh a lot and enjoy the camaraderie. We encourage members to "dress up" for special occasion months including "Valentine's Day", "St. Patrick's Day", "Easter", "Hallowe'en" and "Christmas". Our Royal Court keeps in touch with the chapter members through their queens regarding local activities which may be of interest. Minutes are sent out to all Queens and Vice-Queens belonging to the Royal Court. At the January meeting, a woman supervising a senior's trip came into our meeting room from the restaurant and asked if we could come out and talk with the participants of her tour. They were thrilled and very curious about our group and loved our hats and jewels. We walked around the table and chatted with them.

We had some monies from the 3rd National CJCS Convention held in Regina. We were able to present four $1,000 grants to four deserving organizations including two transition houses and two medical emergency agencies. Due to our age, we seem to always have members with health issues. The Royal Court provides a venue for communicating with our members who are ill and giving them support when needed.

We have a monthly liver lovers group, a bridge club, a coffee row group and regular bus trips across the border for shopping and casino entertainment for members. Our chapters hold teas, bake sales, clothing sales and other activities which are attended by the chapter members in the Royal Court. We hold a Christmas Gala in early winter and a Purple Hat Tea in the spring. Our provincial convention is held every second year.

We tried something new last year. We participated in a senior's trade show. We advertised the Crown Jewels organization and received information from more than a dozen women interest in joining chapters in Saskatchewan. This appears to be a very good way of advertising our presence and getting new members to join.

The Christmas Gala was held November 27th. We raised $630 for the Christmas Cheer Fund from the Jewels in attendance.

The Royal Court decided the idea of a calendar was a good one. So, we created our own provincial calendar. It is an18 month calendar. Each month has a picture of a different chapter. We began circulating the calendar at the January meeting. We ordered 100 calendars and sales are going very well. We are selling the calendars for the cost to print them.

The Purple Hat Tea will be held in May this year. This is an opportunity for Jewels to dress up in their finest "afternoon" tea outfits.

We have two queens from our Royal Court gearing up to do an interview on Channel 7, a local T.V. station. We hope this will encourage interest and bring in some new members.

Our "New to You" sale will be held in mid-June. This sale gives members a chance to sell clothing and jewellery they have grown tired of and buy some different apparel and bling!!

The "Lunch and Whist Club" continue to meet monthly.

We still haven't decided whether a provincial convention will be held this year. Many of our jewels are planning to attend the Halifax Convention.  

As you have read, we are a very busy group in Saskatchewan. We enjoy each other's company and love to get together to laugh and have a great time!!

So far the consensus is someplace warm in January to get out of the cold. Will be the Caribbean as to do Panama Canal or Hawaii would be 10-14 days and everyone seems to prefer a week. In winter we always suggest you fly in a day (or 2) early to ensure you arrive at the port as weather is so unpredictable now.  

Greetings from sunny and warmer BC.  Sorry, just had to mention how we are certainly getting ready to "spring" into Spring.  I do hope all you Jewels from AB to the East Coast manage to keep warm and safe throughout your horrific winter and that spring comes incredibly soon to your neck of the woods.  Looking forwards to seeing some of you at convention in Sept.

Our Royal Court in the Okanagan area will have their first meeting of the year on Mar. 23rd and will be great to see Queens and Vices we've not seen since our Xmas party at the end of November.  The Kamloops area Royal court is meeting Mar. 8th and I'm sure they will be planning a few events over the next 8-10 months.   The lower mainland met in Jan.   Silver Star Jewels of Vernon,  are planning a Swap/Sell event Apr. 18th, so ladies sign up for a table and sell, swap all those items that have been collecting dust, you're not wearing, remember....your junk is always someone's treasures!  We are also going to be at the Wellness Fair in Kelowna, April 25/26 promoting CJCS.

We have a few new chapters,  the Cardinal Companions in Burnaby BC,  the Queen City Diva's in Nelson, BC and the Diamond Diva's of Nanaimo, BC....Welcome ladies.  I'm hoping to make a trip up to Ainsworth for the hot springs this summer on the motorcycle with hubby and then visit with the chapter while there. 

We are just awakening from our winter hibernation, snowbirds are returning,  so hopefully by the next report I can update you with some exciting news in BC.  Thank you.

As if we didn't already know how incredible it feels to be with our girlfriends, a recent study out of Stanford explained just how "healthy" these female friendships are.

I've tried to track the source of the following article. I was unable to track down the exact source, but after much research on this topic, it appears that the results of this study are accurate.

Our girlfriends are our oxygen tanks. Girlfriends can fill a void in us that no other relationship can fill- not our spouses, not our children, nor our co-workers. If you're lucky enough to find one great friend, or a few friends who are TRUE friends, you are one lucky lady.

Read on...

In an evening class at Stanford University, the last lecture was on the mind-body connection -- the relationship between stress and disease.
The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman. ... . Whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends.
At first everyone laughed, but he was serious. Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically, this quality "girlfriend time" helps us to create more serotonin -- a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of wellbeing.
Women share feelings, whereas men often form relationships around activities. We share from our souls with our sisters/mothers, and evidently that is very GOOD for our health. He said that spending time with a friends just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.
There's a tendency to think that when we are "exercising" we are doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged? Not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking!
So every time you are out with the Jewels, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health!

Was recently on a trip to visit the Rose Buds in Sherwood Park, AB and Queen Lorraine had this to report:
"Thank you for sending "Lady Canada" to come and play with the Rose Buds of Sherwood Park and our Canadian Jewels guests for our annual Bowling event. We found a lovely stand for her so she could enjoy greeting everyone as they arrived and were signing the guest book. Many comments were made abot her and what a beautiful doll she is. We are sending a couple of photos of her taken with the two winning teams. We were delighted that she was able to join us in our very fun-tastic afternoon.

2015 National Convention - Halifax, N.S.
Registration is now open - Hope to see you there!     

A few are confused about our numbers so we thought we would take a moment to clarify our numbers with you:
Chapters do not have their own chapter # in the CJCS unless they participate in the insurance. If that is the case they have a number similar to: BC-001  or SK-202  and Queens must use that number when corresponding with our office in all matters regarding insurance.

2016 Cruise

We will soon begin planning our next cruise. It appears that the majority prefer the West Coast to Mexico or the Southern Caribbean so we will begin our hunt for a great deal for you. There are some really great cruise deals out there these days!