Hello Moose Lodge. Today's topic: "Caring About Family and Beyond - Tammy Leonard"
Tammy has been a member since 2018. She first came to Sunnyvale Moose Lodge through her friendship with Ray Ortiz and Jane Zahorik. "I was 1coming to hang out with my friends, coming to see the TCB Band. Of course we can only come twice, and the third time we have to sign up as a member, right? Carol Bell sponsored me."
She started coming to the Women of The Moose meetings and immediately got involved, serving as Junior Regent her first year. She then learned bartending, all for the Lodge. Currently she is serving as our WOTM Senior Regent.
"Carol and Charlie Bell were my Moose mom and my Moose dad. I knew Carol and Charlie were going to be moving to Moosehaven and I wanted to carry on their legacy. So, I worked really really hard to become Social Quarters Manager. It was their life, and I wanted it to be my life. I've been Social Quarters Manager for a little over a year now. When I retire, I can see myself working toward being an Administrator, continuing my journey."
On Wednesday nights we coaxed Tammy into starting to sing. "Oh my gosh yes, and now you can't take the microphone away from me. I love promoting the Lodge and its events. I ended up meeting everybody from Wednesday night at Rick's Show, and you guys all ended up being my family."
I asked Chuck to talk about the "international" aspect of our organization. "Well, besides the lodges in the United States, we've got lodges in Canada, and lodges in Great Britain. There is the Grand Lodge of Great Britain. At one time there was a lodge in Bermuda. Unfortunately, most of the members of that lodge lived on the mainland, so they couldn't get over there all the time to do work around the lodge. But we are international. There's always an effort to grow the Moose, internationally and nationally."
Tammy honors other commitments as well. She's been with State Farm for the last 30-plus years. "I am also very much involved with Almaden Neighborhood Church," she told me. She also volunteers as a Co-Advocate for Foster the City (fosterthecity.org). Their vision: "Every child in foster care has a name and a story, and every story matters to God." Due to the shortage of homes, children are often placed outside of their community and moved around multiple times. "Foster the City works to surround foster families with a team of Support Friends. It can be buying them clothing, and going grocery shopping with them," she told me. "One of my goals in life, I always wanted to be a social worker. Obviously, I chose a different life path, but this is definitely where my heart is."
As I found out more about Tammy, here was another surprise. She is also "Membership Orientation" for Polka Dot Powerhouse. Their motto is "Changing the world by connecting the dots." As she explains, "It's a world-wide community of positive purpose-driven women, at every stage of their life, and where every woman is seen, valued, and celebrated (polkadotpowerhouse.com)."
But her "number one priority" is being a mom. Tammy has been a single parent since her daughter was 4. Her daughter, now a 22-year-old, is attending the University of Oregon and studying education. "Everything I do in life is all for my child, who is my world."
Let's thank Tammy for being part of our world too.