Pat's Adventures in Dialysis: The "Southern Nevada Alpha Kappa Alpha Founders Day", edition.

Good Sunday morning. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (AKA) was founded in January 1908 and incorporated in January 1913. The sorority celebrates the Founders' Day in January. This is my second year celebrating in Las Vegas with Theta Theta Omega (TTO). This year was a joint celebration for the chapters in southern Nevada. Last year's Founders' day may have been a joint effort also, but I don't recall. I do know that last year the keynote speaker was Soror Dorothy Buckhanan Wilson, International President of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. And because Soror Dorothy was the speaker, the luncheon was huge. We had sorors from all over the Far Western Region which includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington. This year's celebration was much more intimate, but was just as nice!

I mentioned it was a joint celebration for the southern Nevada chapters. Sounds like a lot doesn't it? There are 3 chapters in southern Nevada. Nevada is really a sparsely populated state. Anyway. The 3 chapters are the Las Vegas chapter, the University of Nevada Las Vegas chapter and the Henderson chapter. Henderson is a city south and east of Las Vegas, bordering Las Vegas. I wouldn't call it a suburb. This year the Hendserson chapter sponsored the luncheon. As with any new place I have to go, Brian and drove to the location a few before so I knew where I needed to go. The good news is that our landmark was a pool we'd gone to earlier last year.

We were instructed to wear pink or green, no slacks, and our favorite AKA pin or broach. Ack ack. I needed to get a dress. Lol. I need to fill out my AKA wardrobe. Anyway I started looking before Christmas and found a dress. A nice dress. And I needed a pin. Remember, I hadn't been active in over 25 years. And I didn't have a lot of pink...or green. I found 2 pins that I liked. So I ordered both! And finally I didn't need shoes, I wore the beautiful black suede boots that I wore last year..which went nicely with my pink dress with the wide black belt!

I arrived at the event and was checked in. No tickets. Oh yeah. Did I mention that the event was sold out? Anyway. Got inside and so much pink and green. And it felt good! We looked good! And I enjoyed looking at the shoes. Lol my sorors can rock some heels. I can't, but I can admire their shoes! We all looked good. And the sorors! Golden Sorors which are sorors who have been AKAs for 50 or more years, sorors who were just initiated in November and our undergraduate sorors from UNLV.

We had the greetings from each chapter and a history lesson from the 22nd Far Western Regional Director and member of the Las Vegas chapter, E. Lavonne Lewis. Our keynote speaker, who did not disappoint was a local Soror who is graduate of HBCUs, including a PhD from Florida A&M and is the Clinical Mnager of Pharmacy at a local hospital. And finally the chapters awarded outstanding sorors from both graduate chapters. I met sorors I hadn't met before and enjoyed being with my sorors, my sisters.

Unfortuneatly the kidney disease side effects set in. The banquet hall would get stuffy and all of us had perfume on. We smelled good! But every now and then I'd get overwhelmed. And during the standing parts I'd get light headed. After the awards but before the end of the luncheon, I sent Brian a text to come and get me. I really didn't want to pass out there. That would have put a damper on the celebration. Heh. And of course, I got home and fell asleep. Ugh. I hate this. {cry}.

I did have a great time and I am always going to try and make as many events as I can. I am active on one committee. I signed up for another one. And the chapter will be hosting the Leadership conference this summer, expecting 10,000 sorors...all hands on deck! And yep. I'll be doing stuff for that. I'll keep on pushing through. I can't help it. But when my body says stop, I have to stop.

Have a wonderful day. Today the sun is shining and the weather is warmer. Although I understand my idea of cold has shifted since I moved out here! I had to wear a hat!!!! Sorry. :-)

Photos of luncheon, thanks to my sorors. Yes there are photos of me floating around. I'm sure they'll pop up eventually.

I ordered these 2 pins. I wore the 20 pearls.