Hi All!
At the suggestion of my good friend Pat Young, I'd like to share some
exciting news with you all about a fellow LLL Leader.
The Leader is my former co-Leader and good friend - Rhonda Molesphini, who is
an active Leader with the Montgomery Twp. Group, here in New Jersey.
Wednesday, May 12, Rhonda found out that she was selected as one of Oprah
Winfrey's Mothers of the Month!!!!! Her co-Leader Heather Kay and I were
overjoyed to be there when Rhonda received the call from Oprah herself!
Back in October, Rhonda's sister heard about Oprah's "search" for mothers
deserving recognition and wrote a beautiful tribute about Rhonda and sent it
in. Susan bound that tribute and presented it to Rhonda for Christmas.
The week before the call from Oprah, Rhonda's husband Tony, got a call from
Oprah's staff, telling him that Rhonda had been chosen. They wanted to bring
a film crew to film Rhonda getting the call from Oprah. The stumbling block
-- it had to be
a surprise and Rhonda could know nothing about it!
Resourceful Tony, called Heather and suggested she weave a story about the
local cable station wanting to do a piece about LLL and have a "mock
meeting". So Heather became the liaison between the family and the show.
Heather did a great job in putting this all together without Rhonda even
having a clue!
Heather, Doreen (a friend of Rhonda's and former mom in our group), several
moms from the Montgomery Group and I were there for this "mock" meeting. Tony
was in the background -- supposedly ready to get 6 year old Alexander ready
for Kindergarten.
Everything was set and we all took our places. Rhonda thought the producer
was the reporter from the local cable station. The producer asked questions
about LLL (and did a great job!) and Rhonda answered with ease! The crew
deserves an award for all the stalling they did -- but made it believable --
camera angles were off, glare off the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding - things
like that.
At 11:45 the telephone rang. Rhonda told Tony to answer and said that she was
not available at that time. Tony deserves an Oscar for his performance
here!!! He answered the phone and then asked the caller's name. (At that,
Rhonda is signaling that she cannot take the call). Tony covers the
mouthpiece - looks Rhonda square in the eye and says :"Are you on hotline
this month?" (here in NJ, LLL-NJ runs a hotline for mothers to call and each
Leader takes a month "on duty") and then proceeds to tell her that it was a
LLL call and she had to take it.
Rhonda took the call -- but it was not a mother in need -- it was Oprah
Winfrey and her studio audience! After teasing Rhonda for a few minutes,
Oprah finally identified herself and told Rhonda the news! All of us in
attendance cheered, applauded and hugged Rhonda. There were even tears of
joy!
The Oprah Show flew Rhonda and her sister out to Chicago the following
Tuesday for taping of the show on Wednesday. The show will air this
Wednesday - May 26. Check for local listings for time and channel.
If you would like to send Rhonda words of congratulations or anything -- her
email address is: <[log in to unmask]>. I have set up a web page in
honor of this great recognition at
<http://members.aol.com/mamadanz/Rhonda.html>. Please take a few minutes to
visit the page and sign the guestbook with a message. This is another
surprise for Rhonda - I'd like to share it with her after the show airs --
so we have just a little time to pull this together!
Sorry to be long on this -- but I thought the news was just too phenomenal
not to share!
Warmly,
Sheila Angalet
LLL-NJ
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