Dear Madame President,
Please accept this nomination of Mother Neerja Baijal-Jones for the Suffolk County Chapter Distinguished Mother Award for the 2019-2020 Program Year.
Since joining our chapter in 2018 as a transfer from the Nassau County Chapter, Mom Neerja has shared her “Power to Make a Difference” and jumped right in to serve our chapter, children and community. She has been an active and engaged member of the Membership Committee, offering her time, resources, talents and her home to support our activities. In her first year of membership in our chapter, she opened her home to host the New Mother Mentor Dinner. For every event she is often the first one to raise her hand to help with a task. She shows up and shows out! Currently she serves as our Gavel Club Chairman and has succeeded in taking our club and children to the next level of excellence….exemplifying “We Can Do More”. When our chapter hosted Children’s Cluster, Mom Neerja offered her service and took on the instrumental task of developing the expense budget for the cluster, and during that weekend she showed up early, energized with sleeves rolled up to ensure our chapter shined in our Sensational Suffolk County way! But this is truly who Mom Neerja is. During a Mother’s Cluster, I fondly recall many Nassau County mothers expressing loving jealousy that we now have Mom Neerja.
Mom Neerja demonstrates grace and ease in a mighty way. Upon first meeting her, I felt an instant energetic connection. Warm, welcoming, creative, helpful, generous, and compassionate are the perfect words to describe Mom Neerja. I’m sure all of you can reflect and think of a time when she has shown all of these, with love and kindness, to you and your children. Mom Neerja has never missed an in- person Mother’s Meeting and continues to attend and participate in our virtual events. When our nation recognized the coronavirus as a pandemic and our state sent quarantine orders, Mom Neerja reached out and asked, how can we help our mothers and families? Her thoughtfulness and consideration of others is endless.
It is with gratitude and pleasure that I submit this nomination for Mother Neerja Baijal-Jones as our 2019-2020 Distinguished Mother.
Warmly,
VP Retha Fernandez
