'Pretty as a Peacock' is theme of National Charity League's annual Mother-Daughter Tea

FALLBROOK – This year’s annual National Charity League (NCL) mother-daughter tea event was spectacular. The co-chairs, Stacey Riggs, Claire Meacham and Ann Kayl, planned and executed a wonderful event at a beautiful venue on Nov. 1 at Vista Valley Country Club.

The tea was a great opportunity for mothers and daughters to reconnect while enjoying delicious food, a fun silent auction and seeing the results of the group's modelette program.

The time-treasured event provides a real world opportunity for the girls (known as Ticktockers) to practice all the various etiquette lessons they learn throughout their time in NCL – from addressing invitations to sending back a formal written response to receiving line and introduction etiquette to tea time manners at the table. The daughters are involved in different aspects of the event throughout their years in NCL.

Each grade level, starting in ninth grade, has a particular role to fill. The freshman class is responsible for staffing the serving line during food service.

The next year, they spend several hours receiving poise instruction in a modelette program where the girls each model three separate outfits for all in attendance. This provides an excellent opportunity for growth in confidence as the young ladies learn to present themselves with self-assurance.

Juniors are responsible for addressing and mailing out the formal invitations for the event; this is good practice for those formal graduation announcements that come the following year.

The senior class and their mothers are responsible for the receiving line as part of the formal start of the event. This gives all attendees the opportunity to practice appropriate introduction etiquette.

The seventh and eighth grade classes’ primary focus is learning and using proper table etiquette their first two years in NCL, so that they can spend more time learning about the other components in their high school years.

The money raised from the silent auction at the event is donated to various philanthropies in the Fallbrook-Bonsall area over the course of the year. This year was a very successful year with the silent auction raising $3,150. The local philanthropies that receive money from NCL vary from year to year and are chosen by the girls in each grade level as well as the adult members.

In some years, a portion of the funds raised have gone to help fund the Ann Daniel Scholarship which is awarded every year to graduating seniors (who are not members of NCL) who exemplify the service oriented nature of NCL through their involvement in community service.