09/20/2024
The first meeting of our 15th year! Melissa Slorf for Grand Haven Re-Made; Jill Pyle for Love in Action; and Erica Layton for Tri-Cities Historical Museum names were drawn from the box to be considered for this quarter’s donations.
We are having a HYBRID meeting again, which means we have members joining us on Zoom.
HI TO OUR ZOOMERS! Please make sure you are on mute. You will have an opportunity to ask a question after each presentation. Please type your question into the chat feature and one of the team will relay the question to the presenter.
And you will be able to vote after all three presentations are complete.
Thank you to today’s Tech Team—Kelly Larson, and Karmen Bush
Thank you also to the other members of our Steering Committee who are here tonight
Regan Brown
Cyndi Casemier
Lindsay Cousineau
Betsy Jellema
Madonna Kramer
Erin Lyon
Carol Scholler
Thank you to each of you for keeping this group on track.
Thank you to the Spring Lake Country Club for providing a room for us to meet at no charge to our chapter.
We have several new members tonight! Welcome!
One joined late last night!
Keep inviting your friends and family and neighbors. Your invitations keep our membership growing!
Remember, you can renew your commitment or become a new member on our web page tricitieswomenwhocaremi.org.
If you are not receiving emails from us, please let me know.
You should get an email tomorrow morning, reviewing this meeting.
Then reminder emails if you haven’t sent your check.
A meeting reminder email a few weeks before the next meeting
And an email with the Zoom link sent a few days before the meeting.
Currently we have 261 members.
Here is our financial update!
We had 253 members participate in our last meeting but a number of you added extra dollars in your checks totaling $750 which significantly increased our regular contribution. We awarded $26050 to Homeless Prevention Partners. We still have a number of outstanding checks. PLEASE get them to us so we can put that money to work in our community.
Because of the Richard M Schulze Family Foundation’s generosity, we were able to obtain a $5000 matching grant bringing the value of our award to Homeless Prevention Partners $31,050. That is a significant amount of money dedicated to helping our neighbors who are experiencing difficulty providing food or housing for their families.
For our new members, Richard Schulze is the founder of Best Buy—and because he loves the grass roots fundraising model of Women Who Care, his foundation matches donations up to $5000 each quarter to organizations selected by the members of Women Who Care chapters within a 20-mile radius of a Best Buy-- across the country. The Richard Schulze foundation has contributed $80,000 to organizations within our community through this program. Please remember that when you shop! I just bought my new computer at Best Buy!
Also, in June, some members also wrote checks to the other organization that presented totaling $350—bringing our total dollars contributed to organizations in our community to $31,400.
Right now—after our 14th year, contributions to our community including the matches from the Schulze foundation total $1,746,420.
If we stay at this pace—we will hit the $2,000,000 mark in about 8 meetings --probably in June of ‘26—we will be having a HUGE celebration. You won’t want to miss it!
I mentioned last meeting that in September of 2025, Grand Rapids will be the site of the 100 Who Care Alliance Conference. I don’t have exact dates yet, but I expect them to be available soon. The conference is being organized by Gina Fedwerda who started a chapter in Antrim County with our help. It will be fun to meet people from all over the world who have the same goals we have—joining together to help non profits within our communities.
Each meeting, as I prepare my remarks, I look over the list of organizations we have selected. . It is an impressive list.
Soon you will be able to review it on our web page tricitieswomenwhocaremi.org. Don’t forget the mi part since we discovered there is another Tri-Cities Women Who Care chapter in Tennessee.
I say soon because as I told you last meeting I inadvertently deleted the list and can’t figure out how to get it back. But help is on the way! Saturday, Demitria Gavit,, my friend and formerly a member but moved out of the area, is coming to help me sort it out.
You may remember, during COVID, when we were 100% zooming. Demitria was PRESENTING when we were hacked by some gross, disgusting people.
Demitria it turns out, was working in cyber security at the time and helped us sort it all out. She then designed our web page . She thought she taught me how to navigate it—but I need some more lessons. With Demitria’s help and my new computer, I hope we get things up to speed on the web page and eliminate some of the email glitches we have had over the years. . Thank you for your patience!
But back to the list—it is really quite amazing when you study it and realize all the ways we have helped our neighbors. WE—the women of this community—aptly named Women Who Care—have changed our little part of the world. We have truly made a difference in the lives of so many --as have so many other chapters around the globe—in their communities,—just like ours.
WE-the women of this community and so many others—do the work—the bake sales, the car washes, the auctions, the dances, the pink outs, the can drives, the candy sales. We’ve done the work to raise the funds to support the causes we believe in.
Through this organization, we have banded together for those tasks
The problems we are presented are bigger—the challenges of more people come into our view—BUT—because we are together—the solutions are within easier reach and our impact is greater.
We-the women of this organization—and so many others in sister chapters around the world —are presented with the needs of our communities and exciting challenges for development of projects that enhance all of our lives and with our collective resources, we enable the solutions.
There is a large body of research that says that if you want to improve a community—get to the women—they will do it!
The list of the 56 organizations we have supported over our first 14 years is proof that theory is true.
You my, friends, are the bridge builders. You undergird the organizations that provide hope and safety and kindness and encouragement and friendship and love and generosity to so many in need. And you also support organizations that are building exciting projects that impact all of our lives.
But I know, sometimes, it feels like there is more need in this world than we can ever meet. Some days it feels discouraging, disheartening and depressing and we wonder if we will ever get it all done.
If you ever feel that way—do what I do—pull up our list—pat yourselves on the back for hanging in there and celebrate all you have already done to improve our world.
And then, read this poem by L.R. Knost
I found it recently and thought of all of you:
Here's to the bridge-builders,
The hand-holders,
The light-bringers,
Those extraordinary souls wrapped in ordinary lives
Who quietly weave threads of humanity into an inhumane world.
They are the unsung heroes in a world at war with itself.
They are the whisperers of hope that peace is possible.
Look for them in this present darkness.
Light your candle with their flame.
And then go.
Build bridges.
Hold hands.
Bring light to a dark and desperate world.
Be the hero you are looking for.
Peace is possible.
It begins with us.
I would add two things to that poem.
I would add, "Look for those bridge-builders, hand-holders and light-bringers right here in this room.
And I would add the words of my favorite song by Keb MO
“”Put a Woman in charge””
