In the beginning…

Six years later, I feel like I should start with – once upon a time! So – once upoon a time a beautiful red haired lady, Julie, came into my world with the notion that the incredible and fortunate women in Longmont should rally together to help those less fortunate. We met for coffee and two hours later had agreed that there was a need to help women who were lost in the throes of divorce or health issues or transportation dilemmas and probably dozens of things we didn’t even know about. We agreed to think about it and talk to some of our friends and then meet again to decide if it was worth pursuing.

Six months passed and in the meantime I attended a conference in Washington, D.C. where there was a presentation on the power of women in the world of philanthropy. WOW! It was amazing to see what was happening worldwide when women decided to put their money where they had always been putting their time and talent. In Atlanta a group had started an endowment fund by asking 1,000 women to donate $1,000 each to get it going. Hmmmm….

Back to Longmont and Julie and I put our heads together again and decided that we would gather some women together and try to raise $100 from 100 women in 100 days. That was step one. Step two was to find some the other ladies who would go on this adventure with us. What a better place than our own Rotary Club to recruit half a dozen women to make this a reality. Enter Ann, Karen and Linda and some outside of  Rotary – Sue and Shelley.  So we had a non-profit executive, a realtor, a consignment store owner, a decorater, a jeweler, a property manager and a teacher!

We agreed that we did have the knowledge, skills and contacts to raise $10,000 but not the knowledge or skills to decide who got the money. Ah, but we had contacts! We decided that the focus of our efforts would be to raise money and to work with local non-profits, schools and churches to decide who we could help with the funds. We all agreed that our role should above and beyond everything be kept as simple as possible – raise money – distribute money with the help of professionals!

Next – bring on the professionals!