St. Joseph County's "100 Women Who Care" hosted its first event since the pandemic on Tuesday evening, July 25th, at Klinger Lake County Club.
"Earlier this year, our office was contacted by Laura Brott with the Human Services Commission and Stephanie Zann with the Great Start Collaborative, asking if the Community Foundation might be interested in hosting a 100 Women Who Care event," explained Lindsay Richardson, Executive Director of the Sturgis Area Community Foundation. "We agreed that this was a great opportunity to re-engage women throughout local communities in support of philanthropy."
Tuesday's event was a full event with 94 women in attendance, and more who had registered as unable to attend, but donated to the cause anyway.
"It was incredible to see so many women join together in unison to support causes that make a difference in our communities," shares Richardson. "Our county is a very special place."
How It Works
100 Women Who Care is a group of local women who care deeply about impacting their community. This group gathers, typically over dinner, where each woman gives $100. After hearing presentations from local nonprofit organizations, each attendee votes to select one nonprofit to receive the combined group gift of $10,000. This a public event open to all women in St. Joseph County.
As Tuesday's event, three nonprofit organizations were nominated by attendees to present. The organizations included:
Domestic and Sexual Abuse Services (www.dasasmi.org)
White Pigeon Township Library, Bookmobile Project (www.whitepigeonlibrary.org)
Children's Concerns of St. Joseph County
St. Joseph County Children's Concerns Selected to Receive $10,000
After hearing the three presentations, attendees voted to select St. Joseph County Children's Concerns as the recipient of the evening's combined gift of $10,000.
Dianne Gorsuch and Olivia Oberc presented on behalf of Children's Concerns, sharing that organization has a presence in all St. Joseph County Schools, where they present a child abuse education and prevention curriculum to students in Pre-K, Kindergarten and Third grade each year.
"One in four girls and one in thirteen boys experience sexual abuse before the age of 18," explained Olivia Oberc, an instructor for Children's Concerns. "Our program teaches children to understand the difference between a safe touch and an unsafe touch and gives them permission to identify and disclose abuse."
100 Women Who Care - St. Joseph County plans to host additional events in the future. For more information or to join a future event, you can follow the group's Facebook page or subscribe to the Sturgis Area Community Foundation's email list to receive notifications on future gatherings.
The Sturgis Area Community Foundation is a $30M foundation committed to serving the charitable needs of our community and enriching the quality of life for all people in the Sturgis area. Through philanthropic services, strategic investments, and community leadership, Sturgis Area Community Foundation helps people support the causes they care about now and for generations.