October 4th Meeting

It was another inspiring meeting on Monday night with a great turnout at the Wexford County Library. As always there was plenty of good food and conversation. Thank you to everyone who made it.
A big thank-you goes out to Dawn Ewald who gave a wonderful presentation about some new programs happening in our community. She highlighted the 5210 program that will soon to be started in the school system to promote health and battle childhood obesity. The goal of the program is to promote 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily, 2 or less hours of "screen time" daily, 1 hour of physical activity daily, and 0 sugary drinks. As a physician, I see childhood obesity increasing each year, and, unfortunately, I diagnose diabetes in younger people more and more. I believe that if our community can get behind a program like this; we can make a great impact with our actions.

Another program coming to Cadillac is training for recognizing trauma in childhood, with the focus being on emotional trauma that can cause damage in the future. There will be free training for anyone interested. A kickoff event will happen on November 1 at the Cadillac Christian Reform Church, please call Dawn for further information.

Thanks to Terri Raffaele for sharing her life-changing experiences of her family's trip to Haiti. Her words and pictures were inspiring.

We will be putting a press release in the local papers for grant requests. All grant requests are due by March 1, 2011 for this grant cycle.

Don't forget this is the time to pay your dues for next year if you want to get a tax credit for 2010. Please send your checks to The Cadillac Area Community Foundation with a designation to The Cadillac Area Giving Circle in the notes section!

Please join us for wine tasting in the Leelenau Peninsula on Thursday, October 14. We are meeting at Blackstar Farms at 11am. I am unable to leave Cadillac until 10:30 am, so if anyone can't leave until then and wants to hitch a ride, give me a jingle.

Our next informal meeting will be at Herman's on Monday, November 1 at 6pm. All are welcome!

October Meeting

We are having an informal round table gathering tonight, Monday September 6 at Herman's. Anyone is welcome to join us for good conversation and to catch up on this great summer we have had.

Our next giving circle meeting is on Monday October 4 at 6pm at the Wexford County Public Library. We hope to see everyone there. Please bring a dish to pass. Also bring a friend who may be interested in our amazing group. This is a social gathering, but also a time to think about ideas for the next grant cycle. The Girls on the Run race on Memorial Day was one of the many great events we have helped to sponsor. Hopefully, we can think of some new ideas to help our community.

We are also having a fun day out on Wednesday October 14th to tour some of the wineries on the Lelanau Peninsula. We will meet at the Blackstar winery outside Sutton's Bay at 11am , and continue on for lunch and visiting other new and old vineyards around the area. Let Laurie or Tania know if you would like to join us, and bring a friend, the more the merrier!

Hermann's Round Table

Don't forget, We are not meeting in July, but we will get together at the usual 6pm at Hermanns on August 2nd (that is a Monday) .

Have a great Summer!!

A Good Time Had By All

It was another convivial evening at Hermanns last night. I ate too much though.

Tania brought the polo shirts, which look perfect. I won't feel dorky wearing it. Tania and Peg modeled the look...super fab. I hope Tania knows how to post a picture here, because we took a few since they looked so good in those shirts.

We talked about some grant ideas... nothing solid at this stage of the game. Its just nice to be able to look around the City and think "how can we help?".

Mary had a great idea about putting out a simple newsletter to keep all of our members in the loop. Because she thought of it, she was appointed the job, being the good persons that she is, Barb graciously offered to help. It was also decided that we might want to put out an "RFP" (request for funding proposals) in the newspaper in October to help us find good candidates for funding...Tania is going to handle that. I am going to find a list of Non Profits to help aid us in the search.

We also talked about bringing on new members...so go ahead and invite anyone you might think would be interested to the Oct. 4th meeting at the Library at 6pm.

It was an excellent round table discussion and great food. We hope you can make it next time , which will be on August 2nf at 6pm at Hermanns. We are skipping July because it is too busy for most of us that close to the Fourth of July weekend.

Have a great month!

--Laurie

Giving Circle polo shirts are here!

Polo shirts with our beautiful logo are available. They are $25. I have m, l, xl, and 2xl available.
I will have them at my office and bring them to the monthly roundtable meetings at Herman's.
Don't forget about the Strive race on Memorial Day. Come see the Girls On The Run in action. Join me for a photo shoot with the girls at the Carl T Johnson building prior to the race.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend.
Tania

Meeting at Kathy McCurdy's House 5/3/2010

Thanks to everyone who made it out for our meeting tonight, it was a great turnout! Also, thanks for Kathy to opening up her lovely home for our giving circle meeting.

As always, there was sharing of good food, wine and conversation and we did get quite a bit of business done tonight.

Our grant proposals were selected and here is what made the cut!

The vote was unanimous and we decided to split the money between our two grants.

1. $2000 was earmarked towards The Pregnancy Resource Center's fund with a specific designation to spend the monies for customer supplies for their store for moms and children in need, i.e. cribs, carseats, diapers, clothing. The giving circle bylaws does not allow for our grants to go towards general operating funds, therefore, we needed to specify exactly how those monies are spent.

2. $6500 was earmarked towards the Oasis/Family Resource Center towards the creation and remodeling of an examination room and shower for the future use for a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner to do examinations of victims of sexual assault. There currently is not funding for a SANE nurse in the area, however, grant funding will be available in April of 2011. The monies will be set aside to set up this examination room pending approval of the grant. Currently Oasis has received a 2 year $185,000 grant from the State of Michigan to fund 2 full time counselors for victims of sexual assault of any age. This is exciting stuff! It is the first time in over 25 years the the Cadillac Area will have specialized counseling for sexual assault victims.

We also elected new officers. Barbara Darrigan has stepped down as Chair of our giving circle after a wonderful 2 year term. Thank you to Barb for all of her hard work over the last 2 years to get this group up and running and to be the success it is! Laurie Melstrom is now our Chair. I, Tania LeBaron, will be changing my hat from Secretary to the Co-Chair position and Pegeen Smith was nominated and elected to take over as Secretary.

Mary Dillon has graciously created informational brochures that you can handout to interested members of our community who would like to get involved in our giving circle. You may get more of these brochures from Mary or at the Community Foundation.

We have decided to continue our informal round table get-together on the first monday of each month at Herman's. The next meeting will be Monday June 7th at 6pm. Bring yourself, bring future grant ideas, bring a friend! Let's get the word out about our amazing group.

Our next official meeting will be on Monday, October 4, 2010 at 6pm at The Wexford County Public Library. Linda Kimbel will be arranging a speaker for us!

Want to see our money in action?

Come see the Girls on the Run program in action. Our grant money last year went to the Cadillac Area Girls on the Run program. They will be running in the 12th Annual Memorial Day Stride for Strive 5K race on Monday May 31st at 8:30 am. The girls will be gathering at the Carl T. Johnson Hunting and Fishing Center in Cadillac the morning of the race. We will be getting there early for a photo opportunity with the girls, so please join us!

The Cadillac Area Women's Giving Circle is truly making changes in our community!

The Cadillac Area Women's Giving Circle gets a blog!

Welcome to the Cadillac Area Women's Giving Circle Blog site!

Our giving circle was founded in 2008 by a group of women in the greater Cadillac area who wanted to make a difference in our community for women and girls.

The philosophy of a giving circle is for a group of people to pool their resources together and pick charitable causes to donate to.

Our Goals:

1. To expand philanthropy and increase giving by local women.

2. To increase the life skills of women and girls.

3. To encourage the healthy development and personal autonomy of young girls.

4. To raise awareness of gender disparities in our community.

5. To be able to sustain the giving circle for future generations.

6. To build a permanent endowment fund.

Our Founding Values:

1. All Cadillac Area women and girls have a right to an adequate and sustainable quality of life and an opportunity to develop their full potential.

2. Healthy development for girls is achieved through education, life skill training, and a sense of personal autonomy and safety.

3. The needs and concerns of all women and girls in the Cadillac Area should be fully understood, acknowledged, and addressed.

4. A moral and ethical imperative is to recognize and address gender-based disparities that prevent women and girls from fully participating in and contributing to society.

5. Available resources should be directed to achieving systemic change in the the political, social, and economic institutions that influence the lives of women and girls.

6. Philanthropy is not measured by the amount of a gift but the intent of the giver.

7. Women's philanthropy has the power to improve the lives of women and girls in the Cadillac Area now.

8. Education is the cornerstone of understanding and giving.

9. Women of concern, compassion, and generosity can make the greatest difference by working together for change.

Our next meeting is 6pm on Monday, May 3, 2010 at Kathy McCurdy's home. Please rsvp to Kathy at 231-775-4869.

We will be voting on the grant proposals at the next meeting.

Here is a link to view the grant proposals for this year.

http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B91LH2CmqjR8MDkyZmQzMTgtOTg5Yy00MDEzLWIxNjAtZmY5NDBlNjgwYjE4&hl=en

We are lucky enough to have a guest speaker from the Traverse City Area giving circle: The Three Generations of Women Giving Circle. http://www.gtherald.biz/local/gtheraldnews_story_025070216.html

If you are interested in joining our giving circle, please contact The Cadillac Area Community Foundation at 231-775-9911 or email at cacf@cadillacfoundation.org or leave a message here.

Come to our next meeting and bring a friend!

Tell everyone about us, we are an exciting group of women!

Tania LeBaron

tml7betty@yahoo.com

231-884-2262

Our lovely logo was designed and donated graciously by Lori Mata of workroom design

They do amazing web development and graphic design for print, screen and environment.

Please visit their website and give them business!

http://www.workroomdesign.com/