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!