An initiative that has been making waves across North America now has a local chapter in the Bow Valley.
100 Women Who Care Rockies are on a mission to raise $40,000 in one year to support local charitable organizations in the Bow Valley.
The history of the 100 Women Who Care movement began in 2006 in Michigan and there’s a number of chapters across the U.S. as well as in Canada.
“Where I learned about it was from my sister in Kingston, Ont.,” said member Keltie Patterson. “Calgary has one and we’re the second in Alberta. They’ve very active in raising money for communities. I really like the concept of it bringing women together, a way to support women’s empowerment and way to learn about women of all ages and backgrounds in a particular community.”
100 Women Who Care works by having women in a community who have joined as members nominate up to three charities per meeting. Each member that nominates gives a short introduction of why they think a particular, local organization would be a good charity to nominate and support.
“After each of those introductions are made, the women, however many we have at that time, would vote and the charity that receives the majority vote would be given the donation,” said Patterson. “Even if a member votes and her charity isn’t chosen, through the membership commitment she’s still supporting whatever charity the group chooses.
“We’re not just looking to support women’s charities, we’re looking to support whatever needs are in the community. There’s nothing stopping anyone from starting a 100 Men Who Care as well if they were interested, because obviously any help is welcome and appreciated.”
Women who are interested in joining may register online, and Canmore’s Life Works Gym also has membership commitment forms available.
“The more women we have, the bigger the impact we can make and obviously our goal is to reach over 100 women and we would welcome more,” said Patterson. “There are four annual meetings; obviously it’s a way to meet the other members and women in your community and for socializing.
“The goal for the year is $40,000 with $10,000 per meeting. It would be one meeting per quarter. Granted, we’re already into March, we’ll have our first meeting in April and likely have the second in June.”
The first 100 women meeting is set for April 8, with location dependent upon the amount of registered members at the given time.
People who are not full-time residents of the Bow Valley are welcome to join. “The more women involved, the greater the impact we will have – we welcome teams to join up. If they want a team of five people and each contribute $20 a time, that’s also very welcome,” Patterson said.
Visit, www.100womenrockies.com to find out more information and membership requirements.
