WOMEN TRANSFORMING SONOMA COUNTY THROUGH COLLECTIVE PHILANTHROPY | JULY 2022 | ISSUE 58 |
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Caritas Center - Last Chance to Tour!
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Last month 25 fortunate members had the privilege of touring the nearly completed Caritas Center located on A Street in downtown Santa Rosa. Caritas Center is Catholic Charities’ bold new project for people experiencing homelessness.
Our enthusiastic tour guide was Director of Development and Impact 100 Redwood Circle member, Margie Pettibone. Margie showed us the spacious state-of-the-art kitchen and dining room that will accommodate 200, as well as the pods (four bedroom/2 bathroom "homes") for temporarily homeless families.
The entire space is light, bright, and modern, with much thought given to spaces like a meditation room, child care facility and support for those recently released from the hospital.
4 years after Catholic Charities received the $100,000 Impact Grant, results of the funded children’s program continue to shine. We met Toni Abraham, Youth and Family Services Program Manager, who said, “We love you, women of Impact 100 Redwood Circle. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have this job that I love. And if it weren’t for you, these children at the Family Support Center wouldn’t have been connected to all the enriching community resources like 4Cs, Head Start, First 5, Pegasus Riding School, Chops, and others. Your grant changed the way we assist children here.”
And with Caritas Center opening soon, it will only get better as families will experience more space, more services and more dignity as they move toward permanent housing.
*** We have one more opportunity on July 26 at 3:15pm to tour the Center. Please contact Barbara Hopp barbarahopp123@gmail.com or 707 538-3313 to register.
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EDTALK: Priorities for the Climate and Sonoma County
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We have some of the cleanest air in the Bay Area until we don’t! Wildfire season threatens not only our safety, but the quality of the air, posing health risks. Barbara A. Lee has worked extensively on pollution and related environmental issues for 30 years.
Barbara brings a wealth of experience from the public and private sectors to help Sonoma County develop long-range strategies for climate change planning and action. Her resume includes monitoring, analyzing, and advising for a number of state programs that protect air quality and reduce the toxins that surround us. She has led a multi-agency program providing tools for local governments statewide and nationally on climate protection policy.
Come and learn how partnerships and community stakeholders like Impact100 Redwood Circle can strengthen the climate resilience of the natural and working lands of Sonoma County.
August 16 at 4:30 p.m. - Mark your calendars!
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Impact Grant Application Reviews Have Begun
The Impact Grant Committee has begun its review of the 18 applications submitted for our 2022 Impact Grant. The exciting news this year is that 56% of applications are by BIPOC-led organizations. These are: Circuit Rider, Committee on the Shelterless (COTS), Corazon Healdsburg, Graton Day Labor Center, KBBF Radio, Latino Service Providers, Nuestra Comunidad, Secure Families Collaborative Sonoma County, The Botantical Bus, and VIDAS Legal.
The other eight applicants are: CASA of Sonoma, Center for Well Being, Council on Aging, Farm to Pantry, Jewish Community Free Clinic, Rebuilding Together Petaluma, Sebastopol Community Cultural Center, and Sonoma Family Meal.
Thanks again to our members who participated in the nominating process and broadening our reach to new organizations!
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New Members
- Rebecca Calhoun (Employer-Sponsored by Flack Law, PC)
- Sharon Roper
June 29th Cocktails & Conversation A Success
Three new members joined Impact 100 Redwood Circle thanks to June's Cocktails & Conversation!
Two New Programs on Offer!
Employer Sponsorship Program
We are meeting success with this new program. In the last two months three new members have joined.
Please contact Sarah Dove at sarah.dove@sonoma.edu with your contacts at local banks, accounting firms, law offices, insurance companies, etc. who should know about this program.
Speakers Bureau
We can offer a 20-minute presentation (plus Q&A) tailored to the audiences of any local organizations who should know about Impact 100 Redwood Circle. Please send recommendations to Kim McEachron at mcevans5@comcast.net.
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Join Us for the Latest BB Series
Since the apparent success of Busting Bias, Leadership endorsed a plan to meet with local women of color (WOC) to learn more about their experiences and observations about philanthropy. The quote, “White guilt is killing us!” seems representative of a general feeling they express to move beyond barriers and silence - to connect and to heal our communities. It's a stark and honest statement. It speaks well for a philanthropic group to have a hunger to develop comfort and confidence in discussing one of today’s most challenging issues – racism.
The Busting Bias sessions invite inquiry and exploration, with one participant feeling she received double value: “I learned about myself as much as gathering empathy for others."
Very few WOC were familiar with Impact 100 Redwood Circle, but all were impressed that our organization began such an ambitious educational/awareness opportunity. We hope you will continue exploring with us! Join us for our next BB 6-week conversation series, starting September 6th. The time flies at 90 min. per Tuesday from 4:30-6:00 (or 5:00-6:30.)
Know a member who participated in BB? Call them to learn their experience or call us! Hope to see you on Zoom!
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Beyond the Check - The LIME Foundation
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Our 2021 Impact Grant winner, the LIME Foundation, invites our members to attend and volunteer at its Believe in the Dream Gala to be held on Thursday, September 8, 2022, at the Luther Burbank Center, 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa. For more information, visit www.limebelieve.com If you’d like to volunteer, please email the LIME Foundation’s director of development, Star Brumfield, at star@thelimefoundation.org
The LIME Foundation also invites our members to attend and volunteer at its NextGen Trade Academy’s graduation ceremony, which will be held outdoors on Saturday, July 16th at SOMO Village, from 5:30-7:30 p.m.. If you are interested in volunteering at the graduation ceremony, please email support@thelimefoundation.org or call 707-532-5463. To attend, reserve your tickets at bit.ly/2022NGTAGraduation
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Women in Conversation - Event Postponement
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Women in Conversation's The Experience will now be held on September 21, 2022 from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the beautiful Green Music Center.
This change comes with an exciting bonus – The experience will precede the Fall Women in Conversation speaker series starting at 6:30 that same day. The speaker, who will be announced soon, is a leader and hero, renowned as one of the top women in her male dominated field. We can’t wait to share the announcement!
If you were signed up to attend our Impact 100 Redwood Circle booth on July 17th, please re-register to attend the new date and time by contacting impact100membership@gmail.com.
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Meet Our New “Communique” Editor, Geri Biehl! |
Members of the Marketing and Events Committees
enjoyed lunch with Geri at Willi’s Wine Bar on July 6. Conversation was fun, lively, and incredibly bonding.
(L - R: Liz Bortolotto; Geri Biehl; Diane Ethier; Gayle Holste)
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In 2002, after surviving the 9/11 tragedy in Manhattan, Geri and her husband, Andrew, decided to move to and raise their two daughters in Healdsburg. Prior to life in Sonoma County, she worked in retail merchandising and after her kids grew up became certified as an ESL instructor teaching English to adults until COVID ended in-person learning. She is still passionate about languages and teaches private English classes online, speaks Spanish and is currently learning French. Thanks to the pottery lessons that she took during the COVID quarantine, Geri has become an avid ceramicist and divides her time between her pottery studio, the tennis court, hiking trails and her office editing The Communique. She looks forward to learning about Impact 100 Redwood Circle through her work on its monthly newsletter and hopes to meet its many wonderful members in person.
Geri acknowledges she has “big shoes to fill” as we bid a fond farewell to our special teammate and forever “amiga,” Jan Houts.
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