Diana shared her inner art sanctuary with us during the Jaffe Private Art Studio Tour & Talk. This was a private studio and home tour with detailed explanations of her individual pieces and collections. Stunning in every direction turned, Diana’s works exhibit gold leaf, ground lapis lazuli, history, purpose and beauty.

"Thank you so much for the opportunity to attend the Jaffe Art Tour yesterday. It was even better the second time around knowing what to expect and being able to give more attention to the exquisite details. I was really surprised at the limited price list, more affordable than I expected! Thank you also for sharing your special recipes. This has been such a fun and rewarding year with WIP. Many, many thanks for all you do."

Thursday evening, September 30, WIP ladies gathered for a shopping spree at J. McLaughlin on Main Street on Hilton Head Island. It was a jovial event, as the ladies confessed they hadn’t bought anything new since the pandemic began. J McLaughlin provided wine fruit and cheese decoratively displayed as shoppers talked and tried on lovely styles. The final financials were good, too: $5,378 in sales with $806.70 coming back to WIP coffers.

Pictured with their bulging shopping bags, L-R: Sue Harter, Elizabeth Loda, Rosalie VanDam, Kaye Black, and Gigi Maxfield                                                        

Standing - back row: Sheryl Jacobs, Lauren Wierman, Denise Hirsch, Kaye Black; Standing - front row: Lesley Gilbert, Pam Fahrner; Seated: Adrianna Liebeskind                                                             

We're pleased to announce the 2022 WIP Grant Theme: Continuing Efforts in Pandemic Recovery to Address Issues of Family Stability! (This covers food security, domestic violence, employability, mental health and housing). Over 50 percent of our membership voted for this theme over issues of Remedial Education and Short-Term Housing Stability. Letters will go to appropriate Beaufort County nonprofits the week of November 8, with grant applications due on January 14, 2022. If you have a particular nonprofit you want to make sure receives information about our 2022 grant opportunity, please contact WIP Grants Chair Mary-Stuart Alderman at msalderman@me.com.                                               

Women in Philanthropy members can be proud of the significant impact three organizations are making this year, thanks to grants totaling $85,000 for new programs to assist in recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.                     

Antioch Education Center (AEC) received $30,000 to implement the Antioch Express – a reduced-rate bus service from its Jasper County facility directly to locations in Bluffton and Hilton Head Island to bring workers to their jobs and help employers fill vacancies. In mid-June, service began with a van departing AEC in Ridgeland five days a week at 6:00 a.m., and travels to Hilton Head Island with stops in Hardeeville and Bluffton, as indicated by the employment locations of the riders. The bus returns at 3 p.m. to bring the workers back. Current ridership numbers stand at 13, limited by COVID safety measures, with half of the riders stopping for jobs in Bluffton, and the rest split between job locations in Hardeeville and Hilton Head Island. A second bus is expected to be added soon, departing between 8 and 9 a.m., providing mutual benefit to the unemployed in Jasper County and businesses in southern Beaufort County.

The Foundation for Educational Excellence was awarded $25,000 to implement a high-quality reading instruction program with students in two schools in the Beaufort County School District who are three or more grade levels behind in reading. Thirty-six students in grades three through five at Robert Smalls International Academy and 30 students at Joseph Shanklin Elementary School have been identified to participate in the intensive reading program. Teachers have been trained, and the programs began the first week of October, with three classrooms of 8-12 students grouped by skill levels at each school.

Volunteers in Medicine (VIM) used our grant of $30,000 to hire a bilingual patient navigator to expedite COVID-19 vaccinations among the underserved in our community. The deep and trusting relationship the clinic staff have developed with the native islander and immigrant populations, both of which historically are not trustful of government agencies, presented an opportunity for VIM to play a significant role in vaccinating our area’s low-income population. In February and March, VIM staff offered vaccination clinics to provide education and register patients with the VAMS system, while the newly hired patient navigator contacted patients directly to convince them of the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, encouraging them to sign up. In April, VIM was allotted doses of the Pfizer vaccine and began vaccinating patients. To date, VIM has provided at least 4,000 vaccine doses to its patients, and in partnership with Hilton Head Hospital and DHEC, to over 5,000 in the community at large through mass vaccination events.

Our area is blessed by the work of these three nonprofit organizations and by our membership donations that allow us to have significant impact during this pandemic.                                    

Join Gigi Maxfield with Women’s Worth Advisors & Stella Lee G. Anderson of Nitty Gritty Organizing, who will show you how to make this happen!