WCW SOMETHING TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT.
Tanzania Student
WCW - world's coolest women. That is what we call our group of multi generational ladies who potluck once a month for charity. We started this up four years ago when I saw a story on one of the morning shows about a group of women who get together, dine, mingle and collect money for grass roots charity.
The ladies on TV were inspirational. I talked to my daughters who spoke with their friends; I spoke with my friends and before long we had a dozen ladies who were intrigued by the project. At our first gathering one of my daughter's friends said, "we need a name". She followed that up with the World's Coolest Women - perhaps because we are anything but! It was a cool feeling although we were unsure where this journey would lead us.
Our group decided on the name right away with a round of laughter! Then we all agreed readily that we would rotate from home to home once a month. The host would declare a theme for the night. We'd all bring something to eat or drink and when the evening was over put money in a pile to give away. We'd give that money to someone where (a) it would preferably be a woman and (b) it would make a difference in someone's life, (c) we'd give where all the money went to the person, no Oprah donations!
Shortly after our first meeting we began to come across ladies in need. We have given to help with utility bills, to a lady battleing cancer who had exhausted her major medical expenses for the year, a family with a house fire, several non profits, a lady who has a personal duck sanctuary, a high school helping young mothers to stay in school, and several other smaller things.
One thing we've done that we are most proud of is to donate for the young lady in this picture through the Village Life organization in Cincinnati. This organization does extensive work in Tanzania. Young girls do not typically get to go to high school. We learned $500 per year would give her an opportunity to do so. We just finished up our last installment for her education.
We will celebrate our fourth anniversary in June. We are a diverse group of women; all united in the joy of making some one person's day or life better. It has been a great ride, we are still going strong. There are many individuals or small groups like ours making a difference, ours is not unique. What we can do alone is great, what we can do together is even greater. Maybe reading this will inspire some other group of people to lend a hand. Oh what a feeling!
