Last night was an amazing evening at 100 Women Stettler. The "UNorganization" of 100+ Women is a model used to raise funds local non-profit organizations. How does it work? Simply. Beautifully.
There is no board, no bank accounts, no president, no meeting minutes, nothing. A venue is chosen, women in Stettler are invited to attend and become members by committing to donate $100 each meeting (twice a year) and members nominate local non-profits to receive the funds raised. There are three non-profits that are able to present at the meeting for five minutes each and after the presentations you vote (on a secret ballot), the votes are tallied up and whoever receives the most votes gets the funds raised that meeting. Last night over $11,000 was raised! Congratulations to the Hospice Society of Stettler for receiving the most votes. Also nominated by members; the Heartland Youth Centre, and the Stettler District Crisis Aid Program. All of these organizations gave incredible presentations. (See photos below.)
As someone who attends and works at a lot of fundraisers I must say that this is one of the easiest, and hardest, I have ever attended. Easy in that I knew the women in that room raised a good sum of money in just a few hours. The hard part? Voting for just one organization. While sitting at the table, ballot in front of me and pen in hand I got just a little taste of what all these amazing people at our local organizations face on a daily basis; choosing who gets money and who doesn't. It was sobering to say the least. Hats off to these people for the great work they do in our community. For all the thankless, quiet, tough, emotional, exhausting jobs you do; thank you.
I hope to see more ladies at 100 Women Stettler in the Spring. You can register on the website now and follow them on Facebook as well. You don't want to miss the next one.
An enormous thank you to the "UNorganizers" Kendall Duff, Christy Brennan and Brenda Esquirol for putting the event together.