Denver Chapter
Scholarship Awards
The EWI Denver Chapter B/C/DB ASIST Committee is pleased to report 19 scholarship recipients have been selected from 37 applications. This year’s recipients (representing 5 colleges) were awarded a total of $17,750 and include the following:
Arapahoe Community College:
Rashelle Bryant - $500
Denice J. Hill-Herzog - $1,500
(Also 1998 recipient) Bruce R. Powell - $500 (Also 1998 recipient)Susanna B. Powers - $1,000 (Also 1998 recipient)
Community College of Aurora:
Chanttel Brady - $500
Community College of Denver:
Anna Marie Jones - $1,500
Maimouna Mauerman - $1,000
Front Range Community College:
Margaret "Peg" Carr - $500
Valerie K. Love - $500
Harold "Lee" Vannier - $1,500
Tonia Wyatt - $500
Metropolitan State College:
Victoria Decker - $1,000
(Also 1998 recipient)Karen Kirby - $1,250
(Also 1997 & 1998 recipient)Patricia Leal - $1,000
Ramona Pekarek - $500
Tammy L. Romero - $1,250
Bridget Watkins - $1,250
(Also 1998 recipient and 1998 International ASIST recipient)*Andrea "Annie" L. Schell
*Lara K. Thomas - $1,250
*Transferring from Arapahoe Community College to Metropolitan State College in Fall of 1999
Anna Marie Jones was also selected as one of twelve 1999 International ASIST competition winners and will receive a $500 scholarship from our Corporate office, in additional to the $1,500 scholarship from the Denver Chapter.
If you are interested in EWI - Denver membership information e-mail Bev Saidel... saico1@hotmail.com
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EXECUTIVE WOMEN INTERNATIONAL
WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE
COLORADO OCEAN JOURNEY EVENT
OCTOBER 21ST, 1999
Photo by Bev Saidel
The morning of October 21st dawned sunny and bright. Were we going to luck out with the weather? It looked that way.
Tonight was going to be the culmination of months and months of hard work – by a committee of very dedicated volunteers. We had met at least eleven times since the beginning of the year – planning and planning. Each committee member offered their own unique set of skills:
Andrea St. Peter – very gifted with the computer. She designed the invitations, tickets, RSVP cards, nametags for committee members, program and posters for the night of the event.
Shannon Rush – helped Andrea and also was able to obtain the services of the DJ free of charge. She was able to persuade her company to donate a week’s stay at their condo on St. John in the US Virgin Islands. That was our largest Silent Auction item coming in at $1,600!
Gwen Smith & Loren Crosby – took the daunting task of keeping track of the tickets. They worked a couple of late nights keeping track of the sales. Gwen was able to obtain a $2,000 donation from the U S WEST Foundation, as well as a large number of auction items from U S WEST. The "fishy" reminders at each month’s meeting were also compliments of U S WEST.
Jan Hardy was our publications and advertising person. She kept our chapter reps informed about our event. Her company also paid for postage for our mass mailing. Jan sold a large number of tickets, and her company donated a Bass Fishing Trip – another high ticket item.
Mary Hawley – kept track of our contract with Colorado Ocean Journey and handled all interaction with Riverside Catering. She reminded me when checks were due. She handled the linens graciously donated by Bernie Bown @ Butler Rents. A couple of her co-workers from the Brown Palace volunteered their time to set up the linens and table skirts the night of our event. She also had the Brown Palace donate a wonderful auction item.
Janice Garrett – our member rep from Colorado Ocean Journey provided us with some wonderful auction items from Ocean Journey. She arranged for us to have a tour and meeting there and she was able to provide us with maps and other insights into the facility. She graciously provided us with sandwiches just prior to the event on the 21st.
Kiffie Hester and Sandy Osborn were late comers on our committee – but both proved very helpful with the event. Sandy was very instrumental in obtaining some wonderful auction items from Pepsi Bottling Group.
I handled the Silent Auction. We had over 130 auction items donated by our members and their firms. Thanks to all of you! Maggie Peterson and her husband, Ken, helped me until late one night sorting and logging these items. My husband, Norm, loaded, unloaded and reloaded these items for me. He donated a number of very nice framed pieces and also offered the use of his business’ credit card processor which saved us a couple hundred dollars. (As it turned out, we didn’t need to use it.)
Each of our committee members was assigned an auction table. Prior to the night of the 21st, they picked up the items they were responsible for. The night of our event, we had only one hour to set up. You can imagine how hectic it was!
Special thanks also go to Missy Mitro, who was very helpful in the printing of the invitations, tickets and RSVP cards. She also ordered our matching polo shirts, obtaining them for us at a very good price. The Typesmith of Colorado also donated the typesetting and printing of the programs, as well as a couple of auction items.
Bev Saidel also deserves a thank you. She graciously agreed to take pictures of our event – and was able to get a group shot of our committee, as well as each auction table and many candid shots. She donated several terrific auction items.
While we don’t have final numbers yet, I can share some preliminary results:
Values for our Silent Auction items totaled over $8,000. We made almost $5,300, which is 66% of their value! All of these items were donated by members or their firms.
Sponsorships totaled $13,250, which is just outstanding.
Donations totaled almost $2,135.
And ticket sales – well, we were anticipating 275 people and we had 366 show up. That’s 33% more than we thought! What a great response!
As you can tell, a task as big as this one cannot be accomplished by one or two people. Everyone on this committee worked very hard on this event. I also want to thank all of our reps who assisted with ticket sales, donations, sponsorships and silent auction items. Your support and generosity was amazing! Thank you.
Mary Perrott Smith (Chair) Home
Make A Difference Day at it’s Best
Photo By Bev Saidel
The weather was cool and beautiful, the volunteers were excited and
invigorated, and the children weren't exactly sure what to expect. By the
time the morning was over the weather was warm and still beautiful, the
volunteers were a tad tired, but nevertheless enthusiastic, and the
children and their parents were excited and invigorated -- ready to go out
and tackle the world of reading, writing and illustrating.
The EWI volunteers: Jan Hardy, Carol Miliotes, Collen Quinn, Loren
Crosby, Pat Clark, Jeanne Mitisek, Tamera Braun, Dotty Gerard, Chris
Lawrence, Kathy Pettee, Missy Mitro, Tina Rutherford, Tina Montoya, Bev
Saidel and Mary Ann Ehlers arrived at 8:30 a.m. loaded with really cool
t-shirts (we have some left over which will be offered for sale at the next
meeting to benefit the literacy project), books ("Cucumber Soup" and "Cats,
Dogs, Bugs, and Frogs"); bananas, grapes, donuts, muffins, cookies and
punch.
Three volunteers who discovered our project on the "Make a Difference Day"
website, showed up as well. Two were young women architects, and the third
was a VISTA volunteer who is assigned to a reading project at an elementary
school down the street from Barrett.
Our author volunteer, Vickie Leigh Krudwig (author of Cucumber Soup and
illustrator of Cats, Dogs, Bugs, and Frogs), arrived full of ideas and
enthusiasm. She was so thrilled to be working with us, and by the fact that
we purchased 120 copies of her book (at a generous 45% discount from the
publisher -- Fulcrum Publishing) to distribute to not only the children
attending the Reading Rally, but to all the first and second graders at
Barrett. We also purchased 200 copies of the small "Cats, Dogs, Bugs and
Frogs" collection of children's poetry by Frank Kramer, which Vickie
illustrated, to be distributed to all the children at Barrett. The children
who were there on Saturday loved both of the books, and no doubt are walking
around quoting passages this week (if Mary Ann's daughter, Antonia, is a
model).
The children and their parents started arriving, signed in and received
t-shirts with the children receiving their own autographed copies of the
books. Vickie had spent hours autographing all of the books, including a
drawing of a bug with each autograph. They settled down in Barrett's
all-purpose room and awaited the start of the program, munching on fruit and
donuts.
Vickie started her presentation by giving the children a short history of
her ill-fated start in reading and writing. She had vision problems and
suffers from dyslexia, so had difficulties learning to read, and therefore
learning everything. A supportive husband encouraged her to overcome those
difficulties and after she discovered the enchantment of reading at the age
of 20, she next discovered that she had a talent for drawing. Her love for
both eventually developed into a career as an illustrator and writer.
The idea for Cucumber Soup (a counting book based on the cooperation of
numerous insects in moving a cucumber off an ant hole) was the result of a
gift Vickie received from her children -- an ant farm. She gave a quick
lesson on drawing to everyone present (some of our volunteers discovered
that they too can draw -- ask them!) using the alphabet. It was truly
amazing seeing the concentration of the children and adults as they tried
their hand at something new. It wouldn't be surprising if many people
discovered that something they thought to be beyond their capabilities
definitely is not!
We then distributed writing materials and the children began writing their
own books. Loren Crosby of Trendex brought an awesome binding system that
allowed all of the children to have a bound "book" when they left. We added
extra blank pages so that they could finish it up at home. As the photos
show -- everyone was quite pleased with his or her book, and everyone headed
home with new ideas about what they are capable of.
It was a rewarding morning -- and we hope to have even more success next
year.
Mary Ann Ehlers
EWI Philanthropy Committee Chair (HOME)
Barrett Follow-up.....
Letter to Pati Dahman-Ray from Mary Ann Ehlers
Pati,
Thought you'd like a brief rundown of how things went in Denver. The following will be included in our chapter Pulse -- and possibly sent off to corporate with some photos as well.
It really was a fun morning and the children who attended will no doubt remember it forever! The principal tells me that many of the children proudly wore their t-shirts to school on Monday. We certainly hope to do a repeat next year -- and expect many more > participants (I believe we had 32 children in attendance).
Copy of Mary Ann’s Make a Difference Day Story
Hope everyone else had equally successful days.
Sincerely,
Mary Ann Ehlers
Letter from Pati Dahmen-Ray, EWI Corporate Literacy Chair
Thanks for the update Mary Ann -- I am so glad that it was a successful event for both the Denver Chapter and the children that participated! You truly did "Make A Difference" in a lot of lives on Saturday. Thank you again for participating in the Reading Rally - if we can all work together on a few projects such as the reading rally, we will make more of an impact than having our efforts scattered like dandelion seeds in the wind.
To date many of the chapters have received money from Wal-Mart and they will be recognized on the Make A Difference Day home page under the Wal-Mart section so this is a giant step in the right direction. Kris Wilkerson is also planning to contact them for a corporate sponsorship next year, citing our great project and how they supported it in several different cities. Just today I learned that the Wal-Mart corporate headquarters are within the Northwest Arkansas Chapter boundaries and because they went from not even considering participating to participating and receiving press coverage in their local paper, I believe they are going to approach Wal-Mart for a membership!
I'll look forward to reading all about the details of your event in your Chapter Pulse. Please extend my gratitude to all of the Denver Chapter reps that participated.
Sincerely,
Pati