NONPROFITS AROUND TOWN: Woman's Club history goes back to ... Charles Dickens

They started getting together in 1902, local women meeting, learning, volunteering, spending time with friends and raising money for community causes.

Now, several generations later, their legacy lives on and The Woman’s Club of Colorado Springs is still going strong.

Several members are more than 90 years old and still active. Others are in their 30s and everywhere in between.

The local group is part of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, founded in 1868 when a New York journalist, Jane Cunningham Croly, wanted to hear novelist Charles Dickens at the all-male press club. She was ousted, but one-upped the men by forming her own group of women, Sorosis, Greek for “an aggregation; a sweet flavor of many fruits.” In 1890 it became the national federation.

Last year the GFWC clubwomen nationwide clocked nearly 5 million volunteer hours and gave $15 million to 112,000 projects.

The Woman’s Club of Colorado Springs, raising money for its Colorado College scholarship fund and The Gazette/El Pomar Empty Stocking Fund, met Sept. 23 at the college for a Bon Appétit luncheon of locally grown food and a Terra Verde fashion show. Giving the fashion  forecast for fall, Terra Verde store manager  Amy Christensen said there will be browns and blacks and grays, of course, but with bright “punches of color.”

Holly Oliphant was chair of the event and Stephanie Waltman coordinated the baskets won by lucky attendees. Pam Bruni took home a bouquet of flowers from Rich Designs Home and Diane Bell, who had updated the women on the past year, won a giant Terra Verde basket. Jane Troyer took a lot of teasing and table mates advised her to go buy a lottery ticket after her numbers were pulled for two different baskets.

Urban Peak

Calling his an “innovative commitment to improving the lives of young people,” Urban Peak Executive Director John McIlwee honored Harrison School District 2 Superintendent Mike Miles with the group’s Pathmaker Award.
The award was part of Urban Peak’s ninth annual fundraiser Sept. 30 at Mr. Biggs Events Center.

Every year 200 kids become homless in Colorado Springs, supporters were told, and Urban Peak is there to give them the tools for self sufficiency.

Jessi shared her story about years on the street and a meth addiction. Since going to Urban Peak in 2008 she is clean and sober, has a job and employers who were there to support her, lives in her own apartment and just got married. “I wasn’t used to having adults who cared about me,” she said.

Jolene also went into Urban Peak in 2008 after years in 10 different foster homes and three group homes. She learned how to get a job, save money and is living on her own after being accepted in a housing program. She has a job, a car and wants a career in early childhood education, something she never had.

“Young ladies like these, this is what it’s all about,” said McIlwee.

In a new video by Robin Jones, a young man in Urban Peak said he never, ever thought the only thing he would want in life is an address.

Sponsors of the benefit were the Gay and Lesbian Fund, The Gazette, Booz Allen Hamilton, COBHAM, Colorado Springs Utilities, COPT, Joyce Wolf & Associates, Memorial Health System and University of Phoenix.

Mountain of Hope

Starting before dawn Sept. 12, people swam and hit the bikes for a spinning marathon, raising $6,600 during Cheyenne Mountain Resort’s first benefit for Marian House Soup Kitchen. During the day resort general manager Laura Neumann and her staff built a “Mountain of Cans,” with each industrial-sized can representing a $5 donation.

Food Art

Over 100 guests joined Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts and Amusé Bistro for “Food Art: The Plate is your Canvas” competition and fundraiser Sept. 26.

Included in the evening’s festivities were wine tasting, hors d’oeuvres and dancing.

Displayed throughout the center was culinary artistry designed by local chefs. Top vote getter was Peter Kavanagh, owner of The Speed Trap in Palmer Lake.

The evening raised $1,500 for technology improvements at the center.

School Lunch Revolution

Colorado Whole Foods shoppers raised $29,000 during the campaign to change school lunches which ended in mid-October. Nationwide the stores collected over $710,000.

Chef Ann Cooper, the nation’s “Renegade Lunch Lady”, and Whole Foods partnered for TheLunchBox.org, a free site which gives nutrition advice to school lunch directors seeking to make changes to cafeteria menus.

 The Lunch Box provides healthy tools and raises awareness of flaws in the current lunch system, Whole Foods said.