Women Give San Diego presents: Women 4 Women
Women love to gather, collaborate and
help. We often find ourselves searching for organizations whose missions align
with our passions and offer us an opportunity to gather, collaborate and help
other women. More often, however, we underestimate our power when we combine
these innate tendencies and skills. This month, Women Give San Diego, presented
an event that opened my eyes to our power and impact.
Women 4 Women was held on May 7th and
was graciously hosted by Dr. Walter and Mary Munk at their magical home in La
Jolla. The event was targeted towards membership recruitment and it proved to
be so much more. In fact, that day presented the reasons why I was proud to be
a member of Women Give San Diego and how we are unique in a very powerful way.
When I first arrived at the Munk's home
I was immediately transported into a mystical secret garden like
get-away. It
was in this moment I began my list of reason Women Give San Diego is unique and
powerful.
Number 1: The
generosity of our members. Every event we create a new member steps up and
offers their home to host. I don’t think we have had a host need to provide
their home twice yet because so many members graciously offer to share their
sacred environments for our events. Simply amazing.
Gradually,
members and guests began to arrive and indulge in tasty food, silky wines
(generously provided by 12 Signs Wine) and engaged in stimulating conversation.
As I made my rounds I started to see people who I had relationships with
outside of Women Give San Diego that I had not invited myself. I saw women who
worked for Shakti Rising, another organization that supports women and girls in
San Diego that I also volunteer for. I spent time connecting with two women
that I graduated with from Francis Parker School. I was thrilled to see women
from Leap to Success, an organization that I supported through acting in the
Vagina Monologues. Interacting with old friends and new friends brought me to
the second reason why Women Give San Diego is so unique.
Our
membership is so diverse in age, background and careers that it opens up
opportunities to connect and build life-long relationships with women you
wouldn’t typically meet in your social and/or career settings. More
importantly, if you were to meet them somewhere else you might not connect with
them on the level you do when you are in this environment. There is some unspoken
energy that fosters connected relationships in this group. That evening members
were taking the opportunity to engage with one another by facilitating
connections between potential members and current members. By the time you left,
it was almost guaranteed you had made at least one new connection and friend,
if not multiple.
As
the evening continued, people took their seats in an amazing garden-like
amphitheater and one of our members, Dr. Jenn Gunsulas, began the program.
Megan
Lim, our Membership Leadership Team chair had so eloquently coordinated this
incredible event from start to finish incorporating as many members as she
could to truly give guests a taste of what Women Give San Diego does and who we
are collectively as a donor’s circle. As I listened to each member share a
story of their own experience with Women Give San Diego or a story of the women
and girls who have benefited from our grants thus far I couldn’t help but think
of the next reason.
As
the program came to a close and women began to mingle again I stood back and
took in the vision of so many powerful women coming together for a not only
worthy but needed cause. I realized in that moment that if we want the world to
have more women like this, and we do, it starts with us providing the
opportunities for those women and girls now so that along the way they too can
give back and support future generations to come. Women 4 Women couldn’t have
been a better title for this event because the entire evening was just that;
Women connecting, collaborating, sharing stories and focusing on a cause
together to help and support other women.
There
are many more than just 3 reasons that Women Give San Diego is unique and
powerful. Those three reasons are my main reasons. I invite you as a member or member-to-be
to consider your reasons and join us as we continue to provide what is
necessary to build stronger communities starting with our women and girls.
