WS Chronicle

By Judie Holcomb-Pack

On Thursday, Nov. 15, at the Benton Convention Center, 600 people gathered for the 13th annual Women’s Fund of Winston-Salem luncheon, where the winners of eight grants were announced.

The Fund awarded $109,685 grants to eight local nonprofit organizations who aim to address the economic security of women and girls in Forsyth County.

Wanda Starke, WXII-TV anchor and Women’s Fund member, welcomed everyone and noted the luncheon’s theme of “Champions of Change – The Urgency of Now.”

Julie Ann Freischlag, M.D., the CEO of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, which was the luncheon’s presenting sponsor, mentioned that the midterm election was the first time she and her husband had the opportunity to vote since moving to north Carolina. She noted that over 100 women had been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, which garnered enthusiastic applause from the mostly female audience.

Lamaya Williams, chairwoman of The Women’s Fund, gave a brief update and introduced the keynote speaker, Silvia Ramos, past Women’s Fund and Winston-Salem Foundation board member.

Ramos began her talk by saying “oppression and hate are alive and well in our community and state.” She emphasized that love is the answer, but loving a community of strangers can be difficult to do. Ramos quoted Martin Luther King Jr., saying: “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the good people.”

Ramos spoke about oppression and fear. She said oppression operates in many different ways to weaken people and undermine their efforts and to make them ineffective. She acknowledged that people do get weary, but not to give up. Love is not easy, but to be champions, you need to love. Without love, there is no humanity, no change, no opportunity.

She ended with a quote from musician Jimi Hendrix: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace,” and challenged the audience to be champions of change.

Gwenn Clements, The Women’s Fund grants committee chair, and Sabrina Slade, The Winston-Salem Foundation’s director of strategic initiatives, announced the grants awarded to the following organizations:

*Authoring Action, $15,000 for the Girl to Girl writing workshop

*Crosby Scholars, $10,000 for the SHE project to address the root problems of poverty

* Delicious by Shereen, $15,000 to provide economic opportunities to refugee women to develop culinary skills

*Lead Girls, $10,000 to continue working with girls age 11-15 at Wiley, Philo-Hill and Mineral Springs Middle Schools

*Planned Parenthood, $15,000 to provide pregnancy prevention information at Philo-Hill, Mineral Springs and Walkertown Middle Schools.

*Salvation Army, $14,685 for the Center of Hope life skills program

*The Parenting Path, $15,000 trauma information resilience program to develop coping mechanisms

*YMCA of Northwest N.C., $15,000 for RISE refugee and immigrant program to assist women to produce and sell crafts and hand-sewn items.