We are very excited to share the wonderful news of our second granting cycle for Greenwood Women Care! This year we are pleased to announce that $74,000 of new grant monies have been awarded to 10 nonprofits in our community because of generous contributions from GWC Members!

Applicant requests ranged from $2000 – $10,000. The Grants Review & Awards Committee gathered voting information obtained from the Survey Monkey ballots. Using the raw voting scores, the weighted average, and a percentile ranking based on the total granting amount, the Grants Review & Awards Committee employed a careful, detailed process to determine the number of projects to be funded and the amounts of each award.

The Greenwood Women Care Grant recipients of 2020 are:

• Alston Wilkes Society $6000 – to provide local staffing and financial assistance for reintegration of past offenders.
• Boys & Girls Club of the Lakelands $10,000 – for the Starz 24 Teen Center to provide a teen service specialist and to help with operating costs.
• Connie Maxwell Children’s Home $7000 – toward the renovation of Ouzts Cottage, future home to middle school-aged boys.
• Crossroads Pregnancy Center $7000 – to support a Earn While You Learn online parenting program and materials for soon-to-be-parents.
• Emerald City Rotary Foundation $6000 – for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program, providing a book each month for children under the age of 5.
• Food Bank of Greenwood County $10,000 – to purchase food and assist with operating expenses at the Food Bank and Lander Food Pantry.
• Greenwood Area Habitat for Humanity $7000 – for the purchase of residential construction materials for the Homeownership Program
• Greenwood Pathway House $2000 – to provide equipment and materials for a homeless client art therapy program.
• Healthy Learners $10,000 – to assist with staffing needs and to provide children with transportation to health care appointments.
• Project Hope Foundation $10,000 – to provide staffing, training, and materials to parents of children with autism.

What an incredible impact Greenwood Women Care is having on our community of Greenwood County! We could not be prouder to have been part of the detailed work of presenting the process of voting to our Members. We are so pleased with our Members’ commitment to Learn, Give, and Grow!

GWC Grants Review & Awards Committee

Greenwood Women Care’s first Quarterly Meeting via Zoom was held on Tuesday, August 18^th. We were welcomed and introduced to both the technology and agenda items of our meeting by Laura Bachinski, GWC Co-Chair.

While not all 129 members could be in attendance, those members and guests that were greatly enjoyed the virtual tour afforded us by Chris Thomas, Director of the Benjamin E. Mays Historical Site. Mamie Nicholson welcomed us to the site, and Rhonda Merritt introduced and accompanied Mr. Thomas on the tour. We were treated to forays into Dr. Mays’s boyhood home, a school like the one-room school he attended, and the museum that honors him. It was inspiring to learn that a man of humble beginnings could aspire to and attain such heights of acclaim and influence. Dr. Mays was the sixth president of Morehead University from 1940-67 and was a mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He is credited with building the foundation of the American civil rights movement and gave the benediction after Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 and the eulogy at Dr. King’s funeral in 1968.

At the conclusion of the video, Louise Robinson, Chair of the Programs and Education Committee, thanked Mr. Thomas for his tour and hospitality and GWC members who assisted with the video. Mary Woodiwiss announced GWC’s contribution of the children’s book I Have a Dream to the Greenwood County Public Library in Chris Thomas’s honor. Members are invited to help provide book contributions to honor our speakers and can email gwc@greenwoodcf.org for more information.

Laura Stowe, Co-Chair of the Communications Committee, reminded us about our committee structure of six standing committees and recognized Chairs, including three new Chairs. Approximately 50% of our members are currently engaged in our committees. Laura noted that committee descriptions and members can be found on our webpage and encouraged interested members to contact the Chair of any committee to join or learn more.

Trentsie Williams, Co-Chair of the Grants Review and Awards Committee, presented a PowerPoint on the 2020 granting cycle. On October 19^th, GWC with host a “Kick Off the Vote” virtual social at 5:30 – 6:30 where granting and voting procedures will be highlighted. Online voting will be open October 19^th – October 21^st. GWC is expected to grant upwards of $50,000, as directed by Members’s votes.

Mary Woodiwiss, GWC Co-Chair, gave our closing message, highlighting the many ways that GWC has remained active in these past challenging months.

Please remember to watch your inboxes and mailboxes for more news to come!

The link to the full meeting video, which includes the Benjamin E. Mays virtual tour and important GWC updates, is here. (video lasts ~ 40 minutes)

The link to the Benjamin E. Mays virtual tour is here. (video lasts ~ 15 minutes)

GWC Grants Review & Awards Committee designed and hosted a grant writing workshop, “Grant Writing 101”, on July 23. Thirty community members serving a wide range of local nonprofits attended the virtual meeting which was offered at no charge. Presentations included “Writing Your Grant Proposal” by Kathy Emily, “Grant Assessment” by Donna Foster, and discussion of a pre-workshop writing assignment by Jan Puzar and Mary Woodiwiss.

The workshop concluded with a Funders Forum of local grantmakers: Selynto Anderson, Self Regional Healthcare; Emily Findley, United Way of Greenwood & Abbeville Counties; Mamie Nicholson, Self Family Foundation; Trentsie Williams, on behalf of the GWC Grants Committee; and Mary Woodiwiss, Greenwood County Community Foundation.

We are pleased to have offered this service to our community!

A video of our Grant Writing 101 workshop, via Zoom, may be found here. PLEASE NOTE: Due to recording errors, this video begins within the first informational session of the 2.5-hour long workshop.

In this time of special COVID-19 precautions, Greenwood Women Care (GWC) recognizes that many of our local nonprofits have been impacted by changes in contact with the public, fundraising, and other usual activity. Meanwhile, GWC has, for the time being, suspended our gatherings which allow us to regularly feature local nonprofits in our programming and by holding Quarterly Meetings and Socials in nonprofit venues.

GWC has developed another means of drawing attention to local nonprofits! We invited local nonprofits to let us shoot a very informal video to present their mission and programs. Twenty-three organizations have chosen to participate and we are thankful for their time and attention in such a challenging season as this. (We managed this with proper social distancing, simple filming on a phone, and no cost to GWC ~ please be advised, and patient with the informal results! )

Videos appeared in 5 “sessions” of 4-5 videos each, with a new session added each Thursday, June 11-July 9.

In each line below, there is a hyperlink to the website, Facebook page, or other informational site (click on each organization’s name) and to that organization’s video clip (click on here). We hope this series of videos will not only serve the efforts of these nonprofits but will also help us to stay connected as Members in this time apart and continue in our mission to inform our Members and guests of issues and opportunities in our community.

Session 1 (posted on June 11)

Learn about BLOOM here.

Learn about Greenwood Pathway House here.

Learn about Piedmont Agency on Aging here.

Learn about Cornerstone here.

Learn about The Arts Center of Greenwood here.

Session 2 (posted on June 18)

Learn about The Museum and Railroad Historical Center here.

Learn about Burton Center here.

Learn about Emerald City Rotary Club (sponsors of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library) here.

Learn about Beyond Abuse here.

Session 3 (posted on June 25)

Learn about Greater Greenwood United Ministry here.

Learn about Boys & Girls Club of the Lakelands here.

Learn about Project Hope Foundation here.

Learn about Connie Maxwell Children’s Home here.

Session 4 (posted on July 2)

Learn about Hospice & Palliative Care of the Piedmont here.

Learn about Greenwood Area Habitat for Humanity here.

Learn about United Way of Greenwood and Abbeville Counties here.

Learn about A Place for Us here.

Learn about Greenwood Performing Arts here.

Session 5 (posted on July 9)

Learn about Community Initiatives here.

Learn about Greenwood Community Theatre here.

Learn about Healthy Learners here.

Learn about CrossRoads Pregnancy Center here.

Learn about Cokesbury College here.

Sixty plus members and guests turned out on a very cold and wet Tuesday evening on February 18^th to enjoy an uplifting and highly informative Greenwood Women Care’s 1st Quarterly Meeting of 2020.  After a very enjoyable extended social time, Mary Woodiwiss, GWC Co-Chair, welcomed guests and members to the Harley Family Center.  She shared that we now have 122 members (of which 21 are new members!), reiterated our open Membership, and shared details of our 2020 GWC Grants cycle. Beginning this year, GWC will accept grant applications in August and vote on our grant awards in October.

Rhonda Merritt kicked off our program, “Caring for Community Members with Special Needs”, by introducing our speakers: Susan Keown, Director of Quality Assurance at the Burton Center and Carol Scales, Board President of Greenwood Place along with Toni Belcher of Greenwood Place. Each of these women touched our hearts with their messages of hope, compassion, and respect for those who are served by their organizations.

Laura Bachinski, GWC Co-Chair, closed the evening with special thanks to all who prepared for our meeting. She also announced an invitation to enjoy Greenwood Community Theatre’s production of A Raisin in the Sun on Friday March 6^th at 7:30. A special discounted rate is available to all GWC members. (An email with details was sent to Members on 2.19.)