On Thursday, October 8^th, WomenGive hosted their 2^nd Annual Cheers to Change event in The Agave Room, above The Rio in Old Town Fort Collins.

Almost 100 women gathered to kick off WomenGive's 10^th year of work in our community, and to hear from a guest speaker through the Women's Foundation of Colorado.

While guests enjoyed Rio margaritas and appetizers WomenGive co-chair Michele Marquitz welcomed everyone, and shared an update from WomenGive: to date the program has assisted 207 women working towards a higher education degree, which in turn has positively affected 271 children in our community! Our childcare scholarships have helped 85 single mothers graduate with a higher education degree, which will increase their earning potential by an average of 1 million dollars over the course of their lifetime!

Michele also thanked our 2015- 2016 Mission Sponsors: The Donnan Charitable Foundation, The Group Inc., Real Estate, and UC Health. Because of the generous support of these sponsors all gifts to WomenGive go directly to supporting our mission.

Through WomenGive's partnership with The Women's Foundation of Colorado guests heard a presentation from Aubrey Hasvold, from the Colorado Center on Law and Policy. Aubrey shared some incredible statistics on the Self-Sufficiency Standard for Colorado. This Standard measures how much income a family in each of Colorado's counties must earn to meet their basic needs without public or private assistance. Aubrey pointed out that with the high cost of childcare in the state of Colorado, many single parent households spend close to a quarter of their monthly income on childcare, highlighting the need for WomenGive's childcare assistance for single mothers going back to school.

Later in the program guests heard from Jewels Dawson, a current WomenGive recipient. Jewels shared her inspirational story, including how her daughter received a WomenGive scholarship when she was a teenager, and has now successfully completed her masters degree. Jewels herself is on track to graduate from CSU in May 2016, and received a 4.0 GPA last semester. In her own words Jewels shared that WomenGive “not only took away the financial burden, but it also took away reliance on my kids' dads for childcare and gave me back the power to reachmy goals. It is one of the greatest gifts I have received in a very long time.”

Concluding the Cheers to Change event Michele Marquitz encouraged everyone to save the date for our 10^th Annual WomenGive Luncheon, on February 25^th, 2016. We hope to see you all there!

Published: November 10, 2015