MENDOCINO Co., 5/2/23 — The “100 Women Strong” event was started as a way for communities to come together and amplify their support local non-profits by pooling donations and awarding them to a winning group. 100 Women Strong of Inland Mendocino County has supported a number of local organizations since they began a few years ago, and now, a similar group will be launching on the Mendocino Coast to support coastal non-profits.
This Thursday, two different celebrations, both inland, and on the coast, will feature local community groups, who will have a chance to present and win at least $10,000 towards their work. As part of the event, participants who pledge donations will be able to vote on which organization will receive the pooled funds.
The launch of The 100 Women Strong Mendocino Coast will take place with an event at Café Beaujolais in Mendocino, featuring community organizations Action Network, Flockworks, and Xa Kako Dile presenting about their work. The event takes place from 6 – 7:30 p.m., and more information can be found at the Community Foundation website as well as in the announcement below.
Inland, 100 Women Strong of Inland Mendocino will be holding an event featuring Laytonville Healthy Start, Hospice of Ukiah, and Ukiah Valley Association for Habilitation at at Barra of Mendocino in Redwood Valley, from 5:30 – 7 p.m. More information can be found at their website: https://100strongmendo.com, and in the announcement below.
Here’s the announcement from the Community Foundation of Mendocino County:
The Community Foundation is honored to power 100 Women Strong Mendocino Coast as one of its 2023 leadership initiatives. 100 Women Strong mobilizes community members to amplify impact through collective giving in support of a local nonprofit. The movement is volunteer-led, and 100% of the contributions go to the organization for its area of greatest need. The model has been proven effective with over 350 groups across the globe, including in inland Mendocino, which has distributed over $200,000 to our inland nonprofit partners since 2019.
The model gathers 100+ community members, asking each person or group to donate $100. The money is pooled and donated to a local nonprofit, selected by the contributing parties during a celebratory gathering. All genders are invited to contribute and attend the celebration. The 100 Women Strong Mendocino Coastlaunch event will occur on Thursday, May 4, 2023, from 6-7:30 p.m., at Café Beaujolais in Mendocino.Action Network, Flockworks, and Xa Kako Dile: will present, and once attendees have voted, all donations up to $10,000 will go to the awarded organization with any additional funding split between the other two. If you would like to learn more or participate in this innovative effort, please visit our website.
The project has received resounding support on the Mendocino Coast, including but not limited to the following organizations that have committed in-kind donations: Café Beaujolais, Mendocino CoastHealthcare Foundation, Mendocino High School Audio-Visual Club, Red house Coworking Space, and the Color Mill. The Community Foundation has contributed project management, accounting support, and PayPal services to gather and distribute the collected funds.
Here’s the announcement from 100 Women Strong of Inland Mendocino County:
Excitement is building for the next 100+ Women Strong of Inland Mendocino County Gathering on Thursday, May 4, 5:30-7:00 pm, at Barra of Mendocino in Redwood Valley. Attendance is open to anyone who wants to participate in giving a financial boost to an inland Mendocino County nonprofit.
The three nonprofits presenting are Laytonville Healthy Start, Hospice of Ukiah, and Ukiah Valley Association for Habilitation.
Laytonville Healthy Start is home to an extensive list of services for families, teens, and anyone in the community who needs assistance. It was started in 1997 primarily to assist children attending Laytonville Schools. Laytonville Healthy Start runs the Drug Free Community program, providing alcohol and other drug services, and assistance with health care and child abuse and neglect. Today, the Center is the go-to organization for the entire rural community as a resource for transportation services, services for adults and seniors and affordable childcare and housing in the Laytonville area. And during snowed-in days of the past winter, Healthy Start stepped up to house stranded families.
Hospice of Ukiah’s mission is to provide end of life and comfort care, free of charge, to everyone in our community who needs it. Serving Ukiah, Calpella, Redwood Valley, Potter Valley, Hopland, Talmage, Anderson Valley, and Willits, Hospice of Ukiah is completely supported by the community in the form of Donations, Grants, Bequests, and the earnings from our Thrift & Gift Store. Since its founding in 1980, volunteers with Hospice of Ukiah continue to care for terminally ill patients who choose to fight their disease with chemotherapy, radiation, dialysis etc. The organization has since added Palliative Care—to support patients and their families who were not terminally ill. Their problems include old age debility, dementia, emphysema, renal disease, cardio-pulmonary disease, etc.
The Ukiah Valley Association for Habilitation helps people with disabilities meet their full potential as productive citizens in the greater Ukiah community. Their three major programs are co-sponsored by the Ukiah Unified School District Adult School. The Rural Adult Program is designed to help attain maximum independence. Mayacama Industries is an employment and vocational training program, which along with Mayacama Employment Service assists individuals to achieve economic self-sufficiency and vocational independence through its job placement and support. Learning Independence from Experience (L.I.F.E.) is designed to serve adults with developmental or other disabilities and 18-22 year old students in their last year of school who want to be fully included in work and community life.
At the 100+ Women Strong Gathering, each Non-Profit will have five minutes to speak and five minutes for the audience to ask questions. After hearing from each of the speakers, everyone who has made a hundred dollars donation will cast a vote for the nonprofit of their choice. The non-profit with the most votes will walk away with at least $10,000.
100+ Women Strong is an inclusive all-volunteer group. Anyone interested in attending the gathering and hearing from three nonprofits doing indispensable work in our community is welcome. To register, each attendee pledges a hundred dollars on the 100+ Mendocino Women Grapevine website via https://100strongmendo.com. Click the “Become a Member” button. Already more than seven thousand dollars have been pledged.
100+ Women Strong for Inland Mendocino County was spearheaded in 2019 by Katie Fairbairn and twenty volunteers. Previous winners include NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness), Cancer Resources of Mendocino County, Ukiah Valley Trails Group, NCO Gardens Project, Caring Kitchen, Project Sanctuary, the Humane Society for Inland Mendocino County, Northern California Disaster Services, and KZYX Community Radio. More than a hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars has been raised to support local nonprofits.
