City Flats Hotel was full of excited chatter Wednesday night as local ladies greeted friends old and new. The 300 Women Who Care event is an annual fundraiser with a fun twist. The event is hosted by the Women’s Initiative of the St. Clair County Community Foundation and celebrates women and philanthropy by pooling the resources of the attendees and awarding three grants to local nonprofits at the end of the event. Each ticket purchased included a vote for a nonprofit. The votes were tallied, and the top two grants, $6,500 and $2,500, were awarded to A Beautiful Me and the YMCA of the Blue Water Area respectively.
The process for determining the third-place winner gave the guests a chance to familiarize themselves with the work of The Friends of the St. Clair River, Mid-City Nutrition, Hunter Hospitality House, The Child Abuse and Neglect Council, and The Blue Water Little Black Dress Cancer Fundraiser. Representatives from those organizations had two-minutes to pitch their mission and vision to the crowd. After that, attendees voted for which charity would receive the remaining grant, and Mid-City Nutrition was awarded the final $1,000.
The Women’s Initiative’s mission is to educate, engage, and empower women to participate in philanthropic opportunities, and their event achieved that by providing women in the Blue Water Area with a chance to do some collaborative giving. The effectof that giving will make a difference in the lives of the girls and women influenced by A Beautiful Me, the families who learn and grow at the YMCA, and the many people who sit down for a meal together each day at Mid-City Nutrition. That’s truly girl power at its best.