OPTIONS 10 Year Celebration

The Women’s Fund OPTIONS Alumnae (OA) crew was at work again. Maybe some nostalgia is in order. See, I remember sitting as a table captain back in 2004 at the very big celebratory event at the Indiana Convention Center talking about the bold, transformative grants Women’s Fund was providing to women and girls in our community. I recall the hint of OPTIONS' 10 year mark approaching, and how I wanted to help make that 10 year event special. As it turns out, I did help along with Julie Bowen, Melissa Averitt, Carin McBroom, Allison Steck, Lalaine Smith and our leaders Elizabeth Hopper and Myra Mariani.

We landed on an OPTIONS: defined theme that we felt was appropriate for a couple reasons: 1) the word options lends itself to be defined by the individual, and 2) most all definitions fall in step with the work we do as part of OA. Alternatives, choice, selection, opportunity; these are all words used when discussing where OPTIONS will give their gift.

So I went through and asked a few others what OPTIONS meant to them and want to share those responses:

• “It means empowerment.”
• “It opens doors to community learning and how we can impact women.”
• “It means a sense of self.”
• “It gave me an opportunity to learn about the women-serving organizations.”
• “It means valuable friendships.”
• “It means interacting with wonderful women.”
• “It means teaching my daughters how to give back.”
• “It means learning how to focus my giving.”

As a visual to the evening, we were treated to the artistic work of Bonnie Fortner Photography helping us tell the story with a photo from ten of the most memorable grants given by OPTIONS classes. As you can see the images made quite an impact!

It was a special evening with big successes, like knowing nearly half of a million dollars has been given to Women’s Fund, and small touches, like connecting with friends and meeting that spouse we rarely get to see. I look forward to more great and little successes and another 10 years of helping women and girls in our community through Women’s Fund.