100 Women Who Care grew to a nationwide initiative that supports local charities

Crawford County's chapter of 100 Women Who Care made its first donation to the Bucyrus Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary's Kicks for Kids.

The program helps to supply shoes to students in need in area schools. The club, which formed in February, donated $1,300 to the cause.

100 Women Who Care began in 2006 in Jackson, Michigan, with an aim of raising funds for nonprofits and charities. The first Michigan meeting raised $10,000 to buy 300 cribs to support a low-income nonprofit that serves mothers.

Now, 100 Women Who Care count 900 chapters across America that raise tens of millions of dollars for local nonprofits. The participants can choose to be an individual giver committed to donate $100 every quarter, a team of two where each donates $50 or a team of four donating $25 every quarter.

“A hundred dollars is lots of work for everybody, but almost anybody can give $25 a quarter,” said Thresa Young, one of the founders of 100 Women Who Care in Crawford County.

How it operates

Chapters meet once a quarter to consider three nonprofits selected by members. The nonprofits have five minutes to give a presentation on their cause and on how they would use the funds.

Members of 100 Women Who Care vote on which nonprofit to support, and funds go directly to the winning nonprofit that very day. Every member of the organization writes a check to the selected nonprofit.

At the meeting, members suggest candidates for the next meeting, write them down, toss the paper in a basket and a representative of the nonprofits that have just presented draw names of the three groups that will present at the next meeting.

Crawford forms its own 100 Women Who Care group

Young said she heard about the organization from Pat Case, who is a member at the Marion chapter. The Marion chapter, Young said, has been operating for more than nine years, and it now counts more than 100 members.

A few women from Crawford County, including Tabetha Linn, Miki Zeiger, Mary Jo Carle and Paula Brown, happened to be at the Marion meeting. Afterward, the Crawford women got together and decided to form their own chapter using a $500 donation from the First Federal Community Bank.

“It’s a very very simple concept,” Young said. “There is no checking account, there is no president or vice president or treasurer, it’s just a group of ladies getting together.”

About 13 members participated in the first meeting in February, said Young, and an additional 25 signed up for the second.

The organizations that presented at the first Crawford 100 Women Who Care meeting, along with the Salvation Army, were Boy Scouts from Galion and the Humane Society Serving Crawford County.

Young said members felt the Women’s Auxiliary had a greater need, and voted to present the donation to the shoes for kids program.

At the May 13 meeting the organizations that will present will be the Boy Scouts and Project Noellle, which helps people addicted to opioids.

Young said she is sure there are well over a 100 local nonprofits in Crawford County that can benefit from the women's group.

“All the organizations that present are going to be worthy,” Young said. “It’s just a matter of who wins.”

Kicks for Kids Program

Bucyrus Salvation Army Major Debbra Grace said they plan to make Kick for Kids an annual fundraiser aimed at getting shoes for students in all grades for the new school year.

The shoes will be provided through vouchers issued by the Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary for Shoe Sensation.

Funding for the shoes comes from the 100 Women Who Care donation and the Christmas meat boxes fundraiser through Hord Family Farms.

“Hord Family Farms does this, they do a sale for Christmas of meat gift boxes,” Grace said. “For every box that was sold, we made $5.”

With the additional funds from 100 Women Who Care, the Salvation Army plans to serve 100-150 kids, and the need is even greater than that, Grace said.

“Serving kids with free shoes is not going to be a problem, the more likely problem is that at some point we’ll have to cut off, and we won’t be able to meet the need,” Grace said. “I'm not aware of any other shoe program in the county.”

How to join

The Humane Society Serving Crawford County Executive Director Victoria Caldwell who presented at the first meeting is now preparing to join the group. She said she liked the initiative because it presents an amazing opportunity to effect an immediate change.

“That very evening of the meeting can deliver life-changing results to nonprofits, and you know for sure it stays right here in Crawford County,” Caldwell said. “I think it’s an amazing way to give back to your community."

Young invited Crawford residents to join the initiative. The meetings are held at Bucyrus Nazarene Church, 2165 State Route 4 South, quarterly at 6 p.m.

“That’s the beauty of joining the group – you can get your nonprofit nominated,” Young said.

For more information or to sign up, visit the 100 Women Who Care in Crawford County Facebook page at (6) 100 Women Who Care Crawford Ohio | Facebook, or send an email to 100WWCCrawfordCounty@gmail.com.

“If they know one of us, they can also reach out to us directly,” Young said. “The sooner we get 100 or more women, the sooner we can, as a group, profoundly impact our community.”

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Crawford County's 100 Women Who Care donate to Salvation Army