A pandemic and social distancing did not stop 100 Women Who Care Guelph from helping out their community in 2020.
Last year, 100 Women raised $36,654 for three local charities, which include:
- Food4Kids Guelph ($15,300)
- Children’s Foundation of Guelph & Wellington ($10,979)
- Guelph Black Heritage Society ($10,375)
With this amount, the group has raised $302,454 for the City of Guelph since forming in October 2014.
Tannis Sprott, one of the founding members of 100 Women, said a lot of charities were unable to do their normal fundraising due to COVID-19.
“They are extremely grateful for the help we have been able to offer,” she said.
Besides contributing to these causes, members who couldn’t meet the full requirements of the group also found ways to support their neighbours during the first wave of COVID.
“Some of them chose to make masks and gowns in the spring, for example, for hospital workers,” she said, “We had some women giving blood as a way to give back and contribute.”
“Any way that they were able to contribute was shared to the group.”
Prior to the pandemic, 100 Women also saw their membership climb to 155 and fundraising of $15,000 in January 2020.
Fundraising then dropped for the rest of the year to $10,000, but Sprott said this number remained consistent for the rest of the year.
“We’re really thrilled about that,” she said.
Like other groups, 100 Women have not been able to meet publicly since the provincial shutdown back in April 2020, causing the organization to move their meetings online.
Even though they’ve had to adjust their meetings this way, Sprott said member participation remained consistent.
“It took a while to settle on a format and to get it up,” she said about their new format for deciding on charities to donate to, which involves the selection of three charities being announced in a video shared to members through email.
After charities are nominated, the members who nominated them go on to create a presentation on it to argue why this charity should be selected, and then members vote through email again.
“It’s complex, but it works,” she said about the process, “And the members are really thrilled that we were able to find a way to get around meeting in public, and the most important thing of course, is getting their money to the charities because they are so desperately in need of it through COVID.”
This January, the group is raising money for the Guelph Chalmers Community Services Centre and have raised $7,200 and counting.
Although they don’t have a goal for 2021, Sprott said they will not be chasing cheques from members and will continue to welcome new members.
“We’re going ahead with trying to engage with our lovely women without seeing them,” she said, “Miss that terribly.”
Interested residents can learn more by going to 100womenwhocareguelph.com.
