The 100+ Harbor Women Who Care will hold their next event on Tuesday, March 11, at 6 p.m. (doors open at 5:15 p.m.) at Elks Lodge 1082 located at 624 K Street in Hoquiam.
Collective donations will be awarded to one of three non-profit organization nominees selected by majority popular vote. Each one of the three nominees, which are a closely guarded secret, will have the opportunity to present what they do and explain why they need funding.
“We have three organizations that present what they do as a nonprofit. Many women go about their busy lives and don’t know what nonprofits are out there or what they’re doing,” said organizer Maryann Welch. “Everyone likes that educational part of it, however, at the end of those presentations the women vote for the organization they would like to see get the money. Then everyone puts their $100 (cash or check) in a bag and all of that money goes to that one organization. Everyone is waiting with bated breath for us to count the votes and we come out with a big check. It’s very exciting.”
Ten women form the core of the 100+ Harbor Women Who Care — Maryann Welch, Molly Bold, Martha George, Diana Grigsby, Jessica Hoover, Pat Oleachea, Franzine Potts, Alissa Shay, Dori Unterseher and DonnaJeanne Williams — all of whom continue to lead the effort.
“All the events we have put on go pretty much the same, simple agenda. Women show up at the Hoquiam Elks, and they can have a glass of wine, visit with their friends and then we start at six o’clock,” Welch said. “The previous awardee comes to tell about how they have spent the money or plan to spend the money from the previous event. Camp Victory would be the previous one this time. Camp Victory is outside of Grays Harbor but serves a lot of Grays Harbor kids. It’s for sexually abused kids.”
Upon winning the vote at the October 2024 event, Andrea Seabert-Olsen, the girls camp director at Camp Victory, said, “It’s pretty fantastic, I am honored and humbled and thrilled beyond belief. And having grown up in this community, I have always known there were really good people. This just brings it home even more so.”
All told, more than $23,000 was donated to Camp Victory.
100+ Harbor Women Who Care have held six “giving events” since 2019 with more than 500 women donating more than $125,000 to Grays Harbor County non-profit organizations. These giving events have seen an average attendance of 135 people.
Welch, who is a retired Grays Harbor County public health director, started this effort by finding 10 women “who get (expletive deleted) done.”
“It’s not something anyone has to commit to on a monthly basis or weekly,” Welch said. “We get together and do this, it’s a very popular event, we know how to do it and we just do it. Women come, if they want to come every time, they come every time, if they want to come just once a year, they can do that, whatever they want to do. We’ve had 500 different women come to our events over time.”
100+ Harbor Women Who Care is affiliated with the 100+ Who Care Alliance, a network that consists of more than 650 global chapters including 100 Women Who Care, 100 Men Who Care, 100 Teens Who Care and more. The Alliance, which was founded by Karen Dunigan of Jackson, Michigan, in 2006, holds an annual leadership conference and provides resources for giving circles including best practices and media training.
“(The Alliance) provides information and gives us contact information if we want to talk to other chapters,” Welch said. “We are eligible for a nationwide family foundation. If we get at least $10,000 at an event, they’ll give us $5,000 more, and we’ve been able to do that all but the first time.”
100+ Harbor Women Who Care plan to stick to a twice a year schedule with giving events in March and October.
