WomenCARE - News and Events

IN RESPONSE TO FUNDING NEEDS AT WOMENCARE
ANONYMOUS DONOR PLEDGES $50,000 CHALLENGE

WomenCARE, a 13-year old cancer support organization for women and their families, recently launched a fundraising campaign to fill year-end funding needs. According to WomenCARE Board President Paula Smith Alder, "WomenCARE is facing financial challenges. Philanthropic giving is still down as a result of the dot.com bust. There have been local government cuts in health and human services funding, and the tsunami relief efforts coincided with WomenCARE's annual fund drive."

In response to board member appeals to donors and friends of WomenCARE, an anonymous donor has pledged a $50,000 challenge. The challenge will run through December 2005, effectively doubling every dollar donated between now and then.

WomenCARE Executive Director Cary Shapiro said, "This incredibly generous gift is the beginning of an answer to sustaining services. Each client touches the lives of at least ten others who can each help match this gift challenge. Thus, a continued echo of this gift will reverberate into the next fiscal year, extending its reach to serve more clients."

Smith Alder added, "Times are tough. Our long-time, beloved Executive Director recently stepped down, and a solid search for new leadership took time. We're back on track having hired an Executive Director who has been making up ground lost in our fundraising efforts while staff was limited. WomenCARE is planning how best to meet the growing need and demand for our services. We're also developing a fundraising plan that can keep pace with the increased complexity of funding resources and a difficult fundraising environment."

WomenCARE provides a variety of free services to women facing cancer, including advocacy, resources, and education to aid them in their journey of addressing how they want to consider treatment options, throughout diagnosis, healing, surviving or dying. WomenCARE provides one-on-one support and group support, as well as practical support and healing workshops to any woman, her family, friends and caregivers, free of charge. Any life-threatening illness poses many tribulations, including financial hurdles, to the individual and their family. It is WomenCARE's mission to provide services free of charge in order to make critical healing available to these women as they face difficult choices. The thousands of women who have come through WomenCARE’s doors since 1992 have conveyed how much they value its unique approach and environment, and how life-saving these services have been for them.

Paula Smith Alder said, "Thanks to our wonderful challenge donor, additional individual donations received through December 2005 will provide the opportunity to maximize this generous gift. We invite the community to consider making a contribution today. Together with your support, we can double our funding and continue providing much needed cancer services in Santa Cruz County.

"WomenCARE thanks the community for many years of support and appreciation of its diligent efforts, as well as the recent fundraiser, "Women's Voices: A Night of Comedy," where deep belly laughs were heard throughout the house. Director Cary Shapiro urges everyone to “Mark your calendars for Saturday afternoon, October 22nd at the Boardwalk Bowl for our “Strike Out Against Cancer” event."

To learn more about WomenCARE, and to make a contribution, community members should call 457-2273.