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Get Involved! If you are looking for a way to get involved in your community, look no further. This webpage provides information on how to support WomenCARE by using your skills, finances, and creativity to help ensure a vibrant and stable WomenCARE. As a non-profit, community based organization whose services are all FREE, WomenCARE relies on the volunteer efforts and financial contributions of individuals and institutions. Please call us at (831) 457-2273 to volunteer or donate. Donations are tax deductible and can be made directly to WomenCARE by sending a check to: WomenCARE Volunteer Volunteers are at the heart of WomenCARE. Volunteers make it possible for us to survive and thrive. Through the generous gifts of time and support from our volunteers, WomenCARE is able to offer the many FREE services that are provided to women with cancer and their friends and families. Volunteer positions and internship opportunities are available in the following programs:
For more information about each program, please call us at: (831) 457-2273 or e-mail our Volunteer Coordinator at: volunteer@womencaresantacruz.org Volunteer Voices To make a secure online donation via credit card, PayPal or debit card, click "Make a Donation". Please enter the amount you are giving in the "unit price" line. If you are donating for a specific event or fundraiser, please enter which fundraiser on the "item" line. In 1992, five women made a decision that would transform lives. They didn't know where they would find the time, the energy, or the money to create an organization like WomenCARE. They acted anyway, knowing that without their passion and strength to make a change, women living with cancer would continue to suffer in isolation. Throughout its history, WomenCARE has been blessed with generous and quiet angels. They rarely take center stage; they are in the wings supporting our programs with their gifts of time, energy, and resources. As a non-profit, community based organization whose services are all FREE, WomenCARE relies on these contributions from both individuals and institutions. We feel deep gratitude for all the gifts that have passed through our small office, for all the warmth those gifts have engendered, for all the ways those gifts have made it possible for healing to happen in the lives of so many women and loved ones over the years. We invite you to get involved and create unique gifts of your own. Here are some ideas: Connie Batten Legacy A special fund has been created to honor Connie Batten, WomenCARE’s Executive Director and Clinical Supervisor from 1998-2005. It is a restricted fund that will designate your contribution to train volunteers for our Sisters Offering Support (SOS) program. These trained volunteers are at least a year out of their own diagnosis and treatment (western medical, complementary, or both), and are matched with a newly diagnosed woman, offering peer support. It is an opportunity for the newly diagnosed woman to gain wisdom and strength from the experience of a woman who has already navigated these rough waters. To give to this fund, click "Make a Donation" and enter "Connie Batten Legacy" in the "Payment For" space.Birthday/Holiday Donations Carolyn Coleman: "As my birthday approached last December, I felt blessed to have reached fifty and to be healthy. At the same time, I had been close to several people who had dealt with cancer and for whom WomenCARE had provided a vital link in the community. It's so important to have community that I invited fifty friends to help me celebrate life as well as honor those who have died by donating to WomenCARE on my birthday." Deb Abbott: "A few years ago, I stopped giving Christmas gifts to family and friends who had more than enough 'stuff.' I started donating the money I would have spent to organizations such as WomenCARE where the need is real and where I know every penny will be well spent. I send a card to my family and friends explaining the gift in their name. Many of these folks have also started making holiday contributions instead of buying 'stuff,' which multiplies both the gift and my pleasure in this new tradition." Plan A Benefit Hendrik Meerman, a locally-based swimmer, swam across the English Channel in September, 2006, to raise money for WomenCARE. Though only 21 miles across at its narrowest point, fewer people have swum across the English channel than have climbed to the top of Mount Everest. Due to the cold water, unpredictable weather, strong currents, and shipping traffic, crossing the English Channel is considered to be the ultimate swim challenge. To donate in support of this special effort to raise funds for WomenCARE, please send checks to: WomenCARE, 1001 41st Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95062 and indicate "English Channel Swim" on the check. David Adams, Smokin' Bananas Band leader: "Last year after our beloved singer, Rita Collier Micuda, died of breast cancer, the Smokin' Bananas Band wanted to honor her spirit. We dedicated all the profits from our Winter Solstice dance to WomenCARE as a benefit in her memory, because she loved WomenCARE. The Crow's Nest contributes the cover charge from that night as well." Having repeated the benefit the following year, with even greater success, the band and the Crow's Nest have agreed to make it an annual event. On June 21, 2005, Isabelle Rosenlund completed her
climb up Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro. A former client and current peer support
volunteer at WomenCARE, she celebrated her 60th birthday by climbing Africa's
tallest mountain as a fundraiser for WomenCARE. “WomenCARE was one of my lifelines,”
Isabelle said as she talked about her gratitude for the help received through
WomenCARE's Peer Navigator and Sisters Offering Support programs. Prior to
her climb she raised $6,325.00 for WomenCARE. If you would like to join Isabelle's
friends by contributing, you can make a donation to WomenCARE, 1001 41st Avenue,
Santa Cruz, CA 95062. Cancer
survivor Isabelle Rosenlund attempts climb to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro
to raise money for WomenCARE (Santa Cruz Sentinel) Even if you don't want
to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, you, too, could create a personal fundraiser for
WomenCARE.
Program Support You can also direct a gift to one of our programs or services such as Entre Nosotras (Latina Outreach), Sisters Offering Support, The Peer Navigator Project, or the WomenCARE library. Whether a one-time, a monthly, or an annual gift, program support allows you to help a particular WomenCARE service grow. To give to one of these programs, click "Make a Donation" and enter program name in the "Payment For" space. Adopt WomenCARE Mary Ann Kaplan, past President, Soroptomist International Capitola-By-The-Sea: "Our organization chose WomenCare as the main focus for our fundraisers and volunteer time because we value WomenCARE's positive approach to healing, because WomenCARE really does help, and because WomenCARE serves women with all kinds of cancer." This service club has helped print our newsletter and a guidebook for newly diagnosed women, sponsored a bowling team, given us a copy machine, and provided many valuable hours of volunteer time. We appreciate their invitation that we call them whenever we have a need for their help. Joyce Nordquist, Women Lawyers of Santa Cruz County: "In 1993, a panel of women lawyers formed WomenCARE Advocates because we valued the work WomenCARE is doing in our community. We have provided help with non-profit incorporation for the organization, and with wills and durable powers of attorney, insurance and landlord/tenant issues for individual clients." Corporate Matching Gift Programs Your employer may be willing to match your personal donation to WomenCARE. This can double or triple your contribution. Hundreds of companies, large and small, have Corporate Matching Gift Programs. Follow these steps to request a matching gift from your employer:
United Way Giving While WomenCARE is not an official United Way designee, you can "write in" WomenCARE as the organization to which your donation is directed. Memorial Gifts For several years the Joyce Halinar Memorial Fund underwrote a biannual Enrichment Series for WomenCARE's support group facilitators. It was started by Marni Kamzan, a loving friend who said: "Joyce [Halinar] was a good friend and teacher. I miss her a lot. The support groups at WomenCARE meant so much to her. I want to set up a memorial fund in her name to help your facilitators." You could set up a similar fund in memory of your dear friend or family member. Bequests Bequests become a legacy that endures. Through our affiliation with the Planned Giving Center at the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz, WomenCARE can help generous people make long-term gifts that will ensure that women living with cancer will benefit from our services for years to come. With a gift of long-term appreciated securities, you pay no capital gains on the transfer and you are entitled to a tax deduction based on the full current market value of the stock. Giving Plans
Donations are tax deductible and can be made directly to WomenCARE by sending your check to: WomenCARE Please call us at (831) 457-2273 if you would like us to help you design a giving plan. Foundation Support Funding for WomenCARE is also provided by the following foundations, whose support we gratefully acknowledge: The California Endowment
The California Wellness Foundation the Community Foundation of
Santa Cruz County This page was last updated 3/14/08.
WomenCARE, 1001 41st Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95062 ©2003 - 2008 WomenCARE
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