Living Her Dream Information

LIVING HER DREAM AWARD
Soroptimist International of Fort Collins, Colorado

General Information: Soroptimist International of Fort Collins is a volunteer service organization whose members work to improve the lives of women and girls in our local communities and around the world. The LIVING HER DREAM AWARD was established in 2006 and was inspired by the theme selected by SI/FC 2006-2007 Club President Delores Turman, ”Women and Girls Living Their Dreams”. The Winner of the award is given a check in the amount of $1,000 to help her Live Her Dream.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS: PLEASE REQUEST A HARD COPY OF THE APPLICATION OR A WORD DOCUMENT FROM sifortcollins@hotmail.com or judyannw_6@msn.com.

The requirements for eligibility for the Living Her Dream Award are as follows:
• Female who has earned a high school diploma or GED
• Has a passion and plan to live her dream
• Has identified a dream and is taking steps to achieve it. Some examples are: education, job training, internship, starting a business and or working for a non-profit.
• Works for the betterment of women and/or girls


The Application Form and 2 Reference Forms must be received by January 1, 2011, at the address or e-mail shown on the last page of Application Form. The winner will be contacted by January 31, 2010. The award will be presented at the Soroptimist International of Fort Collins Awards Night on February 15, 2011.

SIFC Does Hands-on Service for Make a Difference Day

Ten SI Fort Collins representatives helped out at Homeless Gear October 23 during Make a Difference day. SIFC helped with receiving, hauling, sorting and running.  Kudos to Donna and Gene Weyer, Carol and John Clark, Bernie Fuller, Ann Rutledge, Paula Hawe, Carolyn Wade, & Judy and Allan Weaver for helping out. The folks at Homeless Gear were VERY thankful for the donations and were VERY happy to receive the sanitary products some of the SIFC members sent along.They were also VERY appreciative of the sample sized toothpastes that were donated by one member’s dentist office.

Some statistics from Homeless Gear
60% of the homeless are families and most of those are single moms with kids.
Over 900 children in the Poudre RI School District are homeless. 
The average age of a homeless person in Colorado is NINE (9).

OH Nuts! And Butter braids, too!

It’s nut time again. Yes, Soroptimist International of Fort Collins' annual nut, candy and butter braid sale of is in full swing. Our fall fundraiser is very important to our Club’s donations to worthy local organizations. The money we raised in past years helped women and girls through local domestic violence prevention and recovery initiatives including Crossroads and SAVA (Sexual Assault Victim’s Advocacy), education and career advancement initiatives including Project Self-Sufficiency, and quality of life projects including Lentz Hearing Project for Women and Girls, PVH Navigator Program, and Women’s Resource Center (dental assistance for low-income women).

We also support many very impressive global service projects through our international affiliation, such as Children of Peace (Vietnamese services for women and girls), “Hopes and Dreams for Everyone” (human trafficking in Moldova), Project SIerra (helping women in Sierra Leone), and now Soroptimists for Education and Leadership.

We offer local awards and recognitions, including Women’s Opportunity Awards (offering funds to women heads of households), Ruby Award: For Women Helping Women (formerly Making a Difference for Women), Violet Richardson Award (for teen girls engaged in volunteer activities), and our own Living Her Dream Award.

We hope you will purchase from us what you might have bought from grocery or specialty stores. Our prices are competitive and the products very fresh. We use them for client appreciation gifts, for holiday parties and baking, knowing that our purchase is supporting worthy causes.

We have samples of the nut and candy products that we would be happy to show you. We also sell butter braids, the festive loaf-style pastry that comes frozen. A real bargain at just $10 each, they can be prepared easily and come in seven flavors: Dutch Almond Crème (new), Cherry, Apple, Blueberry Cream Cheese, Cinnamon, and Cream Cheese.

Thanks for helping us support women and girls in our community.

Contact a member or email sifortcollins@hotmail.com to request an order form. Order forms must be received BY November 30, 2010.

Cups de Ville FUNdraiser

Cups de Ville is one week away. Come join the FUN.

• What: Cups de Ville...a bras for a cause event
  
• Where: Hilton, Fort Collins
• When: October 7, 2010 from 5:00 to 8:00 pm
• Why: FUNdraiser benefiting PVH Soroptimist Navigator Fund
• Live auction starts at 6:30
• Auctioneer: Dustin Kruse
• How: Tickets available at Life of the Party, and at the door
  

SIFC Plans Cups de Ville 2010

a bras for a cause event

SIFC's first annual Cups de Ville (2009) was a huge success! The community stepped forward and SIFC netted $5000 for the PVH Soroptimist Navigator Fund. We're ramping up for Cups de Ville 2010 and invite you to get involved.

Cups de Ville....SIFC's Bras for a Cause Event is scheduled for Thursday October 7, 2010. Our celebration of Breast Cancer Awareness Month will be held from 5-8 p.m. at the Fort Collins Hilton. We're looking for talented volunteers to help with event planning, organization and publicity to insure another uplifting celebration.

Local businesses and individuals are currently decorating bras for display and auction during the Gala. A $100 fee allows you to sponsor and decorate a bra while promoting your business. The bra fee includes one ticket (valued at $35) to attend the event and enjoy the goodies. $300 gets you 9 tickets and a "corporate table."

Proceeds will go to the PVH Soroptimist Navigator Fund, helping to pay basic needs and medical bills for women in our community who are diagnosed with breast cancer and show financial need.Watch for additional information in future blogs.

To get involved, email sifortcollins@hotmail.com

Soroptimist Awards Near $18,000

Soroptimist International of Fort Collins culminates this year’s service efforts with announcement of awards and grants nearing $18,000. The Fort Collins club commits 80% of their service funds to projects in northern Colorado. The additional 20% goes to global projects.

Those accepting local donations this year include: The Children’s Speech and Reading Center, Lentz Hearing Aid Project for Women and Girls, Project Self-Sufficiency, the Women’s Center of Larimer County, and Sexual Assault Victim Advocate Canter (SAVA). Donations were previously distributed to the PVH Soroptimist Navigator Fund, Boys and Girls Club of Wellington, Crossroads Safehouse for Gala sponsorship, and Rocky Mountain High School’s Adopt a Family.

Those accepting global donations include: 1) Children of Peace International for Remaking a Life--Capacity Building Workshops, 2) Project SIerra—a Family and a Future—helping women in Sierra Leon, 3) Soroptimist of the Americas for Disaster Relief and 5) Soroptimist Rocky Mountain Region for the Governor’s Project. Donations were previously distributed to the Soroptimist International President’s Appeal-- Hopes and Dreams for Everyone--preventing human trafficking from Moldova, and Soroptimist of the Americas in honor of this year’s Ruby Award Recipient, Vicky Lutz.

Soroptimist scholarships and grants totally $3900 were previously distributed to help local women live their dreams. Those donations can be used for any expense related to a woman’s pursuit of schooling.

Soroptimist Objectives

Curious about Soroptimist? Our mission says a lot, but it certainly is broad. With the new year upon us, we thought it might be good to share the current set of Soroptimist International objectives. These are the 10 major ways Soroptimist strives to improve the lives of women and girls, in local communities and throughout the world. Share these objectives? Join us.

Objectives:

1. Eliminate poverty and gender discrimination through ensuring women’s full social and economic rights

2. End human trafficking and all forms of violence against women and girls

3. Ensure access to health care for women and girls

4. Support programs and policies that eliminate HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other major diseases

5. Improve access to clean water, sanitation and essential food resources

6. Mitigate the effects of climate change and integrate sustainability into personal choices and government policies and programs

7. Meet the needs of women and girls during and after armed conflicts and disasters

8. Promote peaceful conflict resolution, inter-cultural and inter-racial tolerance and condemn all forms of genocide and terrorism

9. Ensure equal access to education and training for women and girls throughout their lifespan

10. Assure women’s advancement in management, politics and decision making

Kefalas Provides Update

Topic: Colorado legislature’s Economic Opportunity Poverty Reduction Task Force

Soroptimist International of Fort Collins welcomed Representative John Kefalas as speaker at the club’s dinner-meeting on Tuesday, April 20th. Representative Kefalas was one of five state lawmakers honored by the Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce and the Denver Women's Commission, for contributing to women's advancement.

Kefalas serves as chair of the Economic Opportunity Poverty Reduction Task Force.

To see the accomplishments of the task force in the first year

towards the goal of cutting poverty in half by 2019 check out

http://www.colorado.gov/lcs/PovertyReductionTaskForce

Pause at Noon, March 8, to Consider Modern Slavery Victims

Did you know that slavery is alive and well? It is, and will be unless concerned citizens take a stand and speak out. Slavery is alive and well here in the United States. Slavery is alive and well here in Colorado. Slavery is alive and well, but it’s known by a different name, a softer and less objectionable name. This “modern” slavery is human trafficking and it is just as heinous as slavery of past days.

Soroptimist is speaking out for women and against human trafficking. International Women's Day (March 8th) is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. In ancient Greece, Lysistrata initiated a sexual strike against men in order to end war; during the French Revolution, Parisian women calling for "liberty, equality, fraternity" marched on Versailles to demand women's suffrage. Soroptimist asks you to become aware of human trafficking, advocate for laws to lessen its presence and take action to bring perpetrators (not victims) to justice.

Soroptimist International, as one of the leading women’s international non-governmental organizations, promotes empowerment of women and stands for the very essence of the meaning of a day dedicated to women. The importance of International Women’s Day lies in the possibilities of networking, partnering and uniting for women’s causes. Human trafficking is one of those causes.

Human trafficking is “modern slavery.” It retains the same heinous characteristics of a slave/master (trafficking victim/trafficker) relationship. In the most common form of modern slavery, women and girls are kidnapped or bought cheaply throughout the world and sold to customers (throughout the world) at a high profit. Rather than serve one master or in one locale, victims are passed around among a variety of “owners.” And because of the seemingly endless “supply” of women and girls, slaves are nearly impossible to recover and are ultimately lost.

The International Labor Organization estimates that approximately 12.3 million people are enslaved in forced or involuntary servitude at any given time, with approximately 75 percent of all victims trafficked for sexual exploitation. Approximately two million women and children are held in sexual servitude around the world, and 30,000 – 50,000 sex slaves are in the United States at any time.

Natural disasters such as tsunamis, tropical storms, and earthquakes serve as breeding grounds for pimps who swoop in and “rescue” women and children from their seeming plight. Recent stories from Haiti and Vietnam only hint at the incidents of women and children, forced into slavery in the midst of chaos. These same slaves are smuggled over borders, used until used up, and then punished for the crimes they are committing.

Occasionally, women and girls are rescued from traffickers and receive support, care and compassion. More often, though, trafficking victims are treated like criminals. Women and girls arrested in trafficking circles are often processed as illegal immigrants rather than trafficking victims, and are immediately deported to their home countries where, because few economic alternatives exist, they begin the cycle of trafficking and exploitation all over again.

Soroptimist International of Fort Collins thanks the City of Fort Collins for proclaiming March, “Stop the Traffik--End Human Trafficking Month.”

2010 AAUW / Soroptimist Used Book Sale Proves to be a Huge Success

The American Association of University Women and Soroptimist International of Fort Collins extend sincere thanks for another fantastic fundraiser! Along with AAUW, we recorded over 720 hours during the sorting process - moving and collecting over 25,000 donated books, pre-sorting, sorting, pricing, and recycling. Our 2010 Used Book Sale brought in over $21,000 to help support programs for women and families in northern Colorado. Thanks especially to:

• Area readers for donating books to make the sale a reality
• Foothills Mall for the location
• Book Rack for ongoing donations
• Local fraternity gentlemen and sorority ladies for processing truck-loads of books, and most importantly
• Shoppers for supporting us!

Our nonprofits, and the individuals we serve, sincerely thank you!

Mary Robinson, SIFC Co-Chair

Margaret Grant, AAUW Co-Chair

Lutz Receives Ruby Award from Fort Collins Soroptimist

Victoria Lutz Esq., Executive Director of Crossroads Safehouse, is recipient of the local Soroptimist Ruby Award: For Women Helping Women. The award was presented during the annual Soroptimist International of Fort Collins Living Her Dream awards ceremony, February 16th at the Hilton Hotel.

The Soroptimist Ruby Award, formerly the Soroptimist Making a Difference for Women Award, honors women who, through their professional or personal efforts, are making extraordinary differences in the lives of women or girls. Their work has had a significant impact, and also inspires and encourages other women.

Lutz meets those standards in her professional life, and relationships with others. She frequently advises women: "Create a career for yourself that will motivate and sustain you psychically and financially! Make a difference in this world!"

Lutz makes a difference. Crossroads Safehouse is the only domestic violence shelter for women and their children in Larimer County and serves approximately 1,000 individuals each year. During her six years at Crossroads Ms. Lutz has created a partnership with the City of Fort Collins for transitional housing for victims, started a federally funded legal services project and is now working on a capital campaign to build a new, innovative, “green” statewide safehouse that will be a national model for other domestic violence programs. In presenting Lutz her award, Carolyn Wade, local Ruby Award Chair commented, “Vicki inspires her staff, the board and those in the community who meet her. She is impassioned for the cause to end domestic violence.”

Ms. Lutz’s name has been submitted to Soroptimist International, Rocky Mountain Region. If selected at region, she will go on to the federation level. The winner of the federation-level Ruby Award will receive a $5,000 donation to the charitable organization of her choice.

Soroptimist of Fort Collins Celebrates 60 Years!

Soroptimist presidents in attendance at 60^th Celebration:

Left to right--Mary Nittman, Judy Robinson, Christine Hutchinson (back), Blanche Magnuson (front), Lois Peltz, Delores Turman, Ann Rutledge, Carolyn Wade, Joan Gladden, Connie Pfeiffenberger, Robanette Catalano, & Karen Omeg (current club president)

Soroptimist International of Fort Collins celebrated 60 years of service on February 16, 2010. Soroptimist’s Living Her Dream Celebration at the Fort Collins Hilton brought past presidents, members of area Soroptimist clubs, award winners, and friends together to celebrate. Eleven past presidents joined the club’s current president, Karen Omeg, to cut the cake. Soroptimist members traveled from Laramie, Scottsbluff, Denver and Colorado Springs to share in the festivities. Barbara Lewis, Governor of Soroptimist’ Rocky Mountain Region was in attendance. Joan Cromer, past Soroptimist International of the Americas President and past Soroptimist International President was an honored guest.

Soroptimist International of Fort Collins was chartered February 25, 1950, by Soroptimist International of Greeley, Colorado. At that time, the City of Fort Collins covered 2.98 square miles and the population was 14,937. There were three traffic lights, all on College Avenue at the corners of Laporte Avenue, Mountain Avenue and Olive Street. Careers for women were primarily as clerks, teachers, nurses and secretaries. Much has changed, but not the club’s focus.

Service was the foundation and purpose of the club in 1950. That is still true. Throughout 60 years, “The Club has reached out to the entire Fort Collins area, other parts of Colorado, across the nation, and around the world through service dollars, donated items, and hands-on projects,” writes Judy Robinson, historian for the club.

Donate Your Gently Used Books Now

We're in our sort room (courtesy of Foothills Mall) and ready to accept your gently used books. Members of AAUW and SIFC will spend the coming weeks cleaning, sorting, and alphabetizing all of the books that you (our valued supporters) donate to this recycling effort. We pride ourselves in orchestrating a quality used book sale and thank you for helping us help others.

To donate, or volunteer, call 482-8210 or 227-1398.

See you at the sale, February 26, 27, and 28th.

Local Soroptimist Club Awards $5000 to Navigator Program

Soroptimist International of Fort Collins (SIFC) donated $5,000 to the Poudre Valley Health System Foundation on January 19 to help pay for basic needs and medical bills of women in northern Colorado who are diagnosed with breast cancer and show financial need. The local Soroptimist club sponsored Cups de Ville, a Bras...for a Cause, last October to increase public awareness of breast cancer and raise funds for the PVH Soroptimist Navigator Fund.

Local businesses and individuals decorated bras which were displayed and auctioned off. Soroptimists donned the bras over their clothing and walked amongst prospective donors. Dusty Kruse, a local auctioneer from Centennial Livestock Auction coaxed donations from generous members of the audience.

“We are so honored to give this check to the PVHS Patient Navigator fund,” said Karen Omeg, President of SIFC. “Helping women is what Soroptimist is all about and we are excited to know that this money will reduce the burden that breast cancer can bring to women and their families.”

Ruth Lytle-Barnaby, Executive Director of the PVHS Foundation, echoed those thoughts, “Your [SIFC] passion for helping women is amazing. This money will not only help relieve financial burden, it will ease stress and fear and allow these women to focus on getting better.”