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Renew Today!
If you have not yet renewed your WLI membership for 2011 please do so now, deadline is March 2011. If you have questions, please contact Terri Slaughter at 610.807.5710.
terris@unitedwayglv.org | |
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Community Celebration
Save the date! Mark your calendars for May 12, 2011 to join us as we celebrate all of the people who give, advocate, and volunteer to ensure everyone in the Lehigh Valley has the opportunity for a good life.
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Upcoming Events!
March 31 - The Power of Positive Posture,
Members and friends are welcome to attend for networking, hors d' oeuvres and cocktails and/or cold drinks and coffee, as well as a special speaker: Liz Gillies, on The Power of Positive Posture. She is a fitness expert from NY who has written books and done videos on core fitness. Click here to see a review of her work.
WLI Fundraiser - NOW through March 31st
A percentage of sales will be donated to WLI! Get out and take a look at... Reveries of Form, A Celebration of Women Photography by Sander Martijn at The Sherman Theatre Community Art Gallery 524 Main St., Stroudsburg, PA
Call 570-420-2808 for days and times.
June 3, 2011
Women's Summit 2011,
Full day Leadership
Development Conference in partnership with Women's Business Council. Details to follow.
**A special thank you To Dolores Laputka for hosting our holiday mixer in December. To Jane Wells Schooley for a fabulous seminar on Jan 12th at Cosmopolitan. We are now finding inner Warriors!
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 Kudos to members and friends
· Jenn Mann, for hosting our mixer in February.
· Dr. Ethel Drayton-Craig - featured article in LVStyle, February issue. | |
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Clutch Sponsor
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Event Sponsor
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Member Focus
Simple Treasures
by Cassandra Alleyne, WLI Council Member
 I am a mother of three by natural history.
A Financial Advisor by training and avocation.
And a philanthropist by choice.
To be a Philanthropist means to receive-over and again-beyond the token which is my gift. These simple treasures reside in the smile of the child in whom the light of recognition dawns as he learns how to read for the first time, aided by a tutor; it is in the hesitantly acknowledged nod of a single mom at the food bank for whom the ends oft times do not meet; and in the confident smile of a graduate-from one of our signature projects-embarking on a career, for whom the vision of a future stagnated in high School leading to a dead-end job.
I collect these small treasures, greedily, whereby lives are enhanced through the deliberate, intentional giving of the Women's Leadership Initiative of the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley. We share this common cause and belief expressed by the 16th century Poet, John Donne:
No man is an island, entire of itself, each is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.....each man's death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind. (For Whom the Bell Tolls)
I salute you, warrior women of the front lines, in the war against ignorance, poverty and injustice!
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Janelle Sosa - Update
For the past five years, WLI has been complementing the annual Frances Hesselbein scholarship of $3,000 with its own WLI scholarships of $1,000 to $3,000. This began with the first round of interviews in 2006 when we were presented with so many fine candidates that we had a hard time choosing just one. WLI has continued to award these scholarships to Lehigh Valley college students who have demonstrated great need and a proven commitment to community service.
Janelle Payano Sosa of Allentown was one of our WLI scholarship winners in 2010. Janelle impressed our committee with her energy, vision, and scholarship. At the time of the interview, Janelle was a pre-professional biology major at Kutztown University, aspiring to be a surgeon. Through her membership in the Upward Bound Math and Science Program and the National Honor Society, Janelle participated in walks for autism, volunteering at local soup kitchens, Katrina food drives, and Jackson Elementary School Field Day, where she especially enjoyed working with children.
After receiving the WLI scholarship, Janelle transferred from Kutztown University to an honors program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. UMBC has received high ratings from U.S. News and World Report as "the number one up-and-coming national university" for the past two years. Janelle's transfer was the result of her work from last summer's 2010 bio-medical program. Since that time, she has entered a bio-medical program at UMBC and entered a competition there. As a result of that competition, she was chosen to give an oral presentation at the school.
WLI is very proud of Janelle and we look forward to her continued academic success in her quest to become a medical doctor. Janelle is one of many lives that have been touched by WLI funds promoting the education and advancement of women in the Lehigh Valley.
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WLI Second Signature Project Photo
"Sunset" | | |  |
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"I was feeling happy when I took this picture" - Gabriella
UnseenAmerica 2009
Central Elementary School
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Sponsored by: United Way's Women's Leadership Initiative & ArtsQuest
WLI funded a program offered by the Banana Factory helping children "to find their voice" through photography and journaling by giving each child a camera to "capture their world". Here is our featured photo by Gabriella.
After school enrichment at Central Elementary Spring 2011:
Horizons for Youth - Reading Support (offered again!)
DaVinci Science Center - Science of Toys (new program from DaVinci)
Pennsylvania Youth Theatre - Curtains up on Reading (New)
Touchstone Theatre - Young Playwrights' Lab (offered again!)
The Banana Factory - Unseen America Photography (offered again!)
What is the impact of programs like these? Here is a comment from a parent about the impact the programming had on their child:
One mom and stepdad write, "She seems to be able to focus on what's in front of her, instead of letting her attention fly in a million different places....She used to fight when someone looked at her the wrong way, but now when she gets angry she walks off on her own to go do something creative, and blows the steam off on paper instead." |
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Janell Payano Sosa received a $1000 Frances Hesselbein scholarship. She transferred this fall from Kutztown to an honors program in biomedicine at the University of Maryland as a result of her work last summer in a bio-medical program. Having won a bio-medical competition, she was chosen to give an oral presentation. She aspires to become a surgeon serving needy patients worldwide. Her volunteerism has included autism, soup kitchens, Katrina food drives, and Jackson Elementary School Field Day.
