As a relatively new WIF member, I had little understanding of the process WIF uses to fund worthy community partners.  I saw the fruits of WIF's work when I attended our annual meeting last May, but how we got there was a mystery.

Like many others, I'd like to serve on the grants committee, but I worry I won't be able to manage the time commitment or live up to what must be high expectations.  Thinking a fresh recruit would be the best place to start, I sought out a first-timer on the grants committee team to give me the real scoop.  I turned to Mary Ruth Faulkner, newer to WIF than even I.

Mary Ruth does not consider herself the "typical" grants committee member and neither do I after learning several important facts: A physical therapist by training, she left the workforce many years ago to raise her four children, whom she "joyously home-schooled for 7 years."  She chose to serve on the grants committee because she prefers deep dives and being present over daily plate spinning.

"Oh dear," I thought.  I am a self-described lazy coward who prides herself on multi-tasking at every possible moment, and thus could not have less in common with Mary Ruth.  However, as I soon found out, there is a place for everyone at the grants committee table.  Everyone is valued.