Dear Women Writing for (a) Change Community,

 

 

The month of May is a time when the office staff and our volunteers have a chance to re-group between semesters, do some deep cleaning and organizing, and prepare for the summer. Energy is already building as we excitedly ready the space for the three full-day summer camps for girls and young women coming up in June. I am happy to say that these camps are filling up: if you intend to register, do so quickly!

 

Looking at enrollment for our summer core classes, I am delighted to see many names that are new to our community. We extend a big welcome to those of you taking a class for the first time, and welcome back all of you who are returning.

 

We are again offering a week-long summer writing retreat for women! Facilitated by Mary Ann Jansen, it will be held July 14-20th, at the Oldenburg Retreat Center in Oldenburg, Indiana. This is an opportunity for a much deeper writing focus, in a setting removed from the typical pressures of daily life. The several summer writing retreats that I participated in were among the most productive and rejuvenating weeks of my life. The luxury of ample time to stay with your writing, and the gentle rhythm of long summer days at a quiet retreat center is an invaluable experience. Please consider giving yourself this gift.

  

This summer I take on an additional role as assistant to Mary Pierce Brosmer for the Conscious Feminine Leadership Academy. Nine women are enrolled in this program, which begins June 14th with the first of two intensive week-long sessions, to be held at Grailville. Two of the participants will return in August for a third week that focuses on business practices, and will prepare them to open a school in their own cities.

 

Your Board of Trustees is working diligently to support and stay true to the very essence of Women Writing for (a) Change that has profoundly affected the now thousands of women and girls that have come through our doors, or whom we have met out in the world. I thank each and every one of them for their dedication and continued hard work.

 

Too, I extend my gratitude to the many volunteers who help us around the school. Our volunteers do much of the invisible work such as cleaning, caring for plants, repairing furniture, stocking our kitchens, taking dish towels and table cloths home to be laundered. They help us organize our files and books, take out the trash, change light bulbs, and carry recycling home.

 

If you know a volunteer, please take a moment to thank her (or him!) If you are among our dozens of volunteers, Heather, Dawn and I send you a heartfelt thank you for helping us do our jobs more effectively.

 

 

Diane

 

Diane Debevec

Executive Director 

 

 

Our mission is to nurture and celebrate the individual voice by facilitating supportive writing circles and by encouraging people to craft more conscious lives through the art of writing and the practices of community.