President’s Note – The Circle, August 2017

In May we hosted our annual Girls’ Circle Celebration, and it is always wonderful to connect with the mothers, aunts, and friends of our girls. This year we celebrated the graduation of four of our senior girls and we are happy to report that all four have been accepted into colleges. An older sister of one of our graduates also participated in our program and is a junior in college now. Her mother spoke eloquently at the dinner about the importance of the Girls’ Circles program for her daughters, who were immigrants from Guyana and had a difficult time adjusting. She said, ” My girls would not be where they are today if it had not been for the support of the muses and this program.”

At our Annual Board Meeting this summer we were pleased to elect three new board members to the WGGS: Suzanne DeWald, Tanya Hull, and Kerrie Wolfe-Piechota. Suzanne has been a long time supporter of the WGGS in her role as Development Officer for the SCSD. Tanya is a former SCSD School Board member and is a valued muse in our Girls’ Circles Program. Kerrie is also one of our dedicated muses and works in the Development Office at the YWCA, the organization that has hosted our monthly planning meetings for the last 14 years.

Officers for the new year were elected at our Annual Meeting, and I am happy to announce that moving forward we will have Co Presidents in addition to the Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer in our leadership team.  Dianne Crozier will be joining me as President this year. Karen Draper will continue as Vice President, Katie Beltramo as Secretary, and Nahla Kahn as Treasurer.

We’re already planning our fall fundraiser, the second annual Circles of Support Celebration, on October 5 at the Mohawk Golf Club. Read on for more details.

We continue to be grateful to our volunteers, community partners, and generous donors who help us provide support and encouragement to the young women we serve.

-Gwynne DeLong, President of the Board

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