The adage around Christmas is, 'it's better to give than to receive.'  One group of women in the city lives by that philosophy year round.

 

The "100 Women Who Care - Airdrie" held their quarterly meeting last night (December 5th) and will be gifting another Airdrie charity with over $9,000 from its members.

Airdrie Angel, a program that gives a hand up to those who have been through a difficult time or are living through life-changing circumstances was chosen from among three charities by the group's members to receive the donation.

That brings to $51,000 the total that the 100 Women Who Care has donated to six Airdrie charities since it's inception.  

Stephanie Rabel, one of the women who founded the group says 100 Women Who Care has been started in Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton, and Cochrane, as well as in several other communities.  The Airdrie group has been going since September of 2016 and has held six quarterly meetings since that time.

According to Rabel, the group now consists of 92 members and, even though they're called 100 Women Who Care, they don't want to be capped at that number.

"We will take 100 more members," laughs Rabel.  "We don't cap it at 100.  We'd love to get 100 because that's ten grand we can give to a local charity that actually goes back into our community."

The members nominate charities from the Airdrie area to receive donations.  The charities must have a good reputation for putting their donations to good use within the Airdrie community.  

"Once we go through all the ones that have been nominated we just put them into a hat and we draw them two weeks before the meeting.  Then we ask them a few questions like 'what would they do with the money,' 'how do they help Airdrie and surrounding area,' and we send that information out to our members.  At the meeting, they have five minutes to do a presentation about their charity to our women and it's all done by ballot.  That night all the ladies vote and we count up the votes and that's how we decide our winner."

Charities that receive the quarterly donations must wait for three years before they can win again while the others can be nominated again immediately.

"Airdrie Angel, it was actually their third time presenting out of our six meetings and they finally were the recipient."

Rabel says women from all walks of life make up the Airdrie chapter of 100 Women Who Care.  "We have business owners, we have moms, we have single women.  Women who just want to give back to the community."

In six meetings the Women Who Care have donated $51,000 to Airdrie charities.  "Airdrie POWER was our first one, they got $6,100, then we had the Festival of Lights who got $7,600.  The Airdrie Lioness Club got $10,000 for their Hamper program, Airdrie Hospice received $8,000."

Airdrie and District Victim Services received a cheque for $8,000 at last night's meeting and Airdrie Angel will receive their cheque at the group's next meeting.

Rabel says the goal is to enlist more members so they can benefit more charities with more giving.

"We've said, as a committee, if we get to 200 members, why don't we give to two charities?  If we make it to 200 people we would love to donate to two charities every quarter."

You can find out more about the group's work and how to become one of the 100 Women Who Care in Airdrie by going here.  Their next meeting is February 27th at 7:00 pm at the Woodside Golf Course.  

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