MARCH 2020 PRESIDENT’S REPORT
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Dear NFWFWF friends,
President Chris P’Simer
Happy Spring. Yes, spring arrived last Thursday and I am glad it’s here. Even as we are in this scary time, I am looking forward to sunny days, trees blooming, flowers growing and bright blue skies, even if I have to enjoy these things from my back deck, away from my friends. I hope you are well and that you are following the advice of the CDC and our state and local governments. Clare and I are doing well and our thoughts go out to the entire NFWFWF community for safe passage through this pandemic.
To our members who are health care workers, first responders or essential business workers, thank you for being there for us and for all you are doing to help our community during this crisis.
At our Annual Meeting in January, members of the NFWFW board described some new strategic action plans that we are working on this spring. Although we are confined to our homes, we are meeting through emails and texts as we plan for future activities and programs for our community. Our board will be meeting, as planned, on April 11 through Zoom, a video conferencing service, keeping us safe, but allowing us to continue our work. Our Anne MacKay Scholarship Committee will also meet via Zoom to review scholarship applications and to interview finalists.
Our board is working to keep our programs going and to implement some enhancements to those programs. This month we began the HelpHer Wellness Check-in Program. A Wellness Check-in is a way for members to contact someone on a regular basis to make sure that “all is well.” It will give our members who live alone a chance to email, call or text a HelpHer volunteer to say hello and to let us know that all is well. We already have a few connections made and can certainly take on more requests.
We are also expanding our grant program by adding non-medical related grants. A member can apply for a grant for such things as emergency car repairs, unexpected home expenses, bill payments or other items that are necessary to help make her life a little easier. Click here to see our new grant application. Note that you may now apply for a grant directly online.
Our board is planning some other activities that we hope to get on our calendar later in the year. We are planning a tea dance for a sunny Saturday afternoon and a concert at Trimble’s Garden Center featuring NFWFWFers Cindy Ickes, Collette Clayton and Margaret Cowden. They performed at our last FFF and were absolutely fabulous. The board thanks the trio and Anne Trimble for their generosity. If we can’t do it this year, we will plan for it in 2021.
We will reschedule our Founders Award Reception in honor of Lori Cohen. We are hopeful that we will be able to have this event sometime before the winter holidays. We still have our Labor Day Auction on the books. Although no one knows when we will be able to congregate again, we will continue to work on these events.
While all this is going on, our Branding Committee is hard at work looking at new ways to communicate who we are, what we do and what we see as our future. They are looking at a new name for our organization, a tagline that simply and succinctly defines our purpose and a logo that symbolizes who we are. Barb is working on a new web page that expresses the spirit of our community and provides information about our programs, our events and our services. We will keep you up to date as we move forward on this front.
It’s an exciting time for NFWFWF. Although we are confined to our homes, and at times that gets a little tiresome, we are thrilled to continue the work of this fabulous organization.
Stay well, be safe and enjoy a few good books or some movies on TV. I recently rediscovered Cheers and it holds up very well. You’ll get a few good laughs if you tune in.
Know that we are all in this together and if you have any ideas about what else we can do to help, please let us know.
To your health,
Chris P’Simer
NFWFWF President
cpsimer@nfwfwf.org