Thank you to all of you who were in attendance at our Annual Charity Exchange this morning. For those of you who couldn’t make it, I announced that we are keeping ANSWER Scholarship on board as a legacy charity and will be providing them with a $3500 scholarship in memory of Lauren Kimsey, one of our former members who passed last year. Monday would have been her 40th birthday, and we felt it would be appropriate to honor her legacy by giving a hand up to a woman going back to school.

We also heard from four fabulous charities including Little Smiles, Safe Alliance, Welcome Home Vets, and Young Elites. Members in attendance voted on their charity of choice, and Young Elites will be EWLKN’s second charity for 2017. Young Elites provides expert programming to high school girls to inspire their intellectual, physical, and social growth while preparing them for a lifestyle of leadership.

Erin Gee, who nominated them, will be heading up efforts along with myself to coordinate and best support them throughout the year. You can read more about their mission at www.youngelites.org. Thank you to everyone who nominated charities and I look forward to seeing what 2017 has in store for our philanthropic efforts!