KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A group of Kansas City area women has discovered strength in numbers, banding together as 100+ Women Who Care KC to maximize their collective charitable impact in the community.
“Oftentimes, you want to be charitable, you want to give to support things, but you’re never quiet sure where the money is going to or who to trust,” Megan Marr said
Marr is a member of the local Women Who Care chapter, an organization whose mission is simply to give back and make a big impact. There are chapters across the country after the concept started in Michigan.
“It’s so easy, why not?” chapter founder Lindsay St. Germain said.
The concept is simple: Every three months, the chapter’s members, who have pledged at least $100 per quarter, gather for an hour-long meeting and learn about three local charities. The group votes and the organization selected is presented with a big check.
“That just makes you sleep really well at night, to know you helped somebody and to know that when 100 women come together and do it, it makes a bigger impact,” Marr said.
Amethyst Place, an organization that helps addicted women and their children with recovery, was chosen as the recipient at the last meeting.
“I was lost," Amethyst Place alumna Julia Foster said. "I didn’t know what to do. I just wanted to keep numbing myself and that is what I did."
Foster, who was once addicted to heroin and meth, has been sober for three years and lives with her three children in an apartment operated by Amethyst Place.
“I've got a stable life with (my kids) now," she said. "I've got a stable home. [My kids] got to come home to their own rooms and they’ve never had that in their lives.”
Amethyst Place will use the more than $10,000 donation to fund programming the pairs women like Julia with mentors in the community.
The 100 Women Who Care Kansas City chapter currently has 112 members, but is always looking for more members. For more information or to sign up, visit the chapter's website.
