A Membership Why
By Jillian Huang (reprinted from Fall 2023)
I joined IWCF in 2012. Over the years, I have treasured my membership for different reasons, including being a philanthropist, pooling my money with other women for a common purpose, learning more about the needs in our community, and giving to organizations in our six interest areas. These reasons still drive me.
But lately, my world feels full of uncertainties, many of which are beyond my control. The news outlets report on snow in the wrong places, accidental missile warnings, nuclear war threats, school shootings, garbage piling up in our oceans, and people fleeing their homes and becoming refugees.
My social media sites use clever algorithms to feed my preferences back to me, so I wonder if I’m reading the real news and if I’ll ever read something other than my own opinion.
I recently read the comments attached to an online article and one of them struck me. A reader said, “I’m overwhelmed. I have no idea what to do. There are so many options to help but I’m stuck.” I could feel her despair, because I’ve felt that too.
Then I thought of IWCF, and it occurred to me that I AM doing something, that I’m not stuck, that I’m ACTING instead of being overwhelmed.
I’m seeing women face-to-face all the time instead of being buried in a screen. With civility and compromise, we are encouraging applicants, reviewing our applications, visiting sites, and choosing our grant winners democratically.
So when I read a distressing article about half a million honey bees being killed, I remembered that IWCF granted money to Bee City USA to help pollinators in our area flourish. After reading a piece about people without health insurance, I remembered that IWCF funded many health care opportunities for people with low income, including diabetic eye screenings through Terry Reilly Clinic, a school-based health clinic at Meridian Elementary, and dental exams with Genesis World Mission, in their Garden City Clinic.
I got excited and went to the IWCF website to scroll through our past grants. There is so much to celebrate!
We are providing diapers to families in need, helping kids get to school and helping people with low income get to work with better transportation options. We are affecting creativity with writing programs, youth theater space, and support for the Shakespeare Festival. We are building parks and walking paths for communities to exercise, and helping with birds of prey conservation efforts. The list goes on and on.
It occurred to me then, that IWCF is the antidote to fear, helplessness, and being overwhelmed; that our membership is ACTION in the face of despair. And we can take that action now to renew our membership. We can take that action each and every year, with our vote and our participation on committees and on the board. We are anything but helpless. We are changing the world together. And this means everything to me.
