Giving Hope News

Inspirational Women

Giving Hope, Women's Giving Circle is proud to present the fourth of five inspirational women as we recognize and celebrate Women's History Month. This week we remember the Giving and Hope done by Ms. Rhonda Walker.

Ms. Rhonda Walker

Rhonda Walker was born in 1968, in Detroit, Michigan. She grew up in Lansing and has been a lifelong Michigan resident. Ms. Walker graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Communications to pursue her career in television journalism. She is currently one of the morning news anchors for WDIV- Channel 4 in Detroit. In 2003, Rhonda started the philanthropic organization The Rhonda Walker Foundation. The foundation supports young women and teenagers in pursuit of better education and personal development overall. The Foundation's tag line is "Girls into Women" and it affords grants to a wide variety of programs which support and mentor local girls in need. Ms. Walker serves as President of the foundation and has been an integral part of several Detroit-based philanthropic events, making over 100 appearances since she launched the Foundation. Ms. Walker spoke at a Giving Hope event several years ago and described her foundation and its goal of helping young girls become strong, empowered, and independent women. Her drive and commitment to Giving was inspiring! We the ladies of Giving Hope, Women's' Giving Circle share that ambitious commitment and support Ms. Walker's desire of Giving Hope to girls in need.

Inspirational Woman

Giving Hope, Women's Giving Circle is proud to present the third of five inspirational women as we recognize and celebrate Women's History Month. This week we remember the Giving and Hope done by Ms. Margaret Dunning.

Ms. Margaret Isabel Dunning

Margaret Dunning was born in 1910 and spent the majority of her life as a resident of Plymouth, Michigan. She had various careers throughout her long life, all of them in the Plymouth community. Her first act of local philanthropy occurred in 1947 when Ms. Dunning and her mother purchased a property and building to house what would later grow and become the Plymouth District Library and now bears her name as the Dunning Hough Library. Later Ms. Dunning served on the board of Community Federal Credit Union in Plymouth from 1962-1984 and served as President for 19 of those years. During her tenure, the CFCU assets grew from $1 million and 1 office to $40 million and 6 offices. The credit union established the Margaret Dunning Scholarship Fund in 1989 in her honor. And when the Plymouth Historical Society was looking for donors in 1971 and again in 1998, to help them build a new museum building and make additions, Ms. Dunning stepped up not once but twice and donated over $1 million to assist with the multiple projects. Ms. Dunning established the Margaret Dunning Foundation in 1997 as a private grant making foundation. The Margaret Dunning foundation has assisted countless charities since its beginning many of which support our local community and women, children, and families! Ms. Dunning passed away in 2015, just before her 105th birthday. What a wonderful woman, life and legacy to honor.

International Women's Day!

Giving Hope, Women's Giving Circle is proud to present the second of five inspirational women as we recognize and celebrate Women's History Month. This week we remember the Giving and Hope done by Ms. Oseola McCarty.

Ms. Oseola McCarty

Ms. Oseola McCarty was an amazingly inspirational and "Giving" woman! Oseola was born on March 7, 1908 in Mississippi. From her very humble beginnings, she followed in the footsteps of her grandmother and aunt who raised her and became a full-time laundress when she needed to drop out of school in the 6th grade. She worked hard throughout her entire life and took great joy and pride in that work. She once said " Everyone needs to work hard at somthin' to feel good about themselves. Every job can be done well and every day has its satisfactions…If you want to feel proud of yourself, you've got to do things you can be proud of." When Ms. McCarty retired in 1995 at the age of 86, she had saved $280,000.00! She immediately decided to give most of it away! Ms. McCarty set aside enough to live on and then gave $150,000.00 to the University of Southern Mississippi "to fund a scholarship for worthy but needy students seeking the education she never had." She, like those of us in Giving Hope, Women's Giving Circle wanted the satisfaction of giving while living and seeing the benefits of that generosity. She also wanted to give locally knowing that there was need right there. Today, the University of Southern Mississippi continues to award several full tuition McCarty Scholarships every year! Ms. McCarty passed at the age of 91 in September of 1999.

We can be grateful for the example and legacy of philanthropy Ms. Oseola McCarty left for all of us to aspire to. From an amazingly simple beginning, working hard to fulfill her dream of Giving Hope to others, Ms. McCarty "knew she didn't have to save the whole world" but what she could do was "something to help somebody. And (she said) what I can do I will do"! May we all share Ms. McCarty's ambitious goals and be grateful that we too can Give Hope through our simple generosity to those in need in our local communities.

Celebrating Women's History Month

Lucile Packard: The Children's Champion

If you are reading this list on a desktop or laptop, there’s a good chance you’re currently benefitting from the work of Lucile Packard and her husband David. Together the couple transformed a small garage business into Hewlett-Packard, one of the world’s most prominent technology companies. The duo was also a philanthropic powerhouse, influenced by Lucile’s passion for children.

When Lucile met David as a Stanford undergraduate, she was already giving back, volunteering at the Stanford Convalescent Home to help treat children with tuberculosis. Even after Hewlett-Packard achieved monumental success, Lucile continued her work with the Home; she and David later donated $40 million to convert it into the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, widely considered one of the best pediatric hospitals in the country. She also served as chair of the board of the Children’s Health Council and gave her name to the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, established a few years after her passing.

Giving Hope Members Update

Giving Hope - Women’s Giving Circle Update

Hello members and friends,

As board chair I would like to take this opportunity to update you on the Advisory Board’s most recent meeting and some of our upcoming plans.

First and foremost, I want to acknowledge the members of the 2021 GH Advisory Board:

Vice Chair............................... Dian Slavens

Treasurer.................................Denise Murray

Secretary.................................Jane Vesch

Marketing Chair......................Sue Rosiek

Membership Chair..................Sharon Filips

Special Events Committee......Jackie Norris, Dianne Neihengen and new board members Jane Kersjes and Raeann Neil

This exceptional group of women showcased their dedication and enthusiasm for Giving Hope by actively participating in our first meeting which was a delightful 2 ½ hours of sharing, discussing, planning, and considering the what’s, how’s, and whys of our organization!

I am beyond pleased to tell you there are great times and opportunities ahead for Giving Hope!

The biggest and most challenging concern the board addressed was our lack of membership growth. Over the past 3 to 4 years, Giving Hope has only added two new members. The board felt obligated to consider and discuss various factors contributing to this situation and learned that other nonprofit organizations are experiencing the same difficulties.

The board arrived on two key and specific, likely causes for our lack of membership growth: 1) Younger women are less likely to formally “join” groups, preferring instead to participate “at will” and 2) our $1,000 joining fee is imposing. As recently as 2019, it had been thought this fee would be continued and feasible, but the recent pandemic has imposed great changes and challenges on our community both socially and economically and we are now forced to reconsider.

To further one of the missions of Giving Hope - Women’s Giving Circle, “to build a community of women philanthropists” it has become

evident that to attract younger and more diverse women to philanthropy we need to make a drastic change. If we are unable to grow our membership, Giving Hope will be unable to survive in its current form. With that said, the Advisory Board unanimously voted and agreed to suspend the $1,000 membership joining fee.

The Local Impact Alliance accepted and unanimously approved this decision. Both organizations believe it will make a significant impact on growing membership by providing a more attainable path to philanthropy for many interested women. There are additional aspects of this new change that will be discussed at the upcoming zoom event.

Another progressive effort I would like to share with you, is our increased efforts to better utilize our social media platform. Denise Murray has been posting on Facebook twice a week and added an Instagram account for Giving Hope. To best assist with achieving our new goals a new Media Committee will be formed. The women involved in this committee will be tasked with the responsibility of working together to ensure our website at LIA is current and dynamic. It is another opportunity we want to utilize to improve our chances of growing membership.

We are looking for a few volunteers to help with this committee. Please contact me or Denise Murray and let us know you can help.

Additionally, if you have photos or ideas for posts please share them with Denise or any member of the board and we will work together to grow our Giving Hope - Women’s Giving Circle’s name recognition, social media presence and website! “It’s a Good Thing!”

Lastly, I would like to ask you to “Save the Date” of March 10th for our next zoom event: Giving Green for Giving Hope! We are putting together an informative and very entertaining virtual event which will benefit our endowment fund. The event date has been posted on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Keep an eye open for the official event information in mid-February.

Great things are ahead for Giving Hope - Women’s Giving Circle; and we are glad you will be part of them.

Thank you for your time and participation. I’m hoping to see every “Lassie” on March 10th! As always, if you have comments, questions,

or concerns please contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Best wishes,

Linda J. Demmer

Advisory Board Chair

Giving Hope - Women’s Giving Circle

Giving Green for Giving Hope

Calling All Giving Hope Lassies for a Zooming Good Time

Wear your green and zoom along with your fellow "Green Givers"

Wednesday, March 10th - 7 pm

An event benefitting the endowment fund of Giving Hope, Women's Giving Circle

The event will feature a brief history of the GH endowment fund and how it makes it possible for the women of Giving Hope to accomplish our mission of helping local women, children and families in need.

Canton Community Foundation President Beth Mead will explain the recent changes and the decision to partner with others to become the Local Impact Alliance.

Judges will award two of our best dressed "lassies" special Irish libations. All attendees will be entered into a drawing for gift cards to local shops and eateries - all donated by your GH Advisory Board Members.

We HOPE you will join us!

Click Here to Register to Attend