Turning Good into Greater Good

MAY 2022 NEWSLETTER

On May 18th, SOS members, grant recipients, friends, and families gathered at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center to celebrate the culmination of our 2021-2022 grant cycle and the 15th anniversary of the Spirit of St. Louis Women’s Fund.

In September we received 174 letters of inquiry. In January, 38 invited agencies submitted full grant proposals and participated in virtual site visits with more than 60 SOS volunteers working in small teams. The final ballot was made up of 20 agencies for our members’ voting consideration.

Since the Spirit of St. Louis Women’s Fund was founded in 2006, our members have invested over $3 million dollars in the Greater St. Louis community. At the Spirit Awards, we were honored to announce that this year, SOS is able to award over $202,000 in support of the important missions of nine nonprofits.

In celebration of our 15th anniversary year, we recognize the 2022 SOS grantees and our past grantees that truly represent what it means to be a hero, who have overcome the obstacles that were put in their paths, and who continue to enrich our community with their valuable work.

Angels’ Arms – $20,000 Supports foster families, keeping siblings together, providing homes, resources, and emotional support to foster parents to raise the standard of care for foster children.

Caring for Kids – $14,625 Funding for the Beds and Bedding project gives children safety and security, ensuring safe and secure sleep, and good all-around health.

EarthDance – $25,000 Equips communities with the resources and skills to grow food for themselves and others, in a way that shares power and capital, stewards the land, and prioritizes ecological values and human rights.

Gateway to Oral Health Foundation – $25,000 Provides preventive and comprehensive oral health care to children and youth in need, regardless of their family’s ability to pay.

Lift for Life Gym – $15,000 Offers children in St. Louis city a safe, enriching environment in which to strengthen their bodies, enrich their minds, develop healthy relationships, and learn to make positive life choices.

Migrant and Immigrant Community Action Project (MICA) – $25,000 The Crisis Response Fund will facilitate emergency response for immigrants facing personal or larger-scale crises that require a legal or case management response.

The Breakfast Club – $20,000 Raises awareness of the disparities in breast cancer death rates and increases access to mammography screening and breast exams to uninsured and underinsured women.

Welcome Neighbor – $25,000 Partners with refugee and immigrant families, connecting them with the people and opportunities that empowers them to build and live their best life in their new country.

Three-Year Grant

Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective – $33,333 StitchCast Studio brings together youth and professional artists in St. Louis to develop and produce a series of podcast episodes focused on the streets, gun violence, and finding solutions to issues confronting our youth.

Discovering Our Community

Our first in person book discussion was on the memoir Here We Are by Aarti Namdev Shahani. It was a lively, interesting and intimate discussion. We discussed Aarti Namdev Shahani’s parents immigration experience and hers as she grew up as a first generation American. It is a story of the bravery it takes to make a life for oneself and one’s family in a new country and of the grit and determination and hope it takes to carry on and make that new country a home. We also talked about how important education is to the experience as immigrants run up against circumstances and institutions that are difficult to navigate. Family and their love and support are crucial as immigrants make their way through their new life. It also makes a difference under what circumstances one has come to this country and what skills and education and certification one comes with.

Aster Beyene, a guest, shared her experience leaving Ethiopia and brought us up to date on the ongoing situation in Ethiopia.

Shvetha Zarek shared her parent’s experience coming from India.

In the end, Aarti questions if the U.S. is her home and her family’s home. And we pondered what makes your country your home.

Overall, it was great to be together, share some appetizers and delicious chocolate treats from Marianne Baer and have a glass of wine as we sat around the table talking and sharing.

Noteworthy

SOS wishes we had enough resources to fund all of the organizations on SOS’s final ballot.

Due to the democratic process which we use to determine the organizations who receive funding, we have deserving organizations that we cannot fund.

It is with great pride that we list these organizations with an honorable mention and acknowledgment that they too continue to work diligently to meet the needs of our community. A big thank you to these organizations for their passionate dedication.

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2022 Spirit Awards & SOS 15th Anniversary Celebration

For those who were not able to attend this years celebration here are some pictures. We were all so pleased to be in the company of one another after two years of virtual celebration. We’ll let the pictures tell the story.

Social Media Corner

The SOS Marketing and Communications Committee has enhanced our social media platforms in the last few years and now we need YOUR help in helping us spread the word about our mission! First, please be sure to like AND follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Followers actually see our content and updates whereas likes only attach a name to our page. Likes are good but follows are better!

Once you like AND follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, please like AND share any content you find interesting or that others might benefit from. A share is a new post created by you that reaches your friends and contacts. The algorithm and ultimate reach is much higher with shares. Likes are good, comments are great but a share will maximize the audience that ultimately sees the content.

Thanks for helping us spread the word about the great things that SOS is doing to help support small nonprofits in our community! We appreciate you!