Nominations for 100+ Women Who Care Columbus Impact Award ended on Sept. 22, and more than a dozen nominated organizations now await the Oct. 22 meeting, when one of those groups will be chosen by the membership for the second of the group’s cash awards.
“There have been new nominations turned in,” 100+ Women co-founder Beth Imes said Thursday. “Now, we’re going through the vetting process with them so we’ll be ready for the next meeting.”
There will be more than a dozen organizations who provide services in Lowndes County in the running for the prize, but it’s hard to imagine the winning organization could be any more excited than The Homeless Coalition of The Golden Triangle, which was awarded the first Impact Award of $15,700 in June.
“I knew from the get-go we were destined to get that money,” said Homeless Coalition director Sandra DePriest. “Nobody could possibly have needed it more than us.”
Founded in May, 100+ Women Who Care is a group of women in the community who have pledged to give $100 for each of the two annual Impact Awards. Group members nominate organizations and, once vetted, the names of the organization are selected lottery-style. Three of them are selected randomly, with the person who nominated each presenting for five minutes on the group’s merits. After that, the members vote on the recipient.
DePriest said the June Impact Award came at a fortuitous time for the Homeless Coalition.
“We have just come through a season of overwhelming homelessness,” DePriest said. “I think a lot of that had to do with the hot weather. I don’t want to sound dramatic, but without this money, we might have had people dying on the street. I can’t tell you how much this money has meant to us.”
DePriest said the Impact Award has inspired her group to “pay it forward.”
“We are really trying to spread the word about this wonderful group,” DePriest said. “We would love to see them keep adding members and making more and more funds available. We know how much it has meant to us. We’d love to help others get the kind of help we’ve received. I just can’t say enough about these women. They’re wonderful.”
The second Impact Awards selection meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. at Courtyard by Marriott.
Imes, mother of Dispatch Publisher Peter Imes and wife to Publisher-Emeritus Birney Imes III, said new members can join the group at the meeting and are immediately eligible to vote for the Impact Award winner.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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