trip to a local art museum, but he needs $3 for lunch. You have no bank account, no food in the fridge, and nowhere to turn. Or you go to the clinic to get free medical care, but the prescriptions you need cost $17, and you only have $11 to last you the rest of the month. Herrick said her friend not only helped those patients with medical needs, but often helped with financial needs as well, such as that $17 worth of prescriptions, or the $62 for the electric company, or the $50 gas card or a Metro pass to get to a job interview. She figured she’d handed out some $10,000 in one year alone in these little gifts. One day, inspiration struck. That’s it. Simple. Sensible. And eminently doable for all involved. The money raised doesn’t go directly to the people who need it; it goes to the vendors dunning them: A check to the gas company, to keep heat going in the winter. A check to Kmart for school clothes. Another to the grocery store. A gas card. A security deposit to a landlord. Real Simple magazine got wind of the Womenade concept and wrote about it in August 2002. The idea caught hold, and groups began springing up across the country, including one in Annapolis, Md. That group was organized by another Taft alumna, Marti Stine Boyd, ’73, who started up her own Womenade group after reading about it in Real Simple, not knowing that sister Taftie Lisa Herrick was one of the original Womenade founders. “I was reading the article, and I just sat up and said ‘I’m going to do this,’” Boyd said. “I have to do this. It’s perfect.” Boyd asked seven friends to help her with her first Womenade party, assigning each woman a task so no one was overwhelmed, and each of those women invited 10 friends, and the Annapolis Womenade group was born. Boyd’s group works with an Annapolis social service agency, which gives referrals of clients with one-time needs. Some groups designate a single charity to receive the money they raise. Others, like Herrick’s, funnel the donations through a person they trust, like Kossoff.
28 Taft Bulletin Summer 2008
“The thing that it hinges on is that you have to do it with your friends and they have to trust you,” she said. “It’s a small-scale giving circle among giving friends. … It’s a great model: Everyone loves to eat, and they love to bring food. And not one penny goes to anything but the people who need the money. We have zero overhead. People love that, knowing that 100 percent of their contribution is going to the people who need it.” Boyd’s group has recently completed paperwork to become a designated 501(c)3 charity after the amount they raised and the number of people they helped had grown. Attorneys involved drew up the papers pro bono. A Maryland bank gave them a no-fee checking account. Dentists and doctors waived their fees to help people who needed their teeth fixed so they could speak properly and look professional for job interviews. “We do a lot of medical bills,” Herrick said. “We will write (a check for) $12 to the pharmacy, $62 to the electric company. We protect our donors; we don’t give cash to an individual— that’s a pretty good way of protecting individuals.” “We help the person who is working but they have no (money for) extras,” Boyd said. “We pay that bill, a little short-term, anonymous financial assistance, a one-time donation that helps brighten their lives and keeps them going. There’s nobody else meeting this need. It’s the right thing to do. We’ve done grocery cards, (paid) hotel bills for people lost in the housing situation. What are they going to do, sleep in their cars?” As Boyd noted, “We all have people in our lives who would help us if we got into a jam. There are a lot of people that don’t. It really makes you aware of the social problems in the community. “People lose their jobs, they get sick, and then they lose their homes,” she said, recounting the story of one professional woman her group helped who had had a stroke and another who was the victim of domestic violence. They were able to get a dentist to donate dentures