2018 Women United Spring Social

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The annual Women United Spring Social has come and gone. We hope everyone had as good a time as we did. It was fantastic to see so many strong women gathered in fellowship for such a good cause. 

The event had its share of great moments. Congratulations go out to Ann Ray who received the Taylor Foss Women United Award (formerly known as the Women United Award). Ann's tenure leading Women United has been extremely fruitful and we are most appreciative of her and her hard work and dedication. We also officially introduced three new Women United players: Ashely Smith and Jenny Boyer, Women United's new Co-Chairs, and Beth Benzing, United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County's new Leadership Giving Manager. We're looking forward to the great things these women will accomplish in the future. 

Why Women United?

The importance of Women United and the impact the group is having in our communities cannot be overstated. This was brought to light at the annual gathering by Enka Middle School Resource Coordinator, Ginny Spencer Eudy. Ginny shared a few stories that highlighted the amazing work being done:

In Enka, we found a serious need for increased mental health supports. We put a significant investment into building mental health services for our students to ensure that NO student has to go without that necessary resource because of lack of financial resources. Between our Intermediate and Middle schools, over 80 students participated in support groups ranging from friendship skills to anxiety, support for students dealing with family substance use or incarceration or divorce.

Our community partner, Big Brothers and Big Sisters ran a mentoring group for middle school students looking to build confidence. One of the young girls recommended for the group by the school counselor was super quiet, struggled making friends and didn’t speak up in class even when she knew the answer — which she often did. She was just painfully shy, but she was so sweet and one-on-one had such empathy for others.
 
The group went on for about 10 weeks and just recently ended. I reached out to the teachers to thank them for accommodating our groups; allowing students to be pulled from class. And one of the teachers wrote back to me about this student and said, "I don’t know what you did to her! But I feel like I have a new student. She’s smiling, she’s raising her hand. I’ve even had to call her down for speaking with her classmates."
 
This is just one of many stories about what you are helping to acheive through Women United. Thank you!