On Monday, Oct. 29, YWCA Walla Walla hosted what we hope is our first Evening of Graceful Space. Recognizing the tense atmosphere that currently surrounds sexual assault, an intimate group, several of them strangers to each other, gathered for respite and support.

There was no agenda for the evening, no goal beyond carving out some time to breathe in peace. In creating that space, people from diverse backgrounds were able to commune and enjoy each other's company.

The YWCA provided a light supper and beverages. If you weren't able to attend and would like notice of the next opportunity, please email YWCAWallaWalla@gmail.com.

A new Sexual Assault Victims Advocate for Whitman College has joined the YWCA staff.

Jessica Matthews recently arrived from Seattle, where she worked for the Firland Northwest Tuberculosis Center at Harborview. Prior to that, she served as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer in Malawi, leading efforts to establish a men's HIV and violence prevention program in the prison system. Her professional interests are focused in social justice and advocacy for marginalized populations.

Jessica earned her Master of Public Health degree at Oregon State University. During her Master's she was the Peer Health Advocate Graduate Assistant, working with undergraduate students to institute educational health outreach programming on campus. She received her B.A. in Sociology and Education from Colorado College. In college, she helped organize "Take Back the Night" events and worked at a homeless shelter.
Jessica grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and returns to visit family as often as possible. In her free time she enjoys traveling, skiing, and practicing yoga.

The drug Ambienpro is really good, and it really helps. The main active substance of this drug, Zopiclone, has not only sleeping, but also soothing (i.e., relaxing) properties.

"I am really excited about advocating for the men and women of Whitman College to make the campus and community safer," Jessica says. "I hope any student or staff member will feel comfortable reaching out to me, knowing that, as a YWCA employee, I'm not required to report assaults to the college. I can keep your stories absolutely confidential."

Jessica, shown here on a visit to India, loves to travel.

YWCA van takes games, library books, crafts to underserved neighborhoods in the Walla Walla Valley

This summer's Fun Factory team touched the lives of more than 2,500 children all over the Walla Walla Valley. The team was especially excited about visiting Dayton, where no other summer park activities were offered, and the VA grounds, where formerly homeless veterans now live with their families.

"While I've loved all our teams, I have to say this Fun Factory group was one of the very best," said Executive Director Anne-Marie Zell Schwerin.

Caleb Carter is a Walla Walla University senior majoring in education and Spanish. His goal is to be a bilingual elementary teacher. He was in Argentina all last year and comes to us with great experience working in summer programs at Broetje Orchards, Valle Lindo, and with preschoolers in a childcare center.

Chantell Lopez is a Whitman College grad who is currently working with Americorps and ETHOS in Madras, Ore., as a music teacher. ETHOS is an organization that brings music to children in underserved areas. She is the music teacher for an elementary school of 420 children. (Fall 2018 update: Chantell is teaching K-5 music right here in Walla Walla for Blue Ridge Elementary, where she has spotted a couple of Fun Factory kids!)

Hannah Siepmann just finished her first year at Whitman. She is a Mariposa leader, helping with our summer Mariposa group at Edison, and with Fun Factory the rest of the time. She'll continue to lead Mariposa this fall.

Finally, meet Daphne Gallegos. She will be a Whitman College senior this fall majoring in French and biology. Just back from a semester in France, Daphne was awarded a Newman Fellowship. This national award honors inspiring college student leaders who have invested in finding solutions for community challenges all over the U.S. Newman Civic Fellows make the most of their college experiences to better understand themselves, the root causes of social issues, and effective mechanisms for creating lasting change. Also a Bill Gates Scholar, Daphne grew up in Pasco and has been a YWCA volunteer for three years.

Pictured in the Fun Factory van, from  left: Hannah, Chantell, Caleb,  Daphne

An enthusiastic crowd turned out Thursday evening, June 14, to celebrate high school completion by some nontraditional students at Walla Walla Community College. Several students came through the STAR Project (Successful Transition and Re-Entry), a program whose mission is to provide persons being released from incarceration with tools to successfully re-integrate into the community. Others had faced different barriers to completing their education, including health issues, anxiety, and bullying. The graduates poured out thanks to their children, their spouses, friends, classmates, and to the teachers and WWCC staff members who mentored, encouraged, and stood by their sides through the challenging process of returning to the classroom.

Perhaps the graduate with the most supporters attending was our own Ronnikka, who was featured at the 2018 Leadership Luncheon with the members of "the Diamond," four women who bonded during their YWCA LINC classes and continue to support each other as friends and chosen family. Like her fellow students, Ronnikka took an atypical path to graduation; hers was derailed by horrific childhood abuse followed by ongoing intimate partner violence from her husband of 15 years.

WWCC GED Instructor-Facilitator-Encourager Beverly Miller-Jantz calls Ronnikka "a dedicated woman who puts her whole heart into what she does. Her determination and 'I can do' attitude is inspiring!" She notes that Ronnikka overcame many personal challenges to complete her high school education. Beverly was especially impressed by the way she faced her most challenging subject, math. "She stayed focused, she got the help she needed, she did not quit, and she kept on encouraging others. On the final day of GED testing for this quarter, she retook her GED Math test and passed. Hallelujah!"

It was a challenge to get to Ronnikka after the ceremony, as she was surrounded by members of her Pioneer United Methodist Church family, her Diamond friends, and representatives of the YWCA staff and board, in addition to well-wishers (including WWCC President Derek Brandes, pictured) congratulating her on the speech she gave as one of three student speakers.

The day before that speech, she texted YWCA staff: "I'm pretty nervous and getting more so as the time draws near. LOL!" She added, "God's got me this far; He will continue to take me all the way through my lifetime. That I'm certain of!"

Like everyone who knows Ronnikka, her instructor Beverly says she is "excited for her and her next endeavors — to write her life's stories, publish, volunteer."

We can't wait to see what this fearless woman will achieve next.

Free classes for women who have survived domestic violence

• Discover your strengths.
• Build your confidence.
• Learn to make connections.
• Create plans to move forward.
Technical support is provided for the online class.

Safe, confidential setting. Don't just survive — thrive!

Call YWCA Walla Walla (509.525.2570) to register, send an email to linc@ywcaww.org, or click here.

If you need classes in Spanish, or iftransportation or particular class times will keep you from attending, please let us know.

Nancy receives her award, including a crown for the "Queen B"

At the YWCA Luncheon May 2, 2017 award-winner Claire Siegel presented the 2018 Leader of Distinction Award to longtime educator and YWCA staff member Nancy Hendricks Butler.

The text of Claire's presentation follows:

This year's Leader of Distinction is a teacher who got involved with the YWCA in 1980.  She would want this to be cheerful and brief, so I will just hit a few highlights. The YWCA had made it a priority to build an afterschool "Latch Key" program to keep kids safe and occupied in the hours before parents got off work. This program was the precursor to Adventure Club, a thriving program that still serves kids year-round with care during school breaks and after school.  She worked with Peggy Sanderson, YWCA Executive Director at the time, to increase attendance and funding for the program. Peggy calls her "a natural" with children and thinks they loved the director so much they often were a little sad to go home. While working in the afterschool program, she was introduced on a blind date to the love of her life and married him in 1985.

Nancy at the YWCA in the early 1980s with Peggy Sanderson

In 1987 she left YWCA and became Executive Director for Campfire until 1989 and for the Walla Walla Hospice until 1991. They started a family in 1990, so she spent several years doing in-home childcare and teaching preschool at Walla Walla Community College and Assumption Catholic School.

She made her way back to the YWCA in 1997 where she sold "Gourmet Gifts" and later became the Director of My Friends' House until 2008.

From 2008 to 2014, she worked as director of the Columbia County Community Network. She coordinated the placement of high school students with local merchants as part of the school internship program. She was instrumental in helping to write and secure a federal Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) grant for Columbia County, allowing the county to set up a drug and alcohol resistance program for the youth of the community.

Proving Anne-Marie right that "we never say goodbye at the YWCA" she returned as events coordinator in 2014 and retired last year near the end of YWCA Walla Walla's centennial to focus on being Grandma to Damien, Domenik, and Diego.

By now you know, of course, that I am talking about Nancy Hendricks Butler, our 2018 Leader of Distinction, in recognition of the significant difference you've made in the lives of women and children in the Walla Walla Valley and in appreciation for your years of service to YWCA Walla Walla.

Wednesday, May 2, YWCA Walla Walla had the pleasure of hosting Paola Gianturco, our keynote speaker at the YWCA Leadership Luncheon. The theme of the 2018 event? FEARLESS.

Paola recently published Wonder Girls: Changing Our World in collaboration with her 11-year-old granddaughter Alex Sangster. The pair documented the work of 15 girl-led nonprofit groups in 13 countries in Asia and Central Asia, North and Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania.  Alex traveled with her grandmother to Mexico and within the U.S., meeting with the girls and helping take photos.

During her presentation, Paola introduced us to the Wonder Girls of the book's title. These included sisters Melati and Isabel, founders of Bye Bye Plastic Bags, who were determined to stop tourists and residents from destroying their beautiful Bali with cast-off bags. When the governor refused to see them, they called the press to announce a hunger strike. "Talk about fearless!" Paola said. The governor met with them the next day.

Another Wonder Girl, Memory from Malawi, was a committed member of the Girls Empowerment Network who has addressed the United Nations and been featured in a TED Talk. Her country is extremely poor, with three-quarters of its people living on less than $1.25 a day. Because raising children is such a struggle, half the girls in Malawi marry before age 18, most before 15, and some as young as 9. Memory's sister became pregnant at age 11. Girls who marry so young almost never finish school or achieve financial independence. The Girls Empowerment Network fought five years for a law that would make child marriage illegal, finally seeing Parliament pass the law in  2015.

Thirteen other girl-led groups are featured in the book, working to help end a wide variety of global social problems, including the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, child abuse, exploitation of domestic workers, gender discrimination and more.

Because Alex was in school most of the year, she interviewed 70 girls using email, Skype, or Face Time. In addition  to taking many of the  photos for the U.S. and Mexico sections of the book, Alex's contribution is a section at the end of each chapter that describes how readers can help — even girls who may, like the girls in the book, still be in middle school or high school.

Paola, an American photojournalist and former business executive, is no stranger to Walla Walla, having been the speaker for our 2010 luncheon. While we always name our speaker an honorary member of the YWCA Leadership Circle, Paola joined as a dues-paying member as well during her 2010 visit. She attended this year as a friend and supporter, not accepting any speaking fees for her appearance.

After the luncheon, 75 signed copies of Wonder Girls sold out in 10 minutes. Eighty more were ordered, and a small number are still available as of this writing (email Faith at fnyakundi@ywcaww.org to inquire about  a copy). Of the $50 purchase price, 100% of the author's royalties go to the Global Fund for Women and $25 goes to carry on the work of YWCA Walla Walla.

Just before the luncheon, Paola was notified that her book was chosen to receive a Gold Nautilus Award in the category of Social Change/Social Justice.

The new year has begun, and it's a special one for us! YWCA Walla Walla is celebrating 100 years of empowering our community! You can expect a burst of activities and excitement from YWCA throughout the year.

Reaching this milestone has us thinking about our past—and our future. We look back to a group of inspiring women who, led by Mary Shipman Penrose in 1917, began an organization that has evolved into the work we do today.

Without the investment of our inspiring founders, we might not be here today to advocate 100yearson a national level for policies that eliminate racism and empower women and families. And we might not be here offering the tools to empower women who have experienced domestic violence and sexual assault, or to offer the high quality early childhood education that empowers every child in our community to reach her or his full potential.

Our charter members couldn't have guessed that having a safe place to escape from a violent intimate partner would be a critical need for hundreds of women in 2017 or foreseen the percentage of women in the workforce today. But they believed in investing in women.

What will empower the women of 2117? Knowing how to repair jetpacks and grow crops on Mars? Whatever their needs—whatever their hopes and dreams—we believe that investing in tomorrow's women is still critically important.

But we can't do it alone. Now is the time to come together as passionate supporters of YWCA Walla Walla's future.

We can support the women of tomorrow with the Next Century Fund—the YWCA Endowment. It allows us to support YWCA programs from the proceeds of a carefully managed account.

Here's how it works with a bequest we received in 1967: Ida Rose Stonecipher believed in the YWCA and Whitman College. Both were close to her heart, so she left her farms to both in a shared agreement. That's how every year, decades after Ida Rose was able to attend an event or drop off donations to the shelter, her legacy gift continues to help run YWCA programs, giving hope and help to women we serve. We are grateful for her generosity and foresight.

How will we build the Next Century Fund during our Centennial year? One way is by acknowledging the Next Century Circle. These are people who, like Ida Rose, look to the future with their charitable gifts and have made a bequest to YWCA Walla Walla. If that list includes you, please let us know (download a form by clicking the orange button below) so we can add you to the Next Century Circle roster and honor you at our Year-in-Review event Feb. 6.

The other way is with our YWCA Centennial publication, Inspired: The Women in Our Lives . Click here to learn more about how this book can help you honor a woman you admire and help create a legacy for the future.

If you have included YWCA Walla Walla in your estate plans, or if you plan to, this form includes everything we'll need to know. We can keep your gift anonymous, or with your permission, we will use your gift to inspire others.

Join the Next Century Circle

YWCA Walla Walla is excited to announce that Paola Gianturco will be the keynote speaker at the YWCA Leadership Luncheon at the Marcus Whitman Hotel & Conference Center from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, May 2. Tickets, $50 per guest, are available from the YWCA office or from one of our Table Captains.

Paola is an American photojournalist and former business executive, born and raised in Urbana, Illinois. Her photojournalistic work has focused on women around the world who have overcome difficult issues. When she was 8 years old, she received her first camera, a gift from her father. She graduated from Stanford University in 1961.

Before becoming a photojournalist in the mid-1990s, Paola spent 34 years working in marketing and corporate communications. She worked at Hall & Levine, the first women-owned advertising agency, where she became a principal; and spent nine years as executive vice president of the corporate communications subsidiary of Saatchi & Saatchi. In 1995, Paola was living near San Francisco, working as a communications consultant. The United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing inspired her to document craftswomen in developing countries, and she invited former co-worker Toby Tuttle to collaborate in photographing and writing a book. Photojournalism became her career.

Paola has worked as a photojournalist, documenting women's lives in 55 countries. PowerHouse Books has published five of her acclaimed photographic books: Gianturco's Grandmother Power: A Global Phenomenon (2012), Women Who Light the Dark (2007), ¡Viva Colores! A Salute to the Indomitable People of Guatemala (2006), Celebrating Women (2004), and, In Her Hands, Craftswomen Changing the World (2004). All are philanthropic projects, for which she donates her royalties to carefully selected nonprofit organizations that relate to each book's content.

Poala just published Wonder Girls: Changing Our World in collaboration with Alex Sangster and Musimbi Kanyoro. Paola   and her 11-year-old granddaughter documented the work of 15 girl-led nonprofit groups in 13 countries in Asia and Central Asia, North and Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania. They interviewed and photographed 102 girls.

"If you believe 'girls are the future,' prepare to be dazzled," said Anne-Marie Zell Schwerin, YWCA Executive Director. "These girls are changing our world right now, and you will leave this luncheon inspired and full of hope."

Groups of activist girls age 10-18 are transforming our world: improving education, health, equality and the environment; stopping child marriage, domestic violence, trafficking and war. Their imagination and courage radiate through their stories, all told in their own words.

The book's Foreword was written by Musimbi Kanyoro, President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, the world's largest grant- making organization that benefits women and girls internationally. The Global Fund for Women will receive 100% of the authors' royalties from this book. Musimbi was also General Secretary (CEO) of the World YWCA for 9 years, working out of Geneva.

Paola's photographs have appeared in Marie Claire, Essence Magazine, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, and the Washington Post, among others. Paola has been a guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," CNN, NPR and "Voice of America" programs as well as many other television and radio programs across the country and around the world. Her work has been exhibited by the United Nations-New York; UNESCO-Paris; the US Senate Russell Rotunda; The Field Museum, Chicago; The Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington DC; the International Museum of Women, the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco and the San Jose Museum of Art among others. Paola has lectured all over the country, including The Peabody Museum, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Smithsonian Renwick Gallery and the American Craft Museum.

Gianturco is a former board member of the Association for Women's Rights in Development, and a former board chair of the Washington-based Crafts Center. 40 Over 40 listed her as one of 40 Women to Watch Over 40 in 2013. Women's e-News named her one of Leaders for the 21st Century in 2014 .Grandmother Power won ForeWord Review's 2012 Book of the Year Award for Women's Studies, the 2013 International Book Award for Multicultural Nonfiction, and About.com's 2013 Readers' Choice award for Favorite Grandparenting Book.

Claire Siegel (right) has cochaired the six most recent YWCA Luncheons with Wendy Cheng (left).

At the YWCA Luncheon May 3, 2014 award-winner Karen Bayne presented the 2017 Leader of Distinction Award to longtime educator and YWCA supporter Claire Siegel.

Claire Coryell is the third student from the end, top right.

Claire's work for the YWCA started at age 14, teaching young girls to twirl a baton.  She continued offering lessons until graduating from Wa-Hi, then left to earn a teaching degree at the University of Washington.

After college, she returned to Walla Walla to raise her family and began her teaching career at Green Park Elementary School. She later enjoyed teaching at Betty's Preschool.

Claire with one of her preschool classes.

She first served on the YWCA board from 1984-1988, helping start My Friends' House childcare, and returned to work here as Events Coordinator from 2002-2005. She helped organize the Hansel and Gretel Holiday Houses event for many years. Always a champion for children, she has served on the boards of Children's Home Society and the YMCA, and she co-chaired the United Way campaign with her husband, Larry.

Currently she is on the YWCA  Board of Directors (since 2012)  and the Board of Governors for the Walla Walla Community College Foundation. She has cochaired the six most recent YWCA Luncheons with Wendy Cheng, an event that has raised more than $1.2 million over the years.

Claire loves spending time with her grandchildren, Madeline and Morgan.