Dear Friends and Supporters of WPIG,
Happy New Year! We wanted to take some time to share with you the progress that the Women's Philanthropic Investment Group of Seattle has made over the past year.
At the beginning of the year, we welcomed six new members to our group:
Becka Hardy, Julianna Yamamoto, Megan Thomas, Meghan Wagner, Nicole Demmon and Tiffani Lee. These new members bring intelligence, insight and incredible dedication to our cause of helping women and children move from a place of need to one of self-sufficiency.
In addition to welcoming new members, our marketing committee unveiled a fresh new website in 2010 as well as starting a WPIG blog and Facebook page. No tweeting yet but this could be our New Years resolution. Please visit and follow us regularly at www.wpigseattle.org.
In 2010 we officially kicked off the lengthy application process to be recognized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. The Women’s Philanthropic Investment Group of Seattle’s application has been submitted and is currently being reviewed. We owe a very gracious thank you to attorney Andy Aley with Garvey Schubert Barer for the generous pro-bono help in administering and submitting the application. We are all eagerly awaiting 501(c)(3) status and have our fingers crossed for a BIG announcement in 2011!
Our 2010 focal charity was Ryther Child Center; a local 125 year-old non-profit focused on treating troubled children through innovative and proven therapeutic techniques. In June we invested our time with Ryther for a full Saturday of service. Much to the delight of the Ryther staff, we washed all of their vans and also did some painting. In October, our philanthropy committee put on a wildly successful fall art festival for the children with five craft stations ranging from spooky stain glass windows to yummy frosted cookies! This partnership with Ryther, allowed WPIG of Seattle to invest time, donate money, and gift art supplies for each cottage. We are also very honored with the opportunity to celebrate Ryther’s125 years of service at their annual luncheon.
In addition to partnering with Ryther, we have continued to make volunteering and investing our time in the community a commitment. To that end, in month, we volunteered at Westside Baby donation center in White Center. This non-profit serves families in need throughout our community by providing food, clothing, supplies, toys and diapers. We thoroughly enjoyed the enriching evening of service.
2010 marked the first annual WPIG of Seattle retreat in the lovely Roslyn, Washington. The ladies of WPIG enjoyed an evening out of Seattle to bond and re-energize for the coming year.
This holiday season the little WPIG elves were busy “making” one Seattle family’s holiday a little bit more cheerful with gift sponsorship through the downtown YWCA. We were happy to see many of your faces at Targy's on Queen Anne where WPIG of Seattle collected $1122 of generous donations from the Mark Fox Christmas Gala.
WPIG of Seattle is especially proud to have partnered with Ryther as our 2010 charity. Together with your investment in WPIG of Seattle, we were able to truly make a difference in the lives of local children and families. It has been a genuine pleasure partnering with Ryther this past year, so much so that we have committed to having them as our 2011 charity!
We want to extend our warmest thanks to all of you who have supported us in so many ways this past year. We could not have accomplished so much without you; our investors!
With gratitude,
Aside from WPIG, Becka manages to keep herself pretty busy… to say the least! In addition to working full time at a tech firm, helping out with the Seattle Storm team, Becka is working towards her Master in Sports Administration and Leadership degree at Seattle University. Upon graduation in June 2012, she hopes to either work in collegiate or professional athletics or find other opportunities in health and fitness.
Although Becka does not have a lot of free time these days, she still manages to find time for the important things in life… running/training for marathons, hanging out with her friends and family, going on road trips, and playing with her dog! In fact, during her year off of employment, she was able to accomplish a few goals she had set for herself, which included beating her marathon time, traveling Southeast Asia, and getting into graduate school. She is currently looking forward to starting her UW internship this fall and figuring out what area of her Masters program she will enjoy the most. 
