SHELBY – Women in and around the Shelby city area are being given the tools to achieve their full potential thanks to a revitalized effort within the Shelby Foundation.
Recently, efforts have been made to revive the Women’s Fund of the Shelby Foundation, a fund established in 2009 with the goal of empowering local women. According to Foundation Director Carrie Kemerer, all proceeds accumulated in the fund are distributed to programs in and around Shelby to promote intellectual, physical, emotional, social, economic and cultural growth for women.
“We know women are the heart of the families,” Kemerer said. “We know a lot of learned behaviors start from mom. So if we can empower a female to make good life choices, to have good decision-making skills, that impacts a lot of people and not just one person.”
Though the Women’s Fund has existed for almost seven years, the recent creation of a Women’s Fund advisory committee as well as the efforts of Theresa Roth, chief operating officer of OhioHealth Mansfield and Shelby Hospitals, has helped jump start the efforts of the fund.
“I think that the Shelby Foundation does a lot of good for the community overall, but I really felt there are special, identified needs of women,” Roth said. “By having a dedicated fund for that, we can ensure those funds are available to address women’s needs in Shelby.”
The committee is made up of Kemerer and the four female members of the Foundation’s 12-member board.
“As the advisory committee, they’re looking at all different age groups, from young girls to the professional woman,” Kemerer said. “We’re really excited that we’re using these dollars to hit all women in all different age groups and socioeconomic classes.”
One significant effort funded by the Women’s Fund in 2015 was the implementation of a “Girls in Motion” program at the Plymouth-Shiloh Schools district. The object of the program is to guide young women to making informed choices to avoid obesity and other preventable life-threatening conditions.
A $1,200 grant from the fund helped to purchase female-friendly gym equipment and hire advisors to help the female students.
“The girls struggled with working out beside boys after school,” Kemerer explained. “They have the gym, but what teenage girl with self confidence issues wants to work out beside guys?
“Plymouth-Shiloh reached out to us for the grant to help them with character building, confidence building and getting the girls to be more active.”
The Women’s Fund is not just for school-aged girls, as evidenced by a brand-new lecture series beginning in May. “Let’s Talk: Woman to Woman” is a three-part series involving an open forum discussion of issues relevant to adult women from a female perspective.
“We wanted to offer the opportunity for women to get together and discuss women-specific issues, but we also wanted to raise awareness of the Women’s Fund,” Roth said.
The lecture series will begin on May 2 with a discussion on physical and sexual health with Dr. Melissa Juliano of OhioHealth Women’s Health Primary Care Physicians. Juliano will focus on women’s physical and sexual health by answering questions that are often embarrassing for women in a fun, light-hearted setting.
The second lecture in the series will be held on July 11, where Richland Bank Shelby Manager Linda Whited will discuss Money Tips 101.
“As a female we manage pretty much the entire household, but a lot of times it’s not the finances,” Kemerer said. “We’ll be talking about what are some times about saving for college, or what should we be saving for a rainy day.”
The third and final lecture in the series will be held Sept. 12 with Jean Halpin, president of OhioHealth Mansfield and Shelby Hospitals. As a busy professional woman with three adopted children at home, Halpin will discuss how to maintain a work/home balance.
“She’s balancing trying to be the best mom, care provider and mother figure she can be for these kids, on top of running a health system,” Kemerer said. “So she’ll talk about the guilt we always feel trying to be in two places.”
All three lecture series will be hosted at The Vault Wine Bar in Shelby, and will last from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The programs are free and open to the public, but registration is required.
The future of the Women’s Fund at the Shelby Foundation is really in the hands of the community. Kemerer said she hopes women will take away a feeling of camaraderie after the lecture series, and hopes to see an increase in grant applications and other women-focused programming in the future.
“For me being a professional female in this community, I want to see this community thrive,” she said. “I want to see other women and young girls with confidence and character-building and make smart decisions so they can be in this role as they get older.”
