Pictured left to right-Eve Hens, Roula Alkhouri, Pam Pedro, Patti Michalak, Lisa Lyons, Millie Tomidy-Pepper, Mickey Charters, and Liz Farmer, not pictured, Colleen Raponi(Submitted photo)
The first fundraising event was held for the YWCA this past weekend at TF Browns and it was a good start to a new beginning as a new YWCA Board works to build up membership, services and volunteers for the future.
Rick Mancuso donated food and his restaurant on Sunday afternoon while the band Grizwoode volunteered to entertain for the event. About 120 people donated money for the dinner and the board is extremely thankful for the community’s support.
After a rocky start to the year, the newly formed board is slowly coming around again as they fundraise to pay off past debts and move forward to create new services while continuing on with Domestic Violence Service and the Courthouse Daycare program.
The School Daycare Program, Care and Crisis line and Child and Adult Care Food Program are being run by other groups in the WNY Community and are still available.
Michalak says at one time the YWCA had 36 employees, between all the services and now they are down to about a handful. She says operating the Crisis line was costly and caused the YWCA to lose money over the years.
Michalak was on the YWCA board about 4 years ago, serving as Board President for 1 year. She says she had to step down to take care of several family members who were sick however, and she did not like a few things that were happening at the time. She was then asked to get involved again when asked about back issues with the YWCA in January when new director Milly Tomidy-Pepper took over operations. Michalak says they talked her into coming back to serve on the board afterwards.
“I’m a very busy person, but I chose to pick the YWCA to use some of my volunteer time.”
The current board has received a lot of guidance from National Organization as they move forward
The YWCA says is staying true to their motto of empowering women and eliminating racism, and getting out of the business of building maintenance by putting their building up for sale or lease.
“We would like to stay there,” says Board member Patti Michalak.
“It was a very trying decision to say we needed to sell the building, it was awful, there were tears and it was very very hard decision, but if its what has to be done then it is what has to be done.”
Michalak says they are hoping to find someone to buy the building and lease space back to them and My Sister’s Closet, which will continue to operate with the YWCA wherever they relocate to.
The building at 301 North street has a 6 acre lot in the rear, a kitchen area, a banquet area and office space. Anyone interested in looking at the location can contact Rick Mancuso or Russ Romano.
“Nothing will change, we are just getting out of the building maintenance business. Moving forward we have to deal with the past, its never going away and we have to fix it. We have several other fundraisers planned.”
On June 16th the Holland Land Office will hold their annual hot dog sale and all proceeds will be donated to the YWCA.
On August 24th, A night of racing at Batavia Downs will be held, in September, Rotary will help raise funds through their bike marathon. They also are planning an end of year thank you event for the community in October.
Currently there is a $10,000 Cash Raffle benefit going on. Tickets are $100 each and only 200 are being sold. They can be purchased from board members or at the YWCA at 301 North street during business hours.
The goal of the group now is to build their membership again and they are coming up with different ideas with the help of the National Organization and other YWCA’s in the WNY area.
“Any non profit goes through difficulties these days, ” says Michalak.
“Going forward things are looking better. We want people to know the YWCA is in good shape and we are not going anywhere, we are not closing. Everything is status quo except the three services we are no longer doing.”