Since 2014, the Fabulous 50 Women’s Giving Circle has awarded more than $46,000 to six local groups.
The Brown County Enrichment for Teens Association Inc. was chosen to receive $10,000 for 2016.
Read more about BETA here.
Fabulous 50 women each give $200 per year to the giving circle. Each donor writes a cause she would like to support on a slip of paper, and three slips are drawn from a basket to be contenders for that year’s donations. Then, members make pitches to the group about why their nominee is deserving.
For this drawing, the finalists were BETA, the Birth to Five Initiative and the Salt Creek Trail.
BETA board President Clara Stanley stood in front of more than 50 women — and a few men — Feb. 3 to lobby the group for its support.
“We see their value. They’re just precious children,” Stanley said.
“I see they are innocent. They are no different from the cutie-cutie toddler and preschooler and elementary school (students). They are just on the path of growth. What do they need? They need guides. They need care. They need somebody to pat their back and say, ‘It’s OK. It’s OK. You can do it.’”
The Birth to Five Initiative — which would help fund preschool and early childhood education — received $3,000 in second place.
In 2014, Access Brown County received $9,000 from the Fab 50 group. The money was matched by the Indiana Department of Transportation and helped to sustain the bus service for another year.
Silver Linings women’s shelter received a $9,000 gift from the women’s giving circle in 2015, and $2,021 went to Project Helping Hands to help build a new home for Mother’s Cupboard and Habitat for Humanity.
The group also donated 10 percent of its money to an endowment at the Brown County Community Foundation.
The gift came at a good time for BETA. The teen center moved into a new location above the Fallen Leaf Bookstore at the beginning of 2017. With the move came a bathroom — something the previous building didn’t have — but also a 30-percent increase in rent, said Cindy Steele, one of the founders of BETA.
