Happy Spring!
A message from WPF President, Cecelia Anderson
I love spring. I love spring cleaning, I love spring break, and I even love springing forward (although not so much on that first Monday morning after).
Spring is a chance to start fresh; a reset. After spending so much time inside during the winter, I look forward to embracing every opportunity to get outside. For me, being outdoors in the warm, sunny air (with sunscreen of course!) is rejuvenating.
We are fortunate to live in one of the best cities in the south for outdoor activities. Greensboro has something for everyone.
Enjoy gardening? Take a stroll through one of the city’s many gardens such as the Tanger Family Bicentennial Gardens or the Greensboro Botanical Gardens.
Want to take a walk or go for a ride? Greensboro is home to over 75 miles of hiking and biking trails and numerous paved greenways. Our parks are the best in the state. You can enjoy the serenity of a wooded hike and then be downtown in 10 minutes to enjoy urban living at Le Bauer Park and one of its many festivals.
I look forward to learning more about things to do in Greensboro at our April lunch meeting with Downtown Greenway Project Manager Dabney Sanders. And, as the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, I hope to see you out and about. Let me know if anyone needs someone to join them on a local trail!
APRIL MEETING …Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Welcome Dabney Sanders Downtown Greenway Project Manager & Board Chair Greensboro Bound Literary Festival
Dabney works as the Project Manager for the Downtown Greenway – a collaborative project of Action Greensboro (Greensboro Chamber of Commerce) and the City of Greensboro.
Dabney grew up in Rhode Island, graduated from Sewanee: The University of the South in 1987 with a major in Natural Resources (Forestry & Geology) and a minor in Botany. She moved to Greensboro in the fall of 1999 with her husband, Walker, when he joined the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro as its President.
In addition to her work, Dabney is involved in a number of volunteer activities including leadership roles with Triad Stage, Eastern Music Festival, the Public Art Advisory Committee for the Piedmont Triad International Airport, and Greensboro Bound, a literary festival held annually in May. She is a former Board Member of the Weatherspoon Art Museum and former Board Chair of Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art.
Dabney was named the 2019 Jim Roach Downtown Person of the Year by Downtown Greensboro.
Dabney enjoys Greensboro and lives happily in Fisher Park with her husband Walker (a Greensboro Rotarian), their dogs Hudson and Scout, and their chickens Flora and Violet.
MEMBERSHIP NEWS
From Meryl Mullane, Membership Committee Chair
From Meryl Mullane, Membership Committee ChairApril brings flowers, showers and getting ready to select the new class of WPF members. Membership applications are due Thursday, June 1st; the Membership Application Form and Sponsor Packet are on the website now. PLEASE USE THE 2023 NEW MEMBER APPLICATION AND SPONSOR PACKET FORMS, NOT THE 2022 FORMS.
Be sure that your prospective new members have attended a WPF luncheon meeting with each of her sponsors, for a total of three meetings, within the twelve months prior to the application. We encourage you to ensure your prospective member will have the sponsorships she needs. You can also find the information in the Policies and Procedures on the website.
• A WPF member is qualified to be a primary sponsor for a new member after she has been an Active member for at least two years.
• A new member must be sponsored by a total of three sponsors — a primary sponsor and two secondary sponsors. The primary sponsor must be an Active or Active Retired member. The two secondary sponsors may be Active, Active Retired or Emeritus members.
• Qualified members may sponsor or co-sponsor NO MORE THAN TWO applicants in a year. The year begins with the application deadline, running from June 1 to May 31.
• Supporting members, members of the Membership Committee, and the WPF President may not serve as primary or secondary sponsors.
If you have any questions, please contact merylmullane@gmail.com or 336-312-3381.
WPF FOUNDATION NEWS
WPF FOUNDATION NEWSFrom Kim Eder, WPF Foundation President
Hello to you all and Happy Spring!! It’s hard to believe Spring is here, and with it comes our annual WPFF Grant Awards. The Grants Committee has been very busy!! The finalists have been presented to the Foundation Board and we have selected the final grant recipients. I want to thank Jennifer Mencarini and all the Grants Committee members for outstanding work to receive and review all the applications for consideration. We were thrilled with the amount and types of applications we received. We have made our final selections and we will announce the grant recipients to you all in at our May Meeting on May 10th! We are very excited about the impact these organizations will be able to make in the lives of women and girls and we can’t wait for you to hear all about them! We look forward to introducing you all to the winners in person in May so please don’t miss it!
Last month I mentioned the opportunity a lot of you may have for requesting matching donations from your employers for the charitable gifts that you make. If you are able to apply for a matching gift, and you want to match a donation you have made or plan to make to our WPF Foundation, please use the following WPFF e-mail if an e-mail verification is requested – wpffoundation@gmail.com. Do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions.
SMALL GROUP DINNERS
A note from Nicole Hayes & Jennifer Mencarini Directors at Large
Sisters! April is here, and we need your help to make the Spring Small Group Dinners in May a success. Right now, we have five gracious hostesses who have offered their homes as dinner locations. To accommodate everyone who may want to attend a gathering, we need YOU. If you are able and willing to host your WPF sisters for a meal, please email Jennifer Mencarini and Nicole Hayes and provide the following information:
- Preferred date(s) and time(s) in the month of May
- Location (your home or specific restaurant)
- How many guests you can accommodate
So that we can get everything loaded into SignUp Genius in time, we need to hear from you as soon as possible. Thank you for your generosity – we look forward to hearing from you!
Special Interest Group Upcoming Events
BOOK CLUB
Tuesday, April 11 @ 7 pm
Home of Pat Price
Book Club members gather at 7 PM and the book discussion begins at 7:30 led by Melanie Tuttle. Please email Pat Price at patprice4639@gmail.com and let her know you are attending.
Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark is the selection for April. A novel exploring the lifetime friendship between two women now both 80. Selected as a 100 Notable Books of 2022. As one of the characters sums it up: “There wasn’t time for withholding, not in this short life when you were only given to know a few people, and to have a true exchange with one or two.” An article in NY times regarding this book: “Pay Attention to These Old Women. You’ll Learn Something.”
SERVICE TO OTHERS
Saturday, April 15, 9 am – 12 pm
Healing Gardens @ Cone Health Cancer Center
2400 West Friendly Avenue, GSO
Service to Others will be working in the Healing Gardens at the Cone Health Cancer Center on the Wesley Long Hospital campus. The gardens provide peace and respite for cancer patients and their families as well as hospital staff and visitors. The Healing Gardens were a gift from the community to the Cancer Center.
Thank you to Mary Magrinat for hosting this month’s service project. Join us for lunch afterwards to better get to know our WPF sisters. RSVP to Jody Susong.
WORKING MOMS
Tuesday, April 18 4-5 pm
Dram & Draught – 300 W. Gate City Blvd
Join us for happy hour at Dram & Draught. Open to moms of all ages! RSVP to Marlee Foster at marlee.foster@conehealth.com
LADIES OF LEISURE
Wednesday, April 19 8:30 am – 3 pm
Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Durham
Join us for an extraordinary visit to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. The beauty of the gardens and tulips will inspire you! RSVP for the event to retired@wpforum.org.
• 8:30 am – Meet at the Whole Foods parking lot, Friendly Center to carpool
• 10:00 am – Docent-led, one-hour walking tour for 10 ladies. Afterward, wander and enjoy the gardens until 12:15 pm.
• 12:30 pm – Lunch reservation at Nasher Café in the Nasher Museum of Art
• 1:30 pm – Head home unless some people want to tour the Nasher Museum of Art
Admission to the Museum is free, and the docent tour of the Garden is $15 per person. Parking is $2 an hour. Please send questions to Maria Hanlin. We hope you will join us for this springtime adventure!
WOMEN OF WALL STREET
Thursday, April 20 @ 6 PM
Lucky 32 – 1421 Westover Terrace
This month’s meeting will be a dinner meeting. Please email Katrina Solomon by April 10th if you plan to attend! We will be outside on the patio unless it rains! See you on April 20th!
BOOKS & ARTS
Container Garden Party – Sunday, April 23 2 pm
Home of Altina Layman
Join WPF sisters Mebane Ham & Altina Layman for a beautiful Sunday afternoon to make your own garden planter with pots, soil, and instructions from Guilford Gardens. Bring your favorite wine or beverage to share. Cost is $45 per member, payable through Venmo to Mebane or by check. RSVP to Mebane Ham at mebane@mebaneham.com. This event is limited to the first 20 sign-ups. Join us!
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DINING OUT
Wednesday, April 26 @ 6:30 pm
Seoul Garden – 5813 W. Market Street, Unit C
Host: Christie Soper RSVP: Amy Meinecke
FINANCIAL DIVAS
Wednesday, April 26, 9-10 am
Weaver Park Center Bldg,
324 W.Wendover Ave, Suite 140
Financial Divas will be meeting to discuss What’s Important to Know About Social Security Planning for Retirement as we continue to explore the hottest topics raised during the Kickoff! Join us if you have questions or are willing to offer your expertise/experience as we gather in the “O” for more knowledge share. We meet every fourth Wednesday monthly from 9-10 am at 324 W. Wendover Avenue, Ste 140 (Weaver Park Center Building at Wendover Ave and Cridland St). For any questions, contact me, Paula McMillan OR 336.337.9507
Special big thank yous and warm hugs to Cecelia Anderson and Melissa Burroughs (new prospective WPF member)! Cecelia brought a lot of great investing tips to the group! Melissa did a wonderful job of facilitating our around-the-room segment! Enjoyed the fellowship with all who came and shared! We will incorporate a fun, subtle timer for more succinct introductions to keep that part on track going forward, since that part was a little lengthier this past meeting than previous ones, so we stay to ending on-time.
BOOKS & ARTS
Thursday, May 11, 8pm
Steven Tanger Performing Arts Center
Come for a night with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra joined by guest artist Branford Marsalis. Choose to join us for the concert or concert and dinner. Learn more about the program here. A group will be going to dinner before the concert abound 5:30 to give us time to eat as a group and walk to the concert. Please RSVP to Anne Smith at anne@smithpartnerswealth.com if you would like to join us so we will have a good seat selection and so I can secure a restaurant reservation. The symphony is discounting tickets for us so please send $40 for each ticket to Anne Smith by check to 2205 Madison Ave Greensboro NC 27403 or Venmo @Anne-Smith-4. Thanks!
LADIES OF LEISURE
Friday, May 19 10-11:30 am and lunch
Trade Street Arts District, Winston-Salem
Join us for a walking tour of Trade St. Arts District, Winston-Salem, with author of the new book, 100 Things to Do in Winston-Salem Before You Die. Local author Tina Firesheets will lead us on a 1.5 hour walking tour featuring the history and heritage of our neighbor city, specifically the Trade St. Arts District, in downtown Winston-Salem. She will include a mix of recreation, arts and culture, dining and retail featuring minority-owned businesses, and event recommendations. Cost for the tour is $20 and includes a copy of the book. After the tour, the group will have lunch at one of her recommended hot spots, Sweet Potatoes. Please RSVP to retired@wpforum.org and advise if you would like to carpool. Click here for book info.
BOOKS & ARTS
Looking Ahead to October
Please join us for a delightful outing to the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee October 6-8. We make the 3+ hour drive to Jonesborough, the oldest town in TN, on Friday and return home on Sunday. Tents are set up around this picturesque town to provide a fun place to hear tales you will laugh and weep over. We will stay in very nearby, Hampton Inn in Greeneville, TN and have dinner together on Friday and Saturday. It is a down-to-earth, entertaining weekend.
Here is a link to storytelling: https://store.storytellingcenter.net/2023-festival-29/ Ticket prices are: Adult $165 for 3 days, $140 for Saturday/Sunday; Senior $150, $130 for Saturday/Sunday. I would not purchase them yet. In fact, you may decide to buy them on site if you like to wait until the last minute. Whatever!
I have reserved 6 rooms at the Hampton, each of which has 2 queen beds. Room prices are for the room. So depending on how much you want to sleep with someone, you could get 4 in a room. Hotel cost is $553.04 for 2 nights. If you share one, that’s $276.52 each or with 4 in a room, just imagine. And of course, you don’t have to stay both nights.
We hope you will decide to join us for a beautiful fall weekend in gorgeous East Tennessee. Or, it could rain. But that’s lovely, too. Please think about this! It’s a wonderful fall outing. Let me hear!
Questions? Contact Beverley Gass at 336-255-3173 or beverleygass@gmail.com