It’s seems fitting that as the Town of Westlock continues to celebrate its 100th year of existence that a group of 100 women (well, technically 90 for the time being) has emerged to give a much-needed boost to local non-profit groups.
Last Wednesday night 100 Women Who Care — Westlock handed out its first $9,000 donation to the Westlock and District Food Bank. You can read more about them on Pages 1 and 3 of this week’s Westlock News, but here’s the Coles Notes version.
Quarterly, the 100 women will gather and each will bring a $100 cheque. Community groups then get five minutes each to pitch their cause and at the end the night the group will vote on who gets the dough. It’s not a new idea, as there are groups like this around North America and one just to south of us in Edmonton called 100 Men YEG - 100 Men Who Give a Damn! But it’s new to Westlock and we’re glad to see it take root.
There’s no shortage of worthwhile causes in our area and thankfully many service clubs and fundraising groups.
But there’s one thing that struck us as we combed back over the pages of the News of the last few years and saw successful groups like the Soul Sisters and the Friends of the Food Bank raising big dollars for their respective causes.
It’s a lack of Y chromosomes leading the charge … or, if you’re not up on genetics, a lack of men.
Granted the Westlock Rotary Club, which recently turned over a $100,000 cheque to the town for the Rotary Trail and handi-bus, is primarily composed of men — although the recently wrapped dinner theatre from which those dollars come counts as many women as it does men. And we can’t forget about the Elks or Legion, whose memberships are split. And it’s not like the fellas haven’t been invited or dug out their wallets at the Soul Sisters’ Nelly’s Project events over the past three Septembers.
Far from it.
That said, maybe it’s time for a 100 Men in Westlock Who Care. We know there’s way more than 100 guys who give a damn and are willing to put their money where their mouth is.
We’re not advocating a gender war, but maybe a good-natured competition that at the end of the day will be a win-win for Westlock. How does that old song go … anything you can do, I can do better.
