Letters: 100+ women making a big difference; Of saints and sinners

100+ women making a big difference

I didn’t have to wear gala attire, sell items or bid in a silent auction, I simply wrote a check for $100 and 99 other women matched my donation. That is how the members of 100+ Women Who Care – Centre County (100+WWC-CC) achieved their latest and largest Impact Award — $10,000 to the Dyslexia Reading Center of Central PA.

I am a member of 100+WWC-CC and am immensely proud of this amazing group of women and how we use the power of collective giving to raise substantial funds for nonprofit organizations serving our community. Including this recent award of $10,000 to the Dyslexia Reading Center, 100+WWC-CC has contributed over $180,000 to more than 30 Centre County charities.

100+ Women Who Care – Centre County meets four times a year for one hour. At each meeting we learn about three local charities, vote for one, and then every member donates $100 to the organization receiving the most votes. The simplicity, efficiency and powerful impact are what makes this philanthropy so effective. Networking with other women and making a positive difference in our community is what makes it rewarding and fun.

The next meeting of 100+WWC-CC is on Monday, May 2 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Please consider joining me at this (virtual) meeting to experience the fun first-hand and, if you decide to become a member, help select our next award recipient. For more information, send an email expressing your interest to 100wwc.cc@gmail.com or visit our Facebook page @100women.centre.

Of saints and sinners

“Jesus is my Savior. Trump is My President”

A bumper sticker.

The historical figure ...

Healed the sick

Fed the poor

Saved the children

And threw the money-lenders out of the temple.

And the other?

The orange authoritarian in the rarified golden fortress ...

As the bombs fall

And the children cry

And the men and women

And the elderly

And the soldiers

Starve. Suffer. And die.

He holds court and threatens the morally weak, endorsing the preternaturally stupid.

He praises the image of his emasculated facsimile in the Kremlin.

“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said:

‘This is genius.’ ” (Feb. 22, 2022, Newsweek)

And what of the Foxed and the complicit GOP?

Fancying themselves the real men, deploying historically fascist propaganda.

Embracing the chaos in podcasts and broadcasts

Embellishing their own mendacity

They mock, they hate

They disenfranchise.

They are the new witch hunters

with their bibles and their war chests

Casting their dull wits on earnest teachers and children’s literature

And their prurient gazes upon women’s bodies.

They are

Intellectually and spiritually impotent

Soulless and intentional facsimiles

Of the devils they have chosen to admire.

Choral Society’s ‘Grand Return’

Like many organizations the State College Choral Society came to a screeching halt in March of 2020. Now we are about to present our Grand Return Spring Concert on Sunday, May 1, 7:30 p.m., at the Penn State Recital Hall. We’ll be doing works and styles from Georg Philipp Telemann to Eric Whitacre. Oh, never heard of Whitacre? Go to our website for a link to buy tickets and you can hear a beautiful lullaby of his. Choral Society members who are not currently singing, please come to the concert to hear what we are doing (you will probably recognize many of the pieces), then seriously consider rejoining. We will be doing the Mozart Requiem with the PCO in September and really need more singers. We hope to see lots of folks on the 1st.

This story was originally published April 28, 2022 at 6:00 AM.