April 2011 President's Message

Yee Ha! What a beautiful night we had for the fundraiser and what a great view of Phoenix. I had many of the executives say how much they enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere, and how they all felt very welcomed to the event. Many thanks to Sondra Robbins of Ernst & Young and the fundraising director and her committee on a great job. We also must thank our Gold Sponsors Arizona Public Service, Chanen Construction & Edward Jones, as well as our Silver Sponsor Southwest Gas. Member firm Arizona Nights and her staff had many high makers for the night as well, what a great crew and much excitement about the variety of games offered. I must say a BIG THANK YOU to the staff from Arizona Nights with their generous donation - we did not know that they were going to split their tip money with us so - Thank You!

The way we raise the money for the things we do is have a 50/50 raffle at our monthly meetings and we have fundraisers. This year we had a ‘Hoe Down' in March and our 2nd Golf Tournament to be held at the Arizona Grand Resort is coming up October 1st. Many of our members give generous donations when a need arises.

What we do with the funds raised; for many years we have been able to award a Jr. In High school student from right here in the Valley with a $5000 scholarship through our EWISP program. Several have also been fortunate to also win an additional scholarship at the corporate level as well. This year's winner is Shannon Beckham from Xavier College Preparatory and we will be presenting to her at this month's meeting. We also will be able to award 2 $3000 scholarships to 2 adult women who are returning to school and have a financial need. Last December we purchased winter coats, socks, underwear and hygiene items for 58 children at Phoenix Inner City Kids. We also provide professional development training for our members by assisting them so that they may attend LCAM in the fall. Each year we also have a literacy event with inner city children and make sure that each child receives at least 2 books and other school materials.

Professional speaker, author and EWI member in Salt Lake City Utah, Lori Giovannoni, wrote in her book The Law of Achievement "Give in order to receive. A high form of achievement is to live a generous life. Achievement brings rewards that are to be shared. Your generosity may not be returned from the same person, but be assured that the universe loves a generous person and will send it back tenfold. A life that is marked by generosity is a life that is filled with purpose, possibility and potential".

Thank You all for your support in the ways of dollars and time. I am looking forward to this month's meeting in which we will award our scholarship and honor all of our executives and announce the winner of our EWIE award to an outstand member firm.

All the best

Jennifer Burns - President

Bell Signs

Quote of the month: "Success means letting go of what used to work"

Joe Calloway