37th Annual Women in Focus I Have a Dream Ball at Monona Terrace: Always There for the Children
(l-r) Edith Hilliard, long-time Women in Focus member, Jodie Pope, chair of the 37th Annual I Have a Dream Ball and Sharyl Kato, president of Women in Focus, Inc.
By Jonathan Gramling
One of the strengths of Women in Focus since it was founded in 1983 has been the continuity of strong leaders guiding the organization as it has sought to support children in their intellectual and personal growth. While Edith Hilliard is one of the senior members of WIF now, she can remember back to the day when she joined the organization one year after it was founded.
“When I came in, I was just a young woman and they bought me in to basically mentor me to learn about community involvement and just getting involved,” Hilliard recalled. “Education was a big deal for me and of course you know for Women in Focus, it’s our major function. To be in a group of women who were really keen on education was just profound for me. And so, I was just really excited to be asked to be a part of Women in Focus and to be around some women who I knew were some substantial women in the community. And to be mentored by them was like, ‘Wow!’ It was the icing on the cake.”
Hilliard was just in awe with the women she was working with.
“Some of the educators who were involved were Virginia Henderson and Audrey Gilliam,” Hilliard recalled. “Gloria Jones-Bey and Connie Smith, a scientist, were also involved. I had remembered people talking about Connie and all of her inventions and patents. I remember thinking, ‘I’m going to be with women like this?’ Again it was kind of overwhelming to be amongst those kinds of women. It was exceptional.”
And that feeling of mentorship and being amongst women with similar values is important to Sharyl Kato, the current WIF president.
“It almost makes me cry when I think about Gloria Jones-Bey and the feisty women,” Kato said with an appreciative smile. “It truly is what to be a part of. You know how you hear that when you are with good people, you feel like a better person? That’s how I felt. And believe me, I’ve been in many groups. To me, that is what you build on each time.”
And that continuity of quality leadership and mentoring continue on into the present. Jodi Pope, the chair of the WIF I Have a Dream Ball, has been a double recipient of that mentorship.
“For me, it is full circle because I was a recipient of a scholarship,” Pope said. “I received the 2012 Annie McClain Scholarship as a returning adult student. I was pursuing an associate’s degree at Madison College. For me it is full circle to be able to help fundraise for something that I was able to benefit from and see it from the beginning of planning to sit with women. I sit at the feet of women. That phrase is something that I think is something for those of us who are just coming in who are maybe the younger crowd to sit and just listen to the wisdom and the experiences both in planning something as huge as this ball, but also in receiving career advice and advice period.”
That continuity also led WIF to continue to provide service to youth no matter what was going on around them. Even the COVID-19 pandemic couldn’t stop WIF from pursuing its mission.
“We pivoted with our reading projects too,” Kato said about the continued relationship WIF has had with the YWCA. “The YWCA was definitely closing. Face-to-face contact might not have been there. However, we would do some things outside at the Madison Children’s Museum. But we also decided to drop off the books. We had themes and continued on. We couldn’t get the dinners together that we usually had and all of the other face-to-face activities. But we were ab le to drop off the books and themes and activities.”
And as things began to open up, WIF went right with what the pandemic allowed to happen.
“Mt. Zion also had a Trunk or Treat,” Pope said. “We participated in that for the past two years. Trunk or Treat is where Mt. Zion and their ministries use the parking lot and invite the community to come over. It’s a Saturday close to Halloween. You decorate your trunk or a vehicle and you give away something. All of their ministries participate and then our Literacy Committee did so as well. Last year, Gloria Reyes brought over their Briarpatch van. We gave away hundreds of books. And then this year, we gave away hundreds of books to community members.”
One of the main factors that has contributed to WIF’s sustained provision of quality service is the strong partnerships that it has developed over the years.
“I think one of the strengths — Edith was instrumental in this — of WIF is that we have always had community partners,” Kato said. “Even having the little libraries and having the Goodman Center’s kids build those was important. Rainbow has one. There are lots of them throughout the community for books that are just so creative. And it supports other groups like The Links, Mt. Zion and others. And we did that with the Black attorneys. Every year, that group purchases all of the Halloween costumes for the kids at the Y. And then we have a party. There are lots of things that we have done throughout that really include a lot of other organizations.”
Through easy times and hard times, WIF has been guided by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy.
“For me, lots of people say this, but never before, we need this now more than ever,” Kato said. “When we talk about perseverance, it’s a no-brainer. That’s when you remember Martin Luther King’s words about how we are going to respond to some of these unbelievable things. And it is to meet that with equal fight, but in a good way. And that’s the difference that besides perseverance, it is that content of character and compassion and social justice. That is the Eye on the Prize. And to me, that is even more needed now.”
And when COVID-19 hit, WIF continued on undeterred with its signature I Have a Dream Ball in a virtual setting.
“I was really nervous a couple of years ago when COVID-19 hit and I was like, ‘This is really going to be difficult for Women in Focus,’” Hilliard said. “This is something that we have never done before, to have a virtual ball, to invite people in virtually. How is this going to work?’ But we were so blessed because we had young members like Jodie who knew things that we couldn’t do, the work with the computers and everything and to do the silent auctions and all of the things that you needed to do there. We old folks didn’t know how to do that. I’m like, ‘Are we going to make enough money to give scholarships at all?’ And we outdid ourselves for two years in a row. I was just blown away by that.”
Through the I Have a Dream Ball, WIF has had a growing impact through its scholarship program. Even when the ball was virtual, the growth and impact continued on.
“I think 379-380 scholarships have been given out by Women in Focus,” Pope said. “That’s huge, the amount of money, over a half million dollars. As Sharyl mentioned, we’re already at the point, just with sponsorships, to be able to give more scholarships. There are conversations about what does Women in Focus do? Do we continue to give out more $2,500 scholarships? Do we look at giving out larger scholarships?”
The 37th Annual I Have a Dream Ball returns to in-person again this year on Saturday, January 14 at Monona Terrace.
“We’ll have Matthew Braunginn as our speaker,” Pope said. “He is a former recipient of our scholarship. DJ Ace, Vanessa McDowell, is also a former recipient of one of our scholarships. I am a former recipient. We’ve invited some other former awardees. And we will have a silent auction. We are excited about that. We’ll have a number of auction items available for our attendees. Our tickets are already over half sold. We’re excited about that. We’re just excited to come back together and create community. And we’re hoping for some decent weather. People can visit our website at www.womeninfocusmadison.org to purchase tickets or make a donation. You can register for the silent auction there. You may not be printed in our book, but you can still buy a table.”
For Women in Focus, it has always been about the children.
“When I look at Women in Focus, when we have our ball or scholarship reception, we always have student recipients come back,” Hilliard said. “At the ball, we always have a recipient. At the scholarship reception, we always have a recipient. We still keep in contact with a lot of our recipients to see where they are going. If you notice on Facebook, almost every week there is another person who received a scholarship from Women in Focus and they have been highlighted. To be able to keep that going, I think is absolutely phenomenal.”
And through their service, Women in Focus has helped yet another generation come into their own.
For tickets, participation in the virtual silent auction or to make a donation, visit www.womeninfocusmadison.org
