Independence Day
Women's Community Fund now stands on its own; move comes after most successful Aqua Girl to date
By LOANN HALDEN

Aqua Girl 2004 set new records for attendance and revenues; but even more significantly, it heralded the arrival of a local women's community ready to stand on its own. The Women's Community Fund, a not-for-profit, grant-making organization, will continue forward with the mission established by the Women's Fund of the Gay and Lesbian Foundation of South Florida.

For the first time, the volunteer group that drives the Fund produced Aqua Girl without staff assistance from the Foundation. The positive buzz surrounding the series of events catapulted them to a net of $50,000 - up from $36,000 last year. More than 4,000 tickets were sold.

On the heels of this success story, the WCF announced its new name and its independence. The Fund was created under the umbrella of the GLFSF - which gave a matching grant for its launch - to provide financial support to programs that educate and empower the lesbian, bisexual and transgender women's community. That will continue through the efforts of the WCF's all-volunteer committee, which meets monthly: Chair Alicia Apfel, Chair-elect Alison Burgos, Elizabeth Schwartz, Martha Sternberg, Vivian Lamadrid, Alyse McGowan, and Robin Schwartz.

"We have been successful in what the overall mission was, which was to start to develop leadership in the women's community," said Apfel, who has chaired the fund since its inception. "Over the years of doing Aqua Girl, there has been a core group of women who have developed the leadership and organizational skills that are necessary to help a nonprofit. We've evolved to that level. It made sense at this time to go on our own."

"If it wasn't for the Foundation, we couldn't have begun the good work we've been doing and if it wasn't for these women that have really come to the fore to step into leadership roles, we wouldn't feel that we'd be able to go right now," Elizabeth Schwartz added. "That's part of the excitement of where we're at. This is amazing because we're able to take this and focus on it and have it be a real centerpiece in our community."

Although Aqua Girl is a social creation, it all comes back to the cause. The event committee is volunteer-run, and as Apfel points out, it's the one time a year when all the promoters and bar owners who target the women's community work gratis to benefit the WCF. To date, the Fund has issued more than $37,000 in grants to groups such as Pridelines Youth Services, Sister Speak, The Mautner Project (women's health initiative), Stonewall Library and Archives and the Oni Women's Conference. Another round of grants will be disbursed in September.

"We're trying to create a women's community and a sense of coherence across the diversity in our community and to encourage women to play leadership roles. Whether it's a health-related issue or the struggles that lesbian parents go through, there are a range of things that are needs out there that no one is even discussing," said Apfel.

"I actually think there's an incredibly talented untapped resource of women in this community that have the professional experience and the income to support things and the time to nurture other women and teach them how to be leaders and how to put together a project and take on initiatives. Because there hasn't been an entity that they thought they had ownership of and that truly operated in a way that they felt comfortable with, that never came to the surface, but I know it's there. If we create a women's fund that they respect, I believe they will start to embrace the mission and make it their own."
All plans for the WCF are with an eye on the long haul. The money is carefully managed to ensure the Fund has a cushion to produce Aqua Girl and issue grants even if there's a year where fund raising takes a downturn, Apfel said. The committee also wants to build the number of groups who are seeking grants, said Schwartz.

"It's about getting the word out there," she said. "We're trying to incubate groups that would be good grant applicants to foster community."

Look for the WCF to expand its roster of activities over time - to a point. Right now, the committee is looking at producing an event quarterly. Next up is a fall reception to honor the latest round of grant recipients.

"It really behooves us to do other events throughout the year not only for visibility for the Women's Community Fund, but also because a lot of women don't realize that there are events at Aqua Girl for them," Schwartz said. "For example, an evening of theater will bring in a different kind of crowd than women who don't even think about looking into the events of Aqua Girl and just think of it as a dance party. It allows us to explain to them that we have a comedy night and we have a brunch and tea dance and golf tournament and other stuff they might like. It allows us to appeal to a broader range."

"We apply the same philosophy that we applied to Aqua Girl these past few years," Apfel said. "Aqua Girl the first year was a true investment in doing those events, to slowly but surely making money over the last four years. We've grown them slowly so we had every opportunity to fine-tune the parties, make it a great production value, make it enjoyable, so it's infused with the values of the women's fund, which is all about community.

"It's not an organization that plans on being a service organization. It's modeled after being a community foundation; its mission is to develop community while it supports initiatives."

And the Foundation that gave rise to the WCF offers its best wishes as the women go their own way.

"We're really, really proud of the fact that the Foundation has been able to incubate this organization so that it can now stand on its own," said Pete Halpern, GLFSF interim executive director. "It's a great, great thing and I think the community should be proud of it."

Grant proposals for the next cycle of disbursements from the Women's Community Fund are due Nov. 16.

For more information, call (945)288-8691.
(reprint courtesy of TWN)