There’s just something about the number “One Hundred”

For decades women have come to the aid of neighbors in need. They have baked pies and cookies, prepared casseroles, and shoveled sidewalks.

To help larger groups, they have arranged and provided goodies for bake sales, conducted soup kitchens, contributed to craft fairs, collected, and sold gently used items, and completed many other cooperative tasks.

They still do all those things, but there are growing groups of women across the country, including here in the Estes Park area, who have found one more way to give to their neighbors all while forming friendships and serving the communities where they live as active members of a different variety of organization: One Hundred Women Who Care – Estes Park.

This is a group whose members make sure they attend each meeting with checkbooks readily at hand because they know that at the end of the evening they’ll walk away with $100 less in their bank account, but feeling pleased they have contributed a valuable resource to a non-profit organization stretched to its limit in trying to reach its goals in serving others.

In Estes Park, the group gathers three times a year. The locations of the meetings rotate to various public dining rooms in the area. When members arrive, those wanting to promote a specific giving opportunity submit their concept by writing a short note on a 3×5 card and then dropping it into an old wooden sewing box. Steering committee members along with Collison, Mary Liz Adair, Sue McDermott, and Lisa Zahn make sure the box is filled, and everyone is comfortably settled before the action starts.

Once members have gathered, three people are selected to draw cards from the box, and the authors of those cards tell the gathered group about the organization needing assistance. After presentations are complete, everyone votes to select one recipient from the three options they learned about. Those in attendance write their checks on the spot; those who could not make the meeting are notified the next day who the recipient is, and within about a week checks from every member of the organization are in hand and ready for distribution.

In just three years from the time when the Estes Park group first began gathering, nearly $89,000 has been delivered to organizations serving Estes Park’s seniors, the underprivileged, those needing shelter, and youth in the community.

Started nationally 18 years ago by a Michigan woman whose mission was to raise money to purchase baby cribs quickly for local charities, the group she brought together raised $10,000 in just one hour. Janet Collison brought the idea to Estes Park from Marshalltown, Iowa when she moved here.

“When we started in August 2021, we likely had three people at the first meeting,” said Mary Liz Adair, one of the four Estes Park area steering committee members. Today 90 women have committed to donating $300 per year in $100 increments. But just because the organization’s name says “One Hundred,” this group has no intention of having to stop membership growth there.

While many philanthropic organizations are finding it difficult to maintain the membership rosters, this is one group that has not had a difficult time building its affiliations.

“Truly, if we have 150 that’s wonderful,” Adair said. “The more the merrier. Because, of course, when everybody gives $100 that means more and more in the coffers for the nonprofit.” And she does not believe there ever will be a time when the list of nonprofits needing support will dwindle. “The needs are limitless,” she said.

The steering committee says there is an infectious fun element around getting together, and the gatherings do not last very long. Meetings start at 5 p.m. and end at 6 p.m. Those who come can stay for dinner, but that is not required. In Estes Park, there are no bylaws, there are no officers. And there’s no central One Hundred Women bank account.

As all recipients are 501(c)3 not-for-profit organizations, checks are written to the winning organization and mailed to the One Hundred Women Who Care individual tracking the donations and collecting the checks. All the checks are delivered directly to the recipient group.

The next meeting of the group is Thursday, Sept. 19 at 5 p.m. at the Seven Keys Lodge off Colo. Hwy. 7 near Lily Lake, 4900 S. Highway 7. Those wanting to attend the meeting need to email Janet Collison at janet.collison@gmail.com.