HEREABOUTS DIANA BLOWERS
When she read a Dayton Daily News story about the 100+ Dayton Women Who Care, Sandy McHugh was intrigued by the circle of giving concept.
As a result, the Yellow Springs resident started 100 Women Making a Difference in Greene County.
It’s a “relatively new form of philanthropy or at least a form which is experiencing resurgence,” said the former Sandy Holland, a 1964 Fairborn High School graduate.
Members meet periodically, pick a charity and then each writes a personal check for an agreed upon amount.
The Greene County group, which meets from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of January, April, July and October in Greene Memorial Hospital Herman N. Menapace Center, gives $100 per meeting.
Following its first meeting in July, the group presented the Family Violence Prevention Center in Xenia with $4,500. In October, $5,700 was presented to Michael’s House.
Currently 63 women have committed to the group, which has a goal of at least 100 Women Making a Difference in Greene County, McHugh said, noting that its next meeting is Jan. 25.
“I found the idea of a giving circle very appealing because my $100 donation is magnified 100 times and has a much greater impact and 100 percent of my donation goes to the charity,” said the retired Wright-Patterson Air Force Base civilian employee. “Further, all this is possible in just one hour without the overhead of coffee, tea, nametags, table decorations, flowers, program booklets, etc.”
She and her late husband, Ike McHugh, had two daughters, Larisa and Emily, both Fairborn High School graduates.
Larisa, a music therapist at Bethany Lutheran Village, lives in Yellow Springs with her husband, Eric Ball. Emily, a high school math teacher in the Vandalia-Butler School District, lives in Clayton with her husband, Bob Dadey, and their sons, Rylan and Isaac.
McHugh, the daughter of Clarence and Vernia Holland of Fairborn, was widowed in 1993 and married Jerry Sutton in 2000.
She served two terms on Fairborn City Council in the 1980s, and currently serves on the board of the Friends Care nursing home in Yellow Springs and the grant review committee of the Yellow Springs Foundation.
As a Greene County Master Gardener, she helped establish the Greene County Herb Study Group, teaches the herb module of the Master Gardening classes in Greene and Montgomery counties and maintains the winter greenhouse at the Friends Care nursing home.
She is a member of the Ohio Association of Garden Clubs and is the president of the Yellow Springs Friendly Gardeners.