SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON

DWE Just received word back from Southern California Edison regarding our grant application for $15,000 to help fund for our East Valley clinics.  SCE has awarded us $2,000 and we should be getting the check soon.  We’re of course very grateful for the grant and it will help us with our Coachella and Thermal clinics.  We’ll try again for more money next year.

2011 Funding

We have begun drafting funding requests for 2011 and, hopefully, we will be able to get enough money to do the 12 clinics that we have scheduled.  Our first grant request has gone out to the Aqua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.  We will also be asking the other local tribes to help us.  If any of you belong to a fund raising organization, and would like to do a fundraiser for DWE, we would be most appreciative.
 Remember every $90 that you raise will give a woman a mammogram!

(Note that the Desert Sun had two articles about DWE receiving $100,000 from the Desert Healthcare District.  Yes, we did receive that money but it was funding that will end come this December 2010.  The article was supposed to be about how that money helped us complete our 2000th mammogram and it certainly did.  I read the press release before it went to the Desert Sun and it was clear—unfortunately something happened, and it was rewritten by staff.  We will, of course, be asking for 2011 help from the District but whether or not we get it remains to be seen.  Keep your fingers crossed.)

If anyone has any ideas for funding that may be available to us, please don't be shy and call me (760-323-2622) or email me at bbarrett92262@aol.com.   Your tax-deductible donation will also be much appreciated.  You can use pay pal on our website desertwomenforequality.com or send a donation to our office:  Desert Women for Equality, 555 S. Sunrise Way, Suite 209, Palm Springs, CA 92264.

2011 CLINIC SCHEDULE

Our Board has approved our 2010 clinic schedules.  There will be 12 clinics in 2011 if we can get them funded--seven West Valley clinics and five East Valley clinics.  We estimate that we will give 1,200 mammograms in 2011.

VOLUNTEERS

At every clinic at least four volunteers are there helping women check-in, answering their questions and guiding them through the process. Working a clinic is, of course, tiring but it is an extremely rewarding experience.  And then there are the appointment volunteers in our office who work four- hour shifts.  Some of them only work one or two days a month and some have a weekly shift.  With the increase in mammograms (up 30 percent from last year) we need more volunteers. I promise you that you won't regret volunteering--you really will be saving women's lives!

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THE BEGINNINGS OF DWE

A couple of people have asked me how DWE actually began.  They had heard different stories from a few people and were curious about the beginning.  Just to be perfectly clear—no one or two people founded DWE.
The beginning as well as the middle was a culmination of great minds and generous spirits.  Twenty lesbians got together and met for several months trying to figure out how they could help our community.  The energetic (that is putting it mildly) group was facilitated by Lynne Worley and eventually we drafted a mission statement and gave our group a name—Desert Women for Equality.  I was elected the founding President with Sly Zelnys the founding Vice-President.

We began as a politically-minded group and were touted as the Best Political Organization by Stonewall Democrats during our first year of existence.  Then, as is the case sometimes in many organizations, some of us wanted to be more philanthropic and some wanted to be more political.

I personally wanted to bring a free mammogram program to Coachella Valley and set out to see if there was any mobile mammography group available to help us.  We found Physician Diagnostic Imaging (a Laguna based- mobile mammography group owned by two women) and entered into a contract with them to provide services to Coachella Valley women.

Doctors and/or clinics also had to be found to help see women whose screening mammograms indicated that they needed further testing.  Dr. Christopher Flores of Cathedral City and Dr. Michael Jardula (now on our Board) volunteered.  We partnered with the Desert Pride Center—their volunteers trained by Sharon Doty (Co-Chair of our Mammogram Committee) made our first appointments and our first clinic was held at the Pride Center in June 2006 with 34 women getting a mammogram.

The political women left DWE to join and found other organizations in our valley and the rest of us stayed and worked on the “We Care” Free Mammogram Program.  So, those 20 women were the seeds and wherever they are today they need to be proud of what has happened due to their generosity of spirit and dedication to making our world a better place to live. 

“EMAILING” OF COLUMN

If you get this column by email, pass it on.  Encourage one of your friends or relatives to join us and if they are uninsured/underinsured, over 40 and need a mammogram, please have them call to make an appointment.  Send them to www.desertwomenforequality.com to see our clinic schedule

Tax Deductible Donations

Send your checks to:
Desert Women for Equality
555 S. Sunrise Way, Suite 209
Palm Springs, CA 92264.
Every dollar counts!

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