Venise Stuart, Highland Park resident and president of Les Femmes du Monde, announced Melissa A. Lewis, Lake Highland resident and Mari Epperson, north Dallas resident, as chairs of the 2018 Woman of the Year gala dinner which will be held on Wednesday, October 24th at the Dallas Country Club. The Woman of the Year honoree will be revealed at the Announcement party on Monday, April 23rd,
Graciously hosted by Donna Arp Weitzman in her lovely Highland Park home, the Les Femmes du Monde Spring Membership Tea also included a very special surprise: Donna gave a brief and informative presentation highlighting her newest book, The Wind Blew Innocent: A Memoir and presented a table full of complimentary copies, which were taken up immediately. Donna is the author of two other books, Cinderella Has Cellulite: And Other Musings from A Last Wife and Sex and the Siren: Tales of a Later Dater.
Venise thanked former Les Femmes du Monde president, Alyce Heinrich, for a her hard work on a most beautiful flower arrangement in the formal dining room and a table complete with crustless tea sandwiches and delectable dessert treats.
She also related a brief history of Les Femmes du Monde for the new members, saying that funds raised go towards children’s education and health. Les Femmes du Monde was founded in 1961 as a fundraising committee on behalf of the Dallas Council on World Affairs, now the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth. In 1987, Les Femmes became its own nonprofit organization. In 1998, The Child Life Program at Children’s HealthSM Children’s Medical Center was added as a second beneficiary. Since its inception in 1961 Les Femmes du Monde has given over $850,000 to Children’s Health and $2 million to the World Affairs Council.
Martha Cox, president-elect, made remarks on behalf of Kyra Barnett from Children’s Health and Children’s Medical Center, saying that Les Femmes makes an incredible impact on the psychosocial needs of the patients and families through the Child Life program. Some of those services include keeping the playrooms open (where the patients get to be kids), providing medical play to help the patients/siblings better understand the procedure they are going to undergo, providing diagnosis specific weekend and weeklong summer camps so that the patients don’t miss out on this critical experience, providing tools like Ipads to help explain procedures; wii’s for entertainment and prize closet items.
Whitney Reilly from the World Affairs Council said The Global Young Leaders Program at the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth seeks to educate students and teachers on how international events affect their lives, their communities, and their country. The goal is to empower students to become effective, active global citizens and leaders in the community. Celebrating its 14th anniversary in 2018, this program has impacted more than 1 million students and trained more than 8,000 teachers since its inception in 2004.
Membership in Les Femmes du Monde is open to the public and includes benefits such as exclusive events in private homes, the Woman of the Year gala dinner and more. For details and updates, visit the website at www.lesfemmesdumonde.org
Photos by Dana Driensky