United Way MV's Women United Virtual Celebration
United Way of the Mohawk Valley (United Way MV) knows how important women are to our organization and our community (you can meet many of our female staff members here!), which is why it has been our goal for the past four years to recognize the accomplishments women have made through our Women United event, formally known as 100 Women Who Care. Our Women United event celebrates women and all that they do while focusing on women’s health and wellness. The event features live entertainment, vendors, healthy foods, and raffles to win exciting prizes. All proceeds go towards funding another United Way MV initiative, R4K (Ready for Kindergarten), which focuses on early childhood education and helping young children prepare for school, setting them up for success.
This year, the COVID-19 pandemic, unfortunately, forced us to cancel the beloved event, but that just means it has given us more time to plan an even better in-person celebration for next year! We simply could not let the year go by with this month and annual event unnoticed, so we implemented a virtual celebration to celebrate women instead.
Every Tuesday throughout March, we created an event or giveaway that women could take part in. On March 2nd, registered dietician Hayley Mielnicki of Health by Hayl offered her knowledge of cooking by creating a virtual cooking demonstration, where she made veggie-packed turkey chili and delicious three-ingredient peanut butter cookies.
On March 9th, women could partake in a relaxing and restorative virtual yoga class led by Rebecca Spataro of Rebel Roots Yoga. This event was aimed at teaching women the importance of relaxation and how they can benefit from using yoga as an outlet for stress relief. Continuing with the yoga theme, on March 16th, we held a Facebook contest where one lucky winner could receive a yoga giveaway, featuring a yoga mat, yoga blocks, and a free online session with Rebecca. The winner of this giveaway was Shannon Holmes.
Finally, on March 23rd, women could enter for their chance to win a Women’s History Month book package, with the hopes of educating people about the importance of women’s history and how it should be more widely celebrated. The lucky winner of the book package was Kathi Kopytowski.
As bummed as we were to cancel our in-person event (you can view archived pictures here), we were just as excited to organize some virtual events that we felt did Women’s History Month justice. If you missed out on these events, don’t worry! The cooking demonstration and virtual yoga class are located on our Instagram page, @unitedwaymv, and our Facebook page for you to check out whenever you would like!
While Women’s History Month has concluded, we are working on new projects and activities for our Women United event that will hopefully be taking place in-person in 2022. Keep an eye out on our website and our social media pages for more information regarding one of our most popular events!
