Driving rain and an early start time did not deter 600 people who arrived at Crest Hollow Country Club recently to celebrate the Women’s Fund of Long Island’s 20th year and to honor four exceptional women.
The breakfast started with a meet and greet and a chance to showcase Women’s Fund contest winner Patti Hogarty, designer of “Women as Bamboo.” Inspired by her neighbor’s bamboo, she entered the contest drawing a design of the bamboo, which Ambalu Jewelers of Roslyn then turned into various pendants of which 40-percent of the profits would go to WFLI. Hogarty wrote a short essay comparing women to bamboo in that they are strong and can weather difficult storms, yet remain graceful and continue to grow sending out new shoots.
Executive Director Stacey Scarpone discussed the importance of the event.
“This is our 20th anniversary of women achiever’s breakfast and it is also our 20th anniversary of grant making to grassroots organizations across Long Island that impact the lives of women and girls,” said Scarpone. “We have amazing honorees, Dr. Jennifer Shaer a pediatrician who launched the first breast feeding medical center in Riverhead and has launched it into 27 Allied Pediatric Groups. Sarah Kate Ellis is the president of GLAAD who is an advocate of LGBT issues and who puts LGBT women at the forefront, making sure that their voices are being heard. We have two young women leaders, Gabrielle Ramirez and Tazim Merchant who are doing such extraordinary things.”
Sea Cliff’s Sarah Kate Ellis addressed the audience and discussed how her mother always taught her that “a woman’s place was the corner office of the oval office.” She also credited her dad with giving her a good business sense. She thanked her “Sea Cliff posse,” who helps out with her children when she and her wife Kristen Ellis-Henderson, of Antigone Rising, who performed at the event, are traveling.
Ellis, an award-winning media executive who helped grow Real Simple into Time Inc.’s most respected and successful magazines was thrilled to be recognized.
“It was such an honor to be called a woman achiever. You don’t really stop and pause in your career to think about the milestones you hit because you just keep doing and working and building,” she said. “It’s a real reflection point for me.”
Two extraordinary high schools students, Tazim Merchant, of Locust Valley High School, and Gabrielle Ramirez, of Walt Whitman High School in Huntington, received the young women leader award and were each awarded a check for $1,000 from the United Way Fund to continue their community service.
Merchant, who is 16 but had the poise and maturity of a college student, spoke of her dreams to become a pediatric cardiologist. She co-authored two abstracts and presented one of them at an international cardiology conference in New Orleans. She currently recruits and analyzes data for a research study focusing on the development of a non-invasive measure of heart wall function at St. Francis Hospital.
“I was very thankful and blessed for this opportunity, for this award, and for the constant support I receive from my parents, my family, my school,” she said. “I want to take this award as an opportunity as a step in my journey to inspire others and to be able to be the change I want to see in the world.”
Ramirez believes that leaders are one-third born and two thirds made. Leaders like Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who defy society’s expectations of Latina women, inspire her. Ramirez is very active in her school in leadership roles and devotes her free time to service and volunteering. This past June, she recorded 100 hours of volunteer service at Huntington Hospital and also interns at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s DNA learning center. She, along with her sister Epiphany, started Eye Partners (EPI), which collects unwanted eyeglasses island wide and gives them to organizations to distribute them to people in need. Ramirez hopes to become an ophthalmologist.
“I am very honored about this award and grateful for all of the opportunities I received and I appreciate the time my parents put into this and my sister and their support,” she said.
Both young women received standing ovations for their inspiring speeches. On hand to congratulate them was Sea Cliff Mayor Bruce Kennedy who shared his thoughts.
“I think the event was wonderful and inspiring,” he said. “The young ladies were particularly moving and it just goes to show what a society of equality and pluralism can do.”
Each honoree received a stone bowl with their name engraved and the words patience, strength, power and perseverance etched inside. The creator of the award Magee Tanchuck of North Shore Architectural Stone located in Glen Head described the history of the bowls.
“The awards are made of Indiana limestone from the Martha Washington Hotel,” she said. “They are the actual centers of the columns that held up the front entrance of the hotel, which is now being restored and will be part of the Chelsey Hotel. I thought that this was so symbolic that they were from a women’s hotel and held up the entrance because as women we hold each other up every day.”
To learn more about the Women’s Fund of Long Island visit www.womensfundli.org.
