WELCOME

Remarks by Tania Schwartz, President of the Board, Power of the Purse

Good evening and welcome to the 2006 inaugural Power of the Purse Auction for Women, an annual signature event of The Women’s Fund of El Paso. My name is Tania Schwartz and I am the President of The Women’s Fund of El Paso. We are so happy to see you have made a special effort in being here tonight to help us kick off a new kind of fun in philanthropy for women! 100% of tonight’s proceeds will benefit scholarships for higher education and leadership development for low-and moderate-income single mothers in El Paso. 100% of the proceeds raised tonight will be matched by the El Paso Empowerment Zone up to $25,000. That is a huge contribution toward the $50,000 in grants we would like to make to women this year. Thank you, Phyllis Rawley and your board, for your generosity. We aim to make an impact in raising El Paso women’s educational level and earning potential by creating a new network of support for women. Our interactive website designed by Rockett Advertising and Stanton Street Technology Group will be unveiled this evening. It is a very exciting solution toward bringing women together, supporting women in business, and connecting women to the resources that can improve their lives. I want to recognize our founding board members listed in the brochure given to you tonight and thank each and every one of them for all of their hard work in establishing this new organization. I especially want to thank Sudy Todd, Tracy Yellen, Kathy Staudt and Amy Sanders for staying the course and providing me with their excellent leadership and contributions in time over the past five years. This could not have been done without you.

I bet each person in this room can think of someone you know and love who has taken on that enormous challenge of raising a child alone. We all know this is a very tough job, especially when there is more than one child, regardless of your income level or educational background. Tonight I would like to recognize my own mother who at 38 years old found herself on her own with three children to support. She returned to school full time, earned her teaching credentials, worked full time, and somehow made ends meet, despite the many challenges she had in finding access to the resources she needed at that time. That was 28 years ago. And 28 years ago, that same summer when my life changed so drastically, I met a beautiful woman named Rita Segal, now Rita Silverman, who was the mother of a friend of mine named Sharon Segal. Rita made an impression on me then and still does today. Rita has a different story, but, too became a single mom with three children in her care that same summer – the summer of 1978. Since then, Rita and Rita’s three daughters have become significant business women. We would be remiss tonight not to give special recognition for your willingness, Rita, to get involved in the name of benefiting single mothers. Her daughters, now living in California, learned business skills both from their mother and father, Fred Segal. Fred Segal revolutionized the retail industry for women, and now has retail space covering 58,000 square feet in Santa Monica. We truly appreciate Sharon Segal at Fred Segal’s support for an El Paso cause. Thank you, Sharon, for flying in from Malibu to be here tonight with us in support of this new effort to make a difference in the nearly 40,000 single mothers living in El Paso whom we have identified through our research. Rita and Sharon, without your hard work and connections, we would not have the celebrity bags we have here tonight. We truly appreciate your willingness to invest your time and talents toward making a difference for El Paso’s women. And, Rita’s contribution does not stop there. She brought in her step daughter who also takes this cause to heart. Gina Silverman has been an amazing asset and contributor to The Power of the Purse event. Thank you so much, Gina, for your boundless energy and enthusiasm in sponsoring the article with El Paso Inside & Out Magazine that will be featured this summer and for putting together tonight’s mystery boxes. The Mystery Boxes have items valued anywhere from $150 to $350 and each will appeal to most everyone here! You may buy a raffle ticket from one of our volunteers wearing a black apron for $5.00 or receive 5 tickets for $20.00. Winners will be announced this evening.

I also want to personally thank, Claudia Martinez, who took a special interest in this event and called upon her sister Karla Martinez of the New York Times and Vogue for support. Karla personally secured the signed book and purse from Carolina Herrera herself, a purse from J. P. Tod’s and Coach. Thank you, Claudia, and give our best to Karla who could not join us this evening as she is on a shoot in Paris.

And before we recognize our Major Sponsor, I would like to thank my dear friend, Monica Henschel of the El Paso Chile Company for helping to sponsor tonight’s event. What you all have done to move mountains for us is an overwhelming show of support. And, when I say mountains, I really mean mountains and mountains of supplies and merchandise so we could have this first-time event in their warehouse space. The fact that we are in here tonight is a comment on your continued success as a thriving El Paso business, as your growth has necessitated a move to a larger facility. I would like to recognize Monica’s mother, Norma Kerr, who started their business with her son Park Kerr when she became a single mother after her husband’s passing. Mrs. Kerr, your creativity, passion and persistence is commendable and an excellent model of ingenuity for women who want to start their own business. Thank you, Park Kerr, for all of your input and for the El Paso’s Chile Company’s underwriting of the beautiful gift of polka dotted martini glasses and cocktails for our guests at this event.

Our Major Sponsor this evening deserves much recognition for their huge donation. We were all floored when Yvette Fry and her husband Jorge Perez of the fabulous Ruby Lola boutique donated 238 handbags for this evening. The Santi handbags from New York are a beautifully embroidered and unique collection of purses that retail anywhere from $100 to $350 dollars. This donation is over $40,000 in retail value and absolutely priceless to us in friendship and goodwill. You both know they are among my personal favorite. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, Yvette and Jorge. What an enormous contribution toward making a significant difference in the lives of women and their children in this community. May we have a round of applause? Thank you both so very, very much.

What an amazing job the Power of the Purse Committee has done. I want to thank my friends Caroline North and Sara Lemaster for their incredible sense of excellence in putting a silent auction together. Thank for you the many, many hours you have put into making this happen. You are both amazing and wonderful ladies. It has been such a pleasure seeing you work and paying attention to every little detail. Thank you to Edwardo Herrera of Armoire for your wonderful creativity and time in setting up the Mercado. What a beautiful job you have done! And thank you to Renee Neessen for your support with this event through Rudolf Honda. And I would also like to thank my friends Courtney Niland, Sabrina Crowley, Wendy Bloss, Amy Bettes and all the other volunteers for all of your hard work to make this event possible. And before I finish my comments, I’d like to thank my family for all they have done to help in their special areas and ways to support me and this cause.