MABOU: The Mawi Ta’Mk Society was chosen as the next group to receive financial support from 100 Women Who Care Rural Cape Breton.
The group met on Sept. 15 at Strathspey Place in Mabou, and 100 Women Who Care Rural Cape Breton co-chair Mary Janet MacDonald said after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they wanted to get back on track.
“Our last event was in 2019 so (this) was trying to get the whole thing up and going again,” she said. “We didn’t reach our goal of 100 women but we did collect $9,600 and there’s still money coming so we suspect that we will reach our goal of $10,000. Other members that couldn’t make it, for one reason or another, they have two weeks to submit their pledge of $100.”
Members of 100 Women Who Care Rural Cape Breton Chapter are invited to nominate a registered charitable organization from the area, then members of the local chapter meet for two hours to discuss the nomination.
“Once they’re nominated… we research that to make sure they are charitable with non-profit status (with the Canada Revenue Agency),” said MacDonald. “Before they make it to the list, they have to go through all those checks.”
MacDonald said three presenters, the Regional Occupation Centre (ROC) Society in Port Hawkesbury, Mawi Ta’Mk Society of We’koqma’q First Nation, and the Whycocomagh Child Development Centre were chosen randomly from 27 organizations on Aug. 30, and last week each had five minutes to explain what they do and make their pitches.
Executive director Diana Poirier spoke on behalf of the ROC.
“They want to make where they are, totally accessible. They have to put this device on every door to make it accessible for everyone to come in through the doors. Every device to put on those doors, it’s over $3,000,” said MacDonald. “I can’t imagine how hard it would be for the membership to vote; the presentations were just mind-boggling.”
Katie Benedict represented the child development centre in Whycocomagh.
“They are embarking on a project for outside equipment; equipment to get kids more exercise and more fun spaces,” said MacDonald. “They want to create a really nice play area and upgrade what they had. It’s going to cost them, I think, it was around $15,000 for the anticipated project cost to get it up to par and even spaces for anyone who is handicapped.”
According to 100 Women, members attending the meeting vote for one of the three presenting charities, choosing the cause that made the most compelling presentation. Each member wrote a $100 cheque (or cash) to the selected organization, with members receiving a tax receipt directly from the winning charity, the group noted. MacDonald said they also accept etransfers.
“They all made amazing pitches,” said MacDonald. “You want every one of them to be picked and to have that opportunity. We wish we could help everybody, but we can’t and we do the best we can.”
In the case of the Mawi Ta’Mk Society, MacDonald said presenter Rosie Sylliboy “felt so strongly about it,” that she showed up despite the recent massing of her mother, Mi’kmaq Elder Margaret Poulette.
“They intend to use the funding to create a program that supports play and recreation,” she noted. (Sylliboy) spoke about the residential schools and how the children in residential schools, they didn’t have play and recreation, and how they are going to be getting the project together where they will be going out the youth and choose seniors group to create public awareness, about not just what happened and not the bad things that happened, but children need toys and conversation, and they’ll teach this to these people that they’ll be reaching out to. They need this program to roll out to all schools, not just the Indigenous schools in the area.”
Founded in 2001 by Grand Chief Ben Sylliboy, Poulette and former NSCC Strait Area Campus President Tom Gunn, MacDonald said the society is the first in Canada to offer options for Mi’kmaw with disabilities.
“I am so proud of the membership to be able to share in that healing that they are going to have to go through,” she noted. “In English, the word Mawi Ta’Mk means ‘Being Together.’”
Now an international movement, 100 Women Who Care launched in Michigan in 2006s based on the premise of bringing 100 women together to make donations to worthy community causes.
A few years ago, much closer to home, committee member Josephine MacEachern said she noticed the success that similar groups were having success in Halifax, Truro and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM).
“It’s an easy way for one charity to walk away with a big chunk of change to help them,” stated MacDonald.
Since 100 Women Who Care Rural Cape Breton started in 2017, they have provided community groups with $55,800, said MacDonald.
The first monetary gift awarded by the group came in 2017, with the Inverness Consolidated Memorial Hospital (ICMH) Foundation receiving $17,000 towards construction of a family room in its palliative care unit.
“They put all the money into a palliative care space that they made available within the hospital and they dressed it up into a beautiful space for families to gather,” MacDonald recalled.
In 2018, the ICMH Auxiliary garnered the donation, which helped finance the purchase of a portable ultrasound.
“They were nearing their goal and this put them over the top, and they were able to get that piece of equipment that’s been utilized ever since then,” said MacDonald. “We keep hearing stories back how wonderful that machine has been to the hospital already.”
At their last meeting in November 2019, three local charities got the chance to make a presentation, including Mother of Sorrows Pioneer Shrine in Mabou and the ROC Society, 100 Women noted.
At that time the Whycocomagh Volunteer Fire Department received $13,000 and MacDonald said Sherryl Harrison provided an update on their project to obtain a Jaws of Life system.
“She spoke of the value of our organization in making this happen for them,” she said. “With their current fundraising, the $13,000 that they got really went a long way in them being able to order the equipment that they needed. She finished with offering that anybody who comes to 100 Women next year, that they bring two friends. She is a member of our group as well, and we really appreciate that.”
The registered charities that were nominated in previous years were automatically entered in the 2022 draw, with the exception of the last winner which will be eligible to participate again in five years.
“The other two charities that presented, they could be selected again, out of the hat, next year,” MacDonald explained. “There’s nothing preventing them coming back next year if they’re randomly picked.”
Along with MacDonald and MacEachern, who serve as co-chairs, core committee members, and founders are Beth MacDonald, Janet MacKenzie, Gail MacNeil, Linda MacRae, and Eleanor Ryan.
MacDonald said the group appreciates the donation of space from the Strathspey Place Association (including sound), and in 2019, she noted that the Town of Port Hawkesbury donated space in the Civic Centre. MacDonald said Maple Signs and Engraving of Port Hawkesbury donated signage and Paul Davis Cape Breton donated $500 for this year’s event.
To join 100 Women Who Care Rural Cape Breton, visit: www.100womenruralcapebreton.com and click “get involved,” or visit and “like” the group’s 100 Women Rural Cape Breton Facebook page: www.facebook.com/100womenruralcapebreton.com. The group said it is eager to register new members from Inverness, Victoria and Richmond counties that want to improve the lives of their neighbors and friends.
“When anyone becomes a member through our web site, there’s a form to fill in to become a member, on that form, they’re given an opportunity to suggest a worthy charity that they would like for us to consider,” added MacDonald. “I encourage any area that wants to put a chapter like this together, they’re such great benefit.”