Category: President's Letter

Thank you to all who came to BPWEV’s Meet and Greet on 4/22/2025 at Artur’s Restaurant in Englewood. I believe we had (20) attendees, and we obtained (6) new members that applied and have joined our local organization. A special thank you to Meggen Urka, Cyndy Fredericks, Debbie Straw, and Kim Storie for blasting the flyer all over Facebook, Next Door and several other social media sites.

The theme I heard throughout the night was,” I never heard of your group.” It was hard for me to believe this, as BPW has been around for 119 years plus many of our members have been in the group for 25 plus years. My hope is that we continue to spread the word about the benefits to belonging to our professional women’s group. There are so many issues still at stake in our country: Equal Pay, Equal Rights Amendment passing in all 50 states, and women pay the “pink tax” or gender base pricing for healthcare, personal care, clothing and housing. Women earned 83 cents to what men earned in 2023. BPWEV advocated for all these issues, and we offer adult learners’ scholarships for those that are returning to higher education to improve their chances of obtaining better employment opportunities. The deadline for scholarship application is May 16, 2025. Both the criteria and the application can be found on the bpwev.org website.

Our speaker for the May 20th meeting is Mary Jones, who is the host of “All About Women” on WENG Radio 107.5 & 98 FM/1530 AM. Please make your reservation today. The meeting will be at Artur’s Restaurant at 70 N. Indiana Ave., Englewood, FL 34223. I believe that Mary represents so much of what our organization promotes.

Respectfully Submitted,
Sue Hogrefe, President of BPWEV