Greetings from the Officers

Letter from President

Dear GFWC of North Carolina Clubwomen,

I am honored to serve North Carolina for the next two years alongside each of you!  We, as members of GFWC of North Carolina, are connected in numerous ways to our local communities, to other state organizations, and to the world’s greatest women’s volunteer organization, GFWC.  These connections as well as those we have through club work – the people, the places, and the work we do – not only align with the GFWC of North Carolina motto: “The Union of All for the Good of All,” but they also inspired the theme for this administration, From the Mountains to the Sea…we are GFWC-NC!

While the federation connections led me to our theme, they also helped me to choose the Mountains-to-Sea Trail as the 2022-2024 GFWC-NC President’s Special Project. The MST, much like our clubs and communities, stretches across our state 1,175 miles from Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smokey Mountains to Jockey’s Ridge on the Outer Banks.  I wanted a project that would signify the connections I treasure while implementing the projects and programs in each of our five Community Service Programs.  I took careful thought to choose a project that would offer volunteer opportunities for everyone to participate in.  In addition to the many volunteer opportunities available, we also have an MST fundraising goal for this administration, $11,750.00, which will be used to purchase Trail Kiosks placed along the trail to help identify those areas for hikers.  Each kiosk donated will be identified as being donated by GFWC of North Carolina.  Keep an eye out for the FUN ways you can give!

I am constantly amazed by the work our members do across our state and while the needs vary in our communities whether in the mountains region, in the piedmont region, or in the coastal region, all the incredible work we do is connected in some way:  our members are connected to each other and in club work; our clubs are connected within a district; our districts are connected in our state federation.  Over the next two years we will celebrate these connections, we will find creative ways to strengthen these connections, and we will build new connections to shape the future of GFWC-NC.  To help us achieve these goals, I have identified two Statewide Emphases that are important and significant to our organization:

Engaging our Membership &

Building and Strengthening our Leadership

Membership and Leadership are crucial to our organization.  We will work on finding ways to encourage and foster member engagement across all clubs – an engaged member is a HAPPY member!  We will strive to build and grow new leaders from within our clubs and find ways to strengthen and support our current leadership.  Working on both emphases will ensure our federation will shine bright for years to come!!

From the mountains to the sea…we are GFWC-NC!!

Kim Fulcher

GFWC-NC President

 

Letter from Junior Director

 I am beyond honored that you have chosen me to serve the North Carolina Federation as part of the 2022-2024 administration. I am excited to work with all of you to make a collective impact across the state.

My theme for this administration is North Carolina Climate Advocacy, Resiliency, Education, and Sustainability (NC CARES). As I look at our country and state, I can’t help but take notice of the extreme weather we are all beginning to face. It feels like everyday on the news there is a new, more severe storm or fire, rising sea levels or an odd fluctuation in temperature.

Personally, being from a city like New Orleans, I have always expected more severe storms as Louisiana has seen major erosion issues over the years. Living in North Carolina, I have realized throughout our state we see impacts of this climate change from “the mountains to the sea”.  According to the EPA in 2019, “most of the state has warmed one-half to one degree F in the last century, and the sea is rising about one inch every decade.” Rising sea levels will cause bigger storm surges, and warming temperatures will cause more intense storms.

I started asking myself what I could do to help the situation. My husband and I began buying more local food and produce, learning how to recycle properly and eliminating single use plastics in our environment. The more I educated myself I came to admire younger people, like Greta Thunberg, who were advocating to make their lives and the lives of their children better through changes to legislation and regulations.

Through my special project, I wanted to educate those in North Carolina on how they can, in their individual homes and communities, help lessen the impacts of climate change and advocate for broader changes throughout the state and country.

I will be partnering with two organizations:

  • Envision Charlotte – helping Charlotte achieve its goal to become a circular economy through zero waste objectives and reuse of all products.
  • North Carolina Conservation Network – advocating for policies to help combat climate change throughout the state and making positive changes to the environment through their large network of affiliate organizations.

I hope you will join me in fostering a safe and bright future in North Carolina by supporting these environmental efforts.

In pursuit of these goals and with an eye to the future of the organization, I would also like to focus my administration on membership, engagement, leadership and diversity among the North Carolina Juniors. I would love to have our Juniors excited and ready to take on leadership opportunities in our state and to have their diverse thoughts and opinions known. As such, I have plans to provide some additional leadership, discussion and listening sessions for our Junior members to achieve those goals.

I am also committed to getting the GFWC-NC Junior message to the public through our new Instagram page. Whether Junior, General or Juniorette please take a moment to follow our new page – gfwcncjuniors – and begin interacting.

I believe through these efforts we will achieve positive change in our communities and our state Federation!

Regards,

Hope Hockaday

GFWC-NC Director of Juniors Club