Four women leaders will serve on a speakers panel at Henry Ford College’s (HFC) 42nd annual Women’s Recognition Luncheon – “Women Leaders: Driving Our Future” – on Friday, March 27, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. This special engagement takes place at the Student and Culinary Arts Center, located on the main campus. Among the four is media personality Lila Lazarus, formerly of Channel 4 in Detroit.
A tin can raffle will begin at 11 a.m. with tickets on sale for $2 each or three for $5. The luncheon and program will begin at noon.
The purpose of the luncheon is to raise money to support Student Outreach and Support (SOS) and its Student Emergency Fund, which provides financial assistance to HFC students with unforeseen emergency needs to help them stay in school and complete their education.
“Each year, more and more students utilize this fund. It addresses minor financial emergencies (a lost textbook, a bus card, a tire replacement, etc.) that could cause a student to drop out of school,” said Dr. Brenda Hildreth, HFC SOS coordinator.
The luncheon’s panel of speakers include:
· Lila Lazarus: Best known for her work as an award-winning reporter/anchor for Channel 4 in Detroit, Lazarus is currently president of Kids Kicking Cancer and has been recently named Michigan’s Ambassador of Motorcycle Safety. She’s also very involved with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization and has been a Big Sister for 20 years. She is a graduate of Kalamazoo College (KC), the University of Michigan (U-M), the University of Massachusetts (U-Mass) and the University of Bonn in Germany. Career highlights include covering Nelson Mandela’s inauguration in South Africa and winning multiple Emmy Awards.
· Jackie Lovejoy: The president of the Dearborn Area Chamber of Commerce since 2013, Lovejoy has been active in the community throughout her career. Previously, she worked at Davenport University for 15 years, where she managed teams and campuses with an annual operations budget of more than $1.5 million, as well as served as the face of Davenport in the community. She currently serves on the Dearborn Education Foundation, the Friends for the Dearborn Animal Shelter, the West Dearborn Downtown Development Authority, the HFC Foundation, the American Association of University Women and the Optimist Club.
· Haifa Fakhouri, Ph.D.: The president and CEO of the Arab American and Chaldean Council (AAC), Fakhouri immigrated to the United States in 1968 from her native Jordan. A strong sense of leadership and keen vision of community economic self-sufficiency and the actualization of human potential for newly arrived immigrants became her passion. Her experience as a sociologist, educator and administrator enabled her to lead a number of supporters to found the ACC, a much-needed human service agency established to meet the growing needs of the Arab community. Over the past 35 years, ACC grew from a single office in downtown Detroit to 40 outreach offices with a multi-million dollar operating budget in Michigan’s tri-county area.
· Beth Chappell: The president and CEO of the Detroit Economic Club (DEC), Chappell has enjoyed an accomplished career in many executive leadership roles. Prior to her role at the DEC, she served 16 years at the AT&T Corporation in several capacities, including Global Services vice president where she led relationship-sales efforts with large international clients. She also served as director of Network Deployment, where she led the $14 billion installation of AT&T’s fiber optic network. Chappell sits on the boards for the DEC, American Axel & Manufacturing Corp., Citizens Research Council, Detroit Regional Chamber, the Lawrence Technological University College of Management Cabinet, the St. Joseph Mercy Foundation, among others.
HFC also seeks sponsors for this important event. There are seven specific sponsorship levels available as noted below.
· Diamond Sponsorship ($2,500): This sponsorship package includes eight tickets for the luncheon. The tax deductible amount of this sponsorship package is $2,380.
· Gold Sponsorship ($1,000): This sponsorship package includes six tickets for the luncheon. The tax deductible amount of this sponsorship package is $910.
· Silver Sponsorship ($500): This sponsorship package includes four tickets for the luncheon. The tax deductible amount of this sponsorship package is $440.
· Bronze Event Luncheon Scholarship ($300): This sponsorship package includes two tickets for the luncheon. The tax deductible amount of this sponsorship package is $270.
· Pearl Sponsorship ($100): Straight donation, excludes tickets for the luncheon. The tax deductible amount of this sponsorship package is $100.
· Luncheon Ticket ($30): This package includes one ticket for the luncheon. The tax deductible amount of a single luncheon ticket is $15.
Contributions may be made by check or money order payable to the HFC Foundation. The deadline is Friday, March 20. Please mail your donation to the address below:
Foundation Office
Henry Ford College
5101 Evergreen
Dearborn, MI 48128-1495
Major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard and Discover) are accepted. Sponsors can also donate online https://my.hfcc.edu/RegForms/donation.asp. Please select “Other” as the gift designation and add sponsorship level and/or number of tickets in the comments section. Donors may also phone in their charge to the HFC Office of Development at 313-845-9620.
If you would like to donate an item for the raffle, please send your item to Kathy Dimitriou in care of the above-mentioned address. She is available at 313-845-9650 or kdimitriou@hfcc.edu. All donations – monetary and otherwise – must be received by Friday, March 20. For further information, please call 313-845-9620.
Source: HFC
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