January 16, 2017

UWFA MESSAGE FROM NANCY KENAGY

Many of us were able to attend the Annual Scholarship Awards Dinner and Lecture in November and were so pleased to meet and hear from this year’s three UW student recipients. They each received $4000 toward tuition and graciously thanked the UWFA for their awards. I’d like to thank our Scholarship Committee for their diligent work on choosing such fine scholarship winners. The Committee was chaired by Anni Fuller, and the other members were Joan Burton and Esther Neeser.

I recently began to think about the sources of funds for our Scholarships. Most of the money has come from the generous donations of our members, usually at the time of membership renewal or end of year giving, but also from our donation cards (available at our activities) designed as gifts for memorials, thank yous, birthdays, and any other occasion where you want to honor someone. Another source of funds is from donations made to the Visiting Faculty Housing Service. This service, established in 1985, connects homeowners with those visiting faculty, staff, and scholars looking for housing in Seattle. I knew that donations to the VFHS from persons listing their properties had contributed substantially through the years to the Scholarship Fund, but I was curious as to how much. I asked Carol Hol to go through the VFHS Treasurer’s Reports, prepared by Barbara Archbold, and let me know the amounts transferred to the Scholarship Fund just in the years since 2011 when I became associated with the Scholarship Committee and then UWFA Board. In these six years, over $17,000 has been donated to the Scholarship Fund! I would like to take this opportunity to thank VFHS Chair, Gail Butterfield, and her group of volunteers for their service to the UWFA and for helping fund student scholarships through these donations. I know that Gail would be pleased to add more volunteers to her group. They find it a very rewarding place to volunteer their time. Please contact Gail if you are interested.

We enjoyed a festive gathering on December 5, when we held our Holiday Tea at Hill Crest, the home of our UW President Ana Mari Cauce and our Honorary UWFA President, Professor Susan Joslyn. They graciously visited with our members during the afternoon and spoke to us about the valued presence of the UWFA over the years. We were entertained by the Matthews Beach Quartet – Martha Nester, Patty Osterholm, Laurie Skandalis, Gwen Kunde – and we enjoyed their holiday music. I would like to thank Dagmar Shannon for chairing the Holiday Tea, Mary Albrecht for organizing the tasty refreshments, and Mimi Wagar for collecting donations for our FIUTS students. A highlight of the afternoon was recognizing four UWFA members who attended this year’s Tea and also attended the first Silver Tea in 1960, 56 years ago. These ladies are Barbara Garlid, Lydia Nunke, Mamie Bolender, and Eva Hanzeli.

I hope to see many of you on Thursday, February 9, 11:30 a.m., at the UW Club for our next Lunch/Lecture. Our speaker will be Dr. Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse, Curator of Northwest Native Art at The Burke Museum. I hope you have noted the change of date from February 8 to February 9. Details are in this newsletter and in your directory.

Nancy Kenagy
UWFA President