One woman giving $10 can buy another woman lunch. Ten women giving $10 can buy another woman’s groceries. One hundred women giving $10 can make a real difference in another woman’s life. That’s the motto of a group of four Discovery Bay women who decided that they wanted to give back to women in their community who are experiencing loss or hardship.
After hearing about the organization “Helping One Woman” (HOW) a few years back, Brady Woolman decided that this was precisely something that Discovery Bay needed. She enlisted the help of her three friends, Debbie Neely, Shelly Williams and Jeannette Hemenway. Now the four ladies host dinners for East County women who need a helping hand.
“Our dinners are a girls’ night out with a cause,” Woolman says. “We don’t talk a lot at the dinner. Our goal is to have the community enjoy themselves by sharing their time with each other.”
Woolman says there are no speakers at the dinners because it’s all about the woman they honor.
“People enjoy wine, dinner; they buy raffle tickets and participate in the silent auction,” she said.
Dinners are hosted every third Tuesday of the month, with the exception of November, when the dinner is on the second Tuesday, and December when the dinner is canceled due to the holidays. This month’s dinner will honor Stephenie Fabel-Sargiotto. Fabel-Sargiotto is battling her third bout of breast cancer. She recently lost her husband to cancer, but Woolman said you may not even know what Fabel-Sargiotto is going through as she pushes through all obstacles silently behind the scenes.
Tickets for the dinner will need to be purchased by 1 p.m. Oct. 14. Donations will still be accepted afterward by emailing howdiscoverybay@gmail.com or messaging HOW on Facebook at facebook.com/howdiscoverybay or Instagram at instagram.com/howdiscoverybay, and they will be shared via Venmo with Fabel-Sargiotto. During the dinners, the ladies host a silent auction to help raise money, so they’re looking for donated items for that.
“We usually get all kinds of items, including gift cards, wine baskets, dog training, photography sessions,” Woolman said. “Gursky Ranch and Soroptimist International of the Delta create a beautiful basket for us every month.”
The group hosts a dessert auction for which participants can donate cookies, cakes and all kinds of yummy treats. Those interested in donating items can contact HOW at their email address above.
Women nominated as monthly recipient of the HOW dinners do not have to be from Discovery Bay. Woolman says to be successful, the woman being nominated needs to live nearby and have a community of people who will come support her. Those who nominate someone are required to attend the dinner. Something new that HOW Discovery Bay is working on is a community board for people to offer their services, such as haircuts, lawn mowing, meals, dog walking, general carpentry and the like.
“The board is fairly new, and we are just getting it going, but it allows people to help by making a dinner for someone or someone who wants to do more to help those in need,” Woolman said. “The board was created as an Eagle Scout project by Katie Neely, who volunteers for us every month.”
Fire victims aid: Members of the Antioch Seventh Day Adventist Church are planning a large yard sale at the church, in Antioch at 2200 Country Hills Drive, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 17. The group is raising money for Northern California fire victims, to whom all money they collect at the yard sale will go directly.
“All items will be priced at a ‘pay what you can’ rate, knowing that they will support the fire victims,” said organizer Julie Hubbard. “At the end of the sale, items will be given away for free.”
Donations for the sale are welcome. For more information, call 925-757-7337.
Roni Gehlke can be reached at oakleynow@comcast.net.