First and foremost, thank you! Thank you to the amazing women who attended our Women Who Inspire Us event. And thank you to the speakers who indeed inspired the entire room. We are so excited to be able to connect women such as yourselves and help foster relationships within our community.
The goal of our Women Who Inspire Us event was to bring some light to the amazing things that women are doing in the St. Louis community. We are bombarded with negativity in our day-to-day lives: reasons why our ideas won’t work, why we can’t do something, and even more so, just by turning on the news. So instead, the Plancorp Women’s Initiative wanted to provide a venue to showcase amazing women who are making a difference in our community.
During our event, around 100 women joined us to hear the stories of Rose Hanley, Katie Collier and Karen Kirk. Not only did these women tell us how they got to where they are today, but they told us about the positive impact they are making in Saint Louis. We wanted to take the chance to showcase these three women one more time.
Rose Hanley, Founder of Little Bit Foundation
In 2001, Rose Hanley and a friend organized a coat drive at their sons’ school. A local St. Louis school teacher reached out to Rose and simply asked if maybe Rose would have enough coats for her school. Sure enough, Rose and her friend delivered 170 coats to the teacher’s school. Rose described her experience at the school, which had boarded up windows and looked deserted. When she met one of the children who would receive one of her coats, she was shocked to see that his arms were blue from the cold. She just couldn’t imagine a child enduring a St. Louis winter without a coat.
Rose continued to provide supplies to this teacher’s school. She built a relationship with this teacher that would ultimately change the course of her life. She recalled, “Well, that teacher moved, and I had two schools. Then she moved again, so I had three. So I quit my job.”
When Rose felt the need to provide more for these children, she couldn’t imagine how to make a difference in so many children’s lives. She decided, “A little bit at a time.” Rose and the Little Bit Foundation currently serve 7,000 disadvantaged students in St. Louis partnering with 25 schools.
Katie Collier, Owner of Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria
Many people know of Katie Collier’s restaurant and reputation as a phenomenal chef. What many don’t know is how she got there. Katie left school at age 15 and began working in the restaurant business. “[She has] always been a big dreamer,” and when the opportunity presented itself, she decided to spend some time living with her mother in Italy. During that time, she fell in love with Italian food and culture. “They have a different way of cooking and approaching food,” she reflected.
When she returned to the U.S., she brought a business plan to her dad. She wanted to open a pizza place, and after some convincing, he agreed to the venture, but he would be the owner. She joked that when the first pizza order came in, they remade it a bunch of times before they sent it out. But she said, “the point was that I started.”
She decided to leave that restaurant and look for her next adventure. She said, “When you get to that place where things are falling apart; that is where the break through happens.” Katie then met her husband, and together, they decided to open a restaurant. She opened this restaurant with the goal of “providing amazing experiences through food, and bringing friends and family together.” If you have ever been to Katie’s Pizza & Pasta, you know that she has accomplished her goal and so much more. If you haven’t, we recommend visiting on a Tuesday for her “Giveback Tuesday Program,” where she donates 100% of the proceeds of the evening to local charities. You’ll likely fall in love and keep going back!
Karen Kirk, Executive Director of Lydia’s House
Karen Kirk stood in front of a room full of women and broached a subject that makes many of us uncomfortable: domestic violence. Karen runs a St. Louis organization called Lydia’s House, which “provides transitional housing for up to two years for abused women and their children.” Karen has helped build an organization that not only serves women and children who are victims of domestic violence, but she also orchestrated a way for the women to be able to work and get back on their feet while raising their children through Lydia’s Ladle.
Karen has always known that she wanted to do good in her community. During her time playing college basketball in Georgia, she learned the value of giving back to the community. She reflected on her time saying, “It wasn’t a choice [to give back]. It is just what you did.” When she graduated from college, she began working for a not-for-profit, but wanted to do more and be ingrained in the community.
That is when she decided to apply for the Executive Director position at Lydia’s House. She joked that the job posting was closing in 20 minutes, but she rushed to submit her information anyway. She was nervous through the entire interview process. When she was offered the position, she graciously accepted. Then immediately thought, “What have I done? I’m leaving a job in my backyard for the job downtown!” She added a good 45 minutes to her commute to work for an organization that deals with high intensity situations. However, the work Karen has done with Lydia’s House is incredible and is changing lives in St. Louis. She told the room of women, “Talk about it.” Domestic violence affects too many women, and there are resources available to help those victims.
Thank you again to everyone who has supported the Plancorp Women’s Initiative. As always, we want to hear from you. If you have any feedback about the event or topics you want us to address in the future, please submit it here. Please note, all feedback is anonymous.
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This post was written by a member of the Plancorp Women’s Initiative, which strives to advocate for clients and women in the community by addressing topics specific to their financial lives. For more information about the Women’s Initiative and how you can get involved, email sara@plancorp.com or visit the Plancorp Women’s Initiative page.
