From helping us with mailings to making sure our special events run smoothly, our volunteers are the backbone of our organization. Many are workshop members who want to show their appreciation for what they have learned about themselves and the writing process through Herstory, or who just want to get more involved in the programs we offer. Others are dear friends who believe in our mission and, knowing of our limited resources, donate their expertise and time so that we can maintain existing programs and take on new projects as the need arises. We like to call these volunteers our “Behind the Scenes In-Kind Angels.”
For almost as many years as Herstory is old, Marsha Benoff, our “social secretary,” has taken on the role of welcoming potential and new group members by e-mail and telephone, making herself available for anyone who has a question about workshop matters and playing a significant part in building our community, with both warmth and affection.
Our longtime webmaster Juan Gallardo, a physicist by profession, studying cosmic questions by day, generously took on the task of sorting out the problems of our former site, creating new links and opportunities for whatever new needs have come up even as our new site was under construction. He has made himself cheerily available during his off moments, and has managed to keep us up-to-date.
Alan Gold, a freelance book designer, recently retired from a 20-year staff position at Cambridge University Press, gifted us with the creation of a magnificent design for our manual, involving complicated sidebars, exercises and tools sections, spending weeks on the final typesetting and corrections – with the offer to continue to largely donate his services for the expanded volume as well. To quote his wife Betty, “This was a piece of cake for him after designing physics and medical textbooks, just so long as we didn’t have any charts.”
Bob Kelly for two years has been our gala photographer. A physicist by day, Bob generously volunteers his talent and skills with the camera (a self-described “hobby only”) to non-profits groups like Herstory. A world traveler and art lover, Bob’s subjects have ranged from landscapes and nature to politics and cultural events. Bob also has given graciously of his time photographing our women at various workshop locations as well.
Tammy Lea, of TS Graphix, came to our aid and became our newest “in-kind angel” last year, when she donated the design of our current brochure. With great grace and humor (and very little notice), she agreed to design our 2009 gala journal, again donating her time, working at lightning speed to get the project to the printer by deadline. Since then, she has tackled fliers and other design needs, and is now serving as the official Herstory webmaster. Tammy, by day production manager at the Long Island Advance newspaper in Patchogue, has been in the graphic arts business for over 20 years. We are so very grateful for all that she has done and continues to do for the Herstory community.
Our office manager, Gabriella Luciano – a member of Herstory’s Middle Country Library workshop – started by volunteering her time a little over a year ago. When she saw that all of Herstory was confined to a tiny home office, she offered to try to find us a space with a reasonable rent, where she and our other volunteers might be able to more easily donate their time. What she found us was not a mere office but a three-room suite with workshop and meeting space and many possibilities to grow into it. We are happy to announce that thanks to Gabriella’s tireless launching of every aspect of the operation, we are now able to have her on board half time in an official capacity.
Lisa Moschitta-Magrane of LM Designs took on the task of designing every part of our very first gala journal, in appreciation of the work of Lonnie Mathis and the Building Bridges group, in which she participates. After the gala, Lisa accepted the tremendous challenge of redesigning and revamping our web site, and we are deeply grateful for her creativity and countless number of hours she gave to this huge project.
We thank Sunita Mukhi, program director of the Charles B. Wang Center, and Jenifer Iacona, her assistant, not only for the amazing donation of the space for our annual gala, but for the donation of their staff for the day and for all they have given to Herstory throughout the years, both in space and partnerships.
John Murcott, co-founder and co-director of the rapidly growing Karma411 online fundraising site for cause-related non-profits, changed Herstory’s life when he decided to make us Karma’s first literary member, with the potential for web posting of written selections, online sale of our manual and magazines and ticket sales for our events, as well as online fundraising and the attraction of challenge fund donors. A new father, he has nonetheless found midnight hours to design special features for our Karma pages, tailored to our particular needs. Last year he joined our board of directors as our first male member.
Dan and Chris Oak of Oak Printing in West Babylon have lovingly donated the design of our note cards, posters and invitations, as well as other printed materials for our galas, and have worked with us over the years to make our magazines and other materials available as near to cost as they possibly can.
Clarence Sheppard, of Black Media Foundation, not only worked with Natalie Byfield on their documentary about Herstory, but spent many midnight hours designing and typesetting our two magazines, working with Spanish translations and the irregularity of the syntax in many of the Prison Magazine to create very beautiful products, putting together covers and photographs. Discussions with Natalie and Clarence as we were making the documentary together became very important to our final shaping of the manual and our plans for bringing it into the larger community.
Shakeera Thomas of our board of directors, event planner for Stony Brook’s School of Computer Science, almost single-handedly put together the logistics of our last gala luncheon – everything from food to hospitality to space and audio-visual needs. From the moment she met us at a Dialogues Across Differences workshop, she says that we have been on her vision board, as she plans ways to help us. She also arranged for the donation of the files and shelves that keep our office space organized.
Bruce Weed, of Bruce Weed Computers, started with us when our main office was an 8 ft. x 10 ft. room in Sag Harbor, gradually fell in love with the program and began to travel over a 50-mile radius, wherever there was a Herstory writer trying to work with a donated “dinosaur.” He has made countless trips from his East Hampton base to our new Centereach office, setting us up, creating systems for remote access and allowing us to work more and more easily on this Long Island of ours. |
