Foothills Search and Rescue is thousands of dollars closer to their goal after a big donation from a Foothills Philanthropic group.

100 Women Who Care Foothills chose the Foothills Search and Rescue for their quarterly donation and 45 women participated.

Each woman donated $100 from their personal bank account to achieve what Karen Love, founder of 100 Women Foothills, says is a fairly average donation.

"We raised $4500 and that came from 45 members.  In the most recent 4-5 meetings that amount has been the average, in fact so far, for the whole Foothills we've raised $27,700 going to 6 different charities"

Love shares that this was a close vote between two other charities for the quarterly cheque and explains how the organization gets chosen.

"So the way it works, is we pull three names of nominated agencies out of a hat, then the three women that nominated those agencies stand up and give a 5 minute speech about why they chose them, and then it's put to an anonymous vote."

The two other organizations in the running, were Big Brothers and Big Sisters Calgary and Area, and the Rainbow Program.

Not only is being a part of this group a great way to meet social needs and network in the community, but Love shares, it's also a great feeling to help out these agencies in more ways than one.

"I mean it's just such a great way to connect with other women, but it's also a great way to support agencies out in the community." Love says "So far about 6/8 organizations no one had ever heard of and that's part of why we do what we do, is to get that publicity out there about the good work that they do in the communities."

The next meeting will be on November 2nd at the Crystal Ridge Golf Club, and the group is encouraging new women to join for a fun night of feel good activity.

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