Girls using tea parties to raise money for girls' education around the world
Inspired by the book "Three Cups of Tea", I had the idea to empower girls to raise money for girls' education, by hosting small tea parties and asking their friends to bring a small donation. Read more...
New York Social Diary - November 2009
TEA PARTY ANGELS TAKES FLIGHT
Christie Brinkley and her daughter Sailor to Support Tea Party Angels Launch.
New York, NY (October _, 2009) - Tea Party Angels, a national fundraising initiative, is one woman's story on how to change the world one tea party at a time. Cheryl Beck, Founder and Chief Executive Angel, first got the inspiration for Tea Party Angels after reading the bestselling books Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood. Both men she found doing extraordinary things to help educate girls around the world. Passionate about their mission that only through education can we achieve peace and prosperity, she too wanted to do something to make a difference.
Beck came up with the simple idea of using tea parties as fundraisers and enlisted support from both men's non-profits, Mortenson's The Central Asia Institute and Wood's Room to Read. In turn each will be the beneficiary of Tea Party Angels fundraising along with other organizations such as Orphaned Starfish and Miracles in Actions. Imagine mothers and daughters hosting tea parties across the country to raise money for girls around the world in need of education and at the same time teaching girls here social responsibility.
Tea Party Angels Launch
Tea Party Angels offers a turn-key, tea party kit that is available on its Web site. Monies will be raised by the girls attending the tea party; each girl invited will be asked by her mother to do some sort of chore that will earn her money to donate at the tea party, giving her a sense of empowerment. During the Tea Party, each girl will have a turn to tell what she did to earn her donation. Tea parties will also include the showing of a brief educational video hosted by Christie Brinkley and Sailor, and custom "tea-shirt" making activity. Hosts will decide which nonprofit to support from the list of qualified organizations on the Tea Party Angels Web site, or can simply choose the Tea Party Angels Fund which supports all of the organizations equally.
Tea Party Angels will launch with a tea party, of course, featuring Honorary Angel Christie Brinkley and her daughter Sailor on Saturday, November 7th at Doubles in New York with a who's who of mothers and their daughters supporting the cause. Hosting the event will be CBS 2 evening anchor, Kristine Johnson and her daughter Ava. Other notable attendees include Advisory Committee members Eleonora Kennedy and her daughter Anna Kennedy Safir.
Tea Party Angels is fiscally sponsored by MADRE, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Tea Party Angles Debuts at the California Women's Conference
Cheryl Beck stands in her booth on the vast exhibition floor here, explaining how she intends to change the world, one tea party at a time. Beck's concept is a non-profit initiative called "Tea Party Angels" (www.teapartyangels.org) in which mothers and their 7 to 12-year-old daughters host tea parties across the country. They raise money for girls in need of education-and get a lesson in social responsibility themselves. For $40, the hostess receives a tea set for six, T-shirts to decorate, handmade beaded "Angel" bracelets, and an educational DVD. Party attendees contribute donations earned from performing chores at home and as a group choose a charity from an approved list, including Greg Mortenson's Central Asia Institute.
"I was inspired by 'Three Cups of Tea' by Greg Mortenson," said Beck, "and the difference one person could make." So it was no coincidence that Beck chose this year's Women's Conference, which Mortenson is also attending, to make her debut. She feels as if she is among friends. "There's such a diverse crowd here. It's a gracious group of people and they are receptive to this concept," said Beck, who traveled from New York to be here. The theme of the conference is also particularly appropriate, she says--It's never too early to teach young girls to be Architects of Change.
- Louise Tutelian, Blogger