The YWCA’s tenth annual Women of Influence Awards Luncheon was held at the Convention Center last Tuesday.  There were at least one thousand men and women in attendance.  Carolyn Young, a 2002 Lifetime Honoree, hosted a table which included her daughters Kathryn Leonard and Patty Young Moore, and Carol Carlson, Jane Scharrer, Rosie Reagan.  

Susan Kettering, of the Kettering Family foundation, was Honorary Chair. of the event.  And Ginny Strausburg of Dayton power & Light, was Chair.   Sharon Howard once again served as Mistress of Ceremonies – and there’s not a better stand-up comedian in the city of Dayton!

Sixty five women have been honored in the past ten years.  This is the one hundred and thirty-seventh year  the YWCA has been serving the women of Dayton.  This year Lela Estes was honored.  Mattie Lyle was the second one presented.  Mattie was born in 1906 when she took the ‘mike’ it was impossible to believe she was one hundred and one years old!  Patricia McDonald, of JP Morgan Chase,  Linda Menz,  of Sebaly Shillito + Dyer,  and  Idotha ‘Bootsie’ Neal, Pres. of Wright Dunbar, Inc. and former city Commissioner, was next.  Anybody who knows Bootsie also knows that she ‘…brought down the house’!  (Call ‘Round Town’ if you want to hear a great old story about Bootsie at the Retirement Ceremony for a Dayton Police Department Canine Police Dog.)

Denise Rehg, Pres. of Culture Works, and Judy Slanker, community volunteer, completed the list.  The YWCA Lifetime Achievement Honoree was Helen Jones-Kelley, Director of Ohio Dept. of Job & Family Services.  

Elana  and Vince Bolling, founders of the Vanguard Concert Series, flew home from Florida for the Julliard concert scheduled for Saturday evening at the Dayton Art Institute.  In a phone visit with Elana on Friday she told of her ‘bout’ with ‘shingles’ and what a stressful ordeal it had been.  “When you see me on the DAI stage Saturday evening I’ll be wearing a turban and dark glasses…supper following the concert will be at the Café Monet…see you then…”

Then came Saturday!  Vince called:  “…the concert is cancelled…the performers can’t get to Dayton…the NYC airports are closed…they can’t find alternatives…we’re calling all ticket holders…  there are hundreds of ‘ticket holders’…we’ve pressed a team of ‘phoners’ into service…it’s a mess.”

When Elana called she was working on an alternative concert date.  “Do you think we could schedule the Saturday evening before Easter?  It’s the only time the DAI and the Julliard group have open.  Would that offend anyone?...”  Stay tuned.

New Yorkers and alumns just call it ‘Ninety First Street’.  They’re talking about the Convent of the Sacred Heart – a girls prep-school housed in the Otto Kahn mansion (1918) one of the largest private homes built in NYC.  Oakwood-ite Connie Focke Breen is an alumna and she just received an exciting invitation from a sister alumna, Emily Kernan Rafferty.  The invitation includes a preview tour of the new galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, followed by a tea with museum president ( Emily Kernan Rafferty), class of ’67 at Sacred Heart (91st St.)

After graduating from Boston Univ. Ms. Kernan worked as arts and philanthropy asst. to David Rockefeller, Jr., also served as Deputy Dir. of Boston’s Inst. of Art.  After marrying John Rafferty in ’76 they moved to NYC where she became the Met’s administrator for corporate and individual fundraising.  Emily was named president of the Met in 2005 – the first woman to hold that post.  Her list of responsibilities goes on and on.  She has been Chair of the Board of Trustees at ‘91st St……”  Connie is calling her roommates at ‘91st St. for a get together in NYC.

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