Reblogged from Eleventh Stack:

The mystery book discussion group at the Main Library has been recently re-branded and re-introduced as the Red Herring Book Club. As a special kick-off for this new look, and to try to attract a few additional group members, our theme for the books we’ll be reading over the next 4 months is “Mysteries of Pittsburgh.” (Because there’s nothing Pittsburghers like to read/do more than talk about Pittsburgh!) Each of the novels will be set in our fair city. 

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Preparing for the Seattle Girls School Luncheon

Last week the Seattle Girls School held their annual luncheon.  680 people RSVP’d and while I know we didn’t fill every seat, we ended up with about 600 parents, alumni, politicians,philanthropists, educators and business leaders in the room.   My job was to stand up at the end of the event and ask every one to write a big check.    I did this last year and thought it was hard then.  This year was harder because I had a past to live up to.   I wanted so badly to communicate the radical notion that everyone deserves access to a great education.   For me, I have chosen to support SGS as my primary means for supporting education here in Seattle.   I support a few additional charities, but for SGS is my main squeeze.

As always, the girls were brilliant, funny and inspiring as they hosted the luncheon and shared their stories; they are a hard act to follow.    But follow I did and somehow their strength and passion found its way into my delivery.  My first draft was more like a key-note or the foundation of an article with lots of figures, stats, references and challenges to the still-prevalant barriers women and girls face in 2013.   Like her book or not, Sheryl Sandberg has kicked off a big conversation on women in the workforce and the hurdles in front of them as they grow and build their careers.   And that conversation, for me, must start with education; it must start with the caliber of education we provide our girls and it must start with easing access for every girls who wants an education.  Period.  Stop.

SGS has granted more than $5M in needs-based financial aid in the 12 years since its inception.  Much of this money is raised at our annual luncheon.  This year, we raised $278,000 plus $30,000 in future pledges.  That’s a lot of girls getting educated here in Seattle.   Watch the luncheon video and be inspired.   It’s never to late to celebrate our future.

The Luncheon Video

The Ask

Thank you all for spending some time with us today.  I love our Annual Luncheon because I get re-energized and inspired all over again.  If you’ve been inspired today, please join me in celebrating these awesome girls. [Applause]

My name is Val Sanford and I’m one of those people-with-no-kids Ana talked about.   I serve on the SGS Board of Trustees and today I get to do my favorite thing:  I get to ask you to make a choice.  Yes, you’re right, this is where I ask you to get out your checkbooks and credit cards.   But don’t do that yet!  Your table captains will pass out pledge cards in a few minutes.

Franny introduces Grace Hopper Award Winner, Phyllis Campbell

I came to my first lunch knowing almost nothing about SGS.  It was a school.  It was in Seattle.  It was for girls.  That’s it. Zip.  Nada. Nothing else. I had no expectation that this lunch would inspire and move me.  From the first step into the hotel when polished young women welcomed me I knew there was something different going on here.   Listening to 7^th grade girls like Gabby and McKenzie; girls who felt comfortable and confident enough to share their experiences, their hopes and their accomplishments with a room full of perfect strangers sealed the deal for me.  My inner philanthropist was large and in charge.

As you might imagine, I wrote a check – a check much bigger than I felt comfortable telling my husband about– and I threw my hat in the ring.  I was all in for this school; I was all in for these girls.   And in case you’re wondering, so was my husband Mike.

I’m a 50-year-old technology executive.  In year 2030 I will turn 68. I will have recently retired from corporate America and the 7^th grade girls in this room will 30.  Along with many of you, I will have passed the mantle of leadership on to these girls and their peers.

Theses girls will be building the economy of the next generation:  they will be the entrepreneurs, the doctors, the social workers, lawyers, teachers, marine biologists, parents, philanthropists and politicians.   These girls will be eligible to run for the Senate and will be just 5 years away from eligibility for the office of the President of the United States.  I know at least one 8^th grader at SGS who has that ambition.

And that’s really why I’m here today to talk to you.  You are the parents, business leaders, politicians and philanthropists –experienced and emerging alike– who can make a difference right now in the education of our children and in the caliber of future leaders: leaders who are sitting among you today.

It was 1971 when I entered 6^th grade.    Our science labs were tables and beakers and Bunsen burners, and technology was a hand-held calculator by Texas Instruments.   The Internet was 10 years away from its first commercial use and 30 years away from being a mainstay of commerce and education around the globe.  And the rate of change will not diminish between now and 2030.    We must prepare leaders who can keep up.  SGS Girls can do this.

Today we need schools that teach the ‘how’ and not just the ‘what’ or ‘why’.  We need to teach problem solving and root-cause analysis.  We need to teach collaboration and negotiation.  We need to teach leadership and followership.  We need to teach stewardship and resourcefulness.  We need to teach people to think and then act.

The SGS Girls hosting the Luncheon

SGS Girls can do this.

Alongside Spanish and Math and Physics, alongside Art and Rock Climbing, Seattle Girls School teaches girls how to think and how to work their way through problems.  SGS girls are taught to identify opportunities and to believe they are the ones to do something about it.   SGS Girls are taught to do work alone and to work in groups, to work with integrity and to work with purpose.   SGS girls are taught and they are taught to lead.

There is a task for every generation, said Teddy Roosevelt.  His task was building the Panama Canal and creating our National Park System.  The task of his cousin FDR and my father’s generation was to fight:  to fight poverty, oppression and genocide. The tasks of my and Ms. Brown’s generation are desegregation, civil rights and women’s rights.  I don’t know all the tasks ahead for the upcoming generation of girls, but I know they will require the best they have to give.   And I believe these girls are up to the task.

I believe they are up to the task because their actions today, right now, show me they are.   These girls sitting among us today are already leading; they are already working on the tasks of their generation.   Throughout their entire SGS Careers, they learn not just Algebra, creative writing and world-history; they learn to apply their learnings in situations with real consequences.

The 7^th Grade Pay It Forward projects address real issues in the world.  And these projects make a difference.

Lilly and Kayla – two SGS graduates teamed up a few years ago and took on environmental pollution and litter.   They wrote to the city, they wrote to the Parks Commission, they raised funds and they kicked off a pilot program and today 106 recycle bins sit in our city and state parks.

In 2008 a 7^th grader’s Pay-it-Forward project addressed girl’s education in Rwanda.  The non-profit she created has raised $130,000 and has sent dozens of girls in Rwanda to primary and secondary schools. Jessica, please stand up and stay standing.

This year Emma is raising awareness of human trafficking and the long-term needs of women and girls who escape.  Emma, will you please stand up.

Katie is using her Pay-it-Forward project to end gun violence

Katie creates crayola bullets as part of her Pay-It-Forward Project

. Katie please stands up.

Mung-Li please stand up.  Mung-Li’s Pay-it-Forward project will help children born with cleft pallets.

Kyla is working to end military suicide.  There will be 8 military suicides in the time I’m talking to you today.  Kyla, please stand up.

Every 7^th grader in this room has a Pay-it-Forward project worthy of being called out today.   7^th Graders please stand up and stay standing.

These girls are putting their education to use to stand up for what they believe in and to be the change agents we so want them to be.  In doing so they also build their own confidence, their own self-esteem and find their own voices.  These girls are leading today and they will keep leading well on into the future.   These girls are shining examples of “the Girl Effect.”

Thank you, girls [applause].  You can sit down.

Now, back to the adults.  I’d like to ask you to think about your own ‘ripple effect’, to think about your impact in the world.  How many people’s lives have been changed because of your

education?  Think about your family, your colleagues. Think about the community, charitable and philanthropic organizations you support and the ways you give back.  How many people have you influenced in our life?  50?  100?  More than that?

By 2030, Seattle Girls School will have graduated nearly 1000 girls with an education designed specifically for them to compete on the global stage no matter the opportunity, no matter the challenge.

These 1000 women and girls will influence others as you have influenced and have been influenced.  Some of these girls will be famous and most of them will be ‘that woman’ in every community and every company who seems to keep everything moving forward.  These women will lead in front and lead from the side and lead by following another leader when that’s the right thing to do.

The world needs women leaders and we need them in greater proportion than we have today. Seattle Girls School is my ‘pay-it-forward’ project because I believe to my very core that education is the silver bullet.  Education is often what tips the balance for girls away from poverty, disease, and violence and toward stability, health and the power to give back.

Intellectual Ventures COO Adriane Brown visits SGS

That’s why I invest in Seattle Girls School, and why I am asking you to do so today.

Table Captains, will you please pass out the pledge cards?

Today our goal is to raise $250,000 for SGS and SGS Girls.  40% of our SGS girls receive needs-based financial aid.  The money you give today will support our scholarship fund, improve our campus and help develop new and innovative curriculum to power the SGS girl.

I know most of you came here with an amount in mind.  I ask you to think again.  I ask you to think about what is possible for you:  can you stretch a bit more?  Are you inspired to go-all-in as I was?  Can you check the three-year pledge box instead of giving a one-time gift?

For some of you in this room, a $1000, 3-year pledge is an incredible stretch for you and your giving budget.  For others a pledge of $10, $15 or even $25K/year for the next three years is within your reach.  If your company has a matching benefit, your investment is doubled or even tripled.

Today you have seen a glimmer of what it means to be a Seattle Girls School girl.   I hope you are inspired.  I hope you leave full of joy and optimism for our community and our world.   I hope you leave here today knowing that Seattle Girls School girls stand out, stand up and stand together.

I hope you’ll stand with us.

Thank you.

Inspired?

Donate, volunteer, get involved.

Related articles

• Head’s Visionary Speech from the 2013 Seattle Girls School luncheon
• Sheryl Sandberg’s Best Advice: Don’t Leave Before You Leave (rachelgbk.wordpress.com)
• Sheryl Sandberg advances gender equality (stanforddaily.com)