Making Waves: Changing the Tide for Madison Area Women
press release: On the eve of the Opening Ceremony of the XXXI Rio Olympic Games, UW alumna and gold medalist Carie Brand Graves headlines a Fund for Women’s inaugural fundraiser, “Making Waves: Changing the Tide for Madison Area Women,” on Thursday, August 4, 5–7:30 p.m., at UW School of Nursing. Registration for the event is at bit.ly/makingwaves2016.
A Spring Green native and retired women’s rowing coach at University of Texas at Austin, Graves will share the story of the Red Rose Crew, an amazing group of female athletes, who rowed their way to international success and glory. Along the way, they battled prejudice, bureaucracy and discrimination in one of the most grueling and competitive sports around. Graves and her Olympic teammates are the subject of the book, Red Rose Crew: A True Story of Women, Winning, and the Water,” by Daniel J. Boyne. The event’s $35 ticket comes with a signed copy of the book.
Graves’ appearance is part of A Fund for Women’s strategic focus on women’s economic empowerment. Through its endowment fund, A Fund for Women awards competitive grants to local nonprofits that support programs and services for Dane County women and girls. A growing body of research directly links community, state and national vitality to the empowerment of women.
A Fund for Women is also engaged in a multi-year initiative called Earn-Save-Invest, providing the tools women and girls need to transform their own lives. A Fund for Women will provide support—through contributions of financial resources and volunteer commitments—for programs that prepare women and girls for economic success. Community partners supporting this initiative are Summit Credit Union, American Family Insurance, The Employer Group, and Madison Gas and Electric (MGE).
“Women continue to earn less in the workplace and encounter more barriers to education, employment and living wages than their male counterparts—right here in Dane County,” said Therese Gulbransen, Chair of A Fund for Women’s Advisory Committee. “Investing in women, especially low-income women, is the single, most important way to strengthen the lives of women and girls in our community.”
About A Fund for Women: Created in 1993, A Fund for Women’s mission is to transform our community so that women and girls thrive. Through its endowment fund, A Fund for Women has given over $1.1 million in grants to some 70 nonprofit partners throughout Dane County. A Fund for Women is a giving partner of Madison Community Foundation.
About Carie Brand Graves (Copy is courtesy of “Wisconsin Women Making History”/www.womeninwoisconsin.org): Graves was raised on a farm in Spring Green in a family of rowing enthusiasts. She joined the UW-Madison’s rowing team during her sophomore year in 1973 and was a letter winner from 1974 to 1976. In 1975, she and her team took second place at the World Rowing Championships in England — the best finish ever for U.S. women at that time. Graves then made the U.S. team for the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and won a bronze medal in the eight-oared shell category there. She qualified again for the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, but did not compete because of the U.S. boycott that year.
In 1984 she qualified for her third Olympic Games and won a gold medal in Los Angeles. Graves became a coach and built distinguished rowing programs at Northeastern University in Boston and also at Harvard University. In 1998, she helped launch the rowing program at the University of Texas, and she became the head coach there. During her time at Texas, Graves led her team to two consecutive NCAA championship appearances in 2003 and 2004. She also led Texas to victory at the Big 12 Rowing Championships in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. She coached for the University of Texas for 16 years before retiring.
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