Editor’s note: This story was updated on March 8 to correct the number of members for the Women’s Giving Circle of Cumberland County.
The dollars tell the story of what women past and present can mean to a community.
One million dollars, and it’s worth repeating. One million dollars.
“This year is a special year,” Debbie Best was saying at the Women’s Giving Circle of Cumberland County’s 8th Community Awareness Scorecard Breakfast held Friday in the Highland Presbyterian Church fellowship hall. “The Women’s Giving Circle has reached the exciting milestone of $1 million in giving. We started in 2008 from humble beginnings with only 14 founding members, who wanted to create a great impact by combining their philanthropy efforts.”
The 57-year-old chair of the WGCCC of the Cumberland Community Foundation said the founding members—Christin Bellian, Mary Lynn Bryan, Patty Collie, Michelle Courie, Alisa Debnam, Laura Devan, Margaret Dickson, Jean Harrison, Lucy Jones, Sarah Moorman, Terri Union, Kaki Van Sickle, Cynthia Wilson, and Denise Wyatt—awarded $26,000 in grants in 2008. Today, Best said, the WGCCC has grown to 135 members and, in 2025, awarded $96,000 in grants. Over the years, that has amounted to $1 million in grants, which led to celebration.
The grants, WGCCC said, support health, child abuse, housing insecurity, childcare insecurity, foster care, food insecurity, child and adult literacy, and prevention of human trafficking.
The scorecard told the story of the grant cycle for 2025: $17,000 for the Myrover-Reese Fellowship Homes, and many of us could see the late Pat Reese, who was so influential in the home, smiling from heaven above; $15,000 for the Child Advocacy Center, and you could see the pride on executive director John Webster’s face; $15,000 for Connections of Cumberland County; $15,000 for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic; $13,000 for Better Health of Cumberland County; $10,000 awarded to Care Center Family Violence Program/Cumberland County Department of Social Services; $8,000 to Fayetteville Urban Ministry; and $3,000 for Cumberland County Schools.
Every Dollar Counts
Shannon Bell, chair of the WGCCC scorecard committee, said every dollar counts.
She offered some sobering numbers.
“Food insecurity in Cumberland County has more than 33,700 households who receive SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits,” Bell said. “Sixty thousand children are food insecure.”
She said 855 students “experience housing insecurity” in Cumberland County.
“When it comes to childcare, we only have 268 childcare facilities in Cumberland County,” she said. “It has decreased by 8% since 2020.”
Human trafficking is an issue “because of the I-95 corridor.” Cumberland County had 61 cases of human trafficking between 2019-2023—the highest number, she said, in the state.
“These grants have had a significant impact in our community and in lives of women and children in Cumberland County,” Best said. “And it would not be possible without the commitment from each member. Let’s take a moment to truly celebrate this amazing accomplishment.”
Where there is a need, members of the Women’s Giving Circle want to do what they can to help with charitable giving, leadership, and strategic grantmaking for programs benefiting women and children in Cumberland County, and they’ve been at it without fail for the past 17 years.
“As we began thinking about making grants back then, we knew that we needed to keep our members informed about critical areas of need in our community impacting women and children, so we could set up the first funding areas of focus,” founding member Patty Collie said before Friday’s scorecard breakfast.
You could see the pride on the faces of women like founding WGCCC members Mary Lynn Bryan and Lucy Jones. They listened attentively to every word about how far this benevolence has come since 2008.
You didn’t just see it.
You could feel their pride.
You could see everyone’s pride in hearing Hershey Bell, the guest speaker, tell about the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine, which will welcome its first class of 64 students on July 20.
“Where there is a medical school, there is a physician,” said Bell, the 69-year-old founding dean of the medical school behind Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. “And where there is a physician, there is health care.”
Bell is so excited, he just cannot contain his enthusiasm for what the medical school will mean for this community, and beyond.
“One hundred and thirty-six days from now,” he later said.
Epilogue
Friday was not just a good day for this community. Friday was a grand day for what all this community can be—a medical school on its way and proud women doing their part in reaching out to others because they care.
“The Women’s Giving Circle proves what I have always believed,” said Kirk deViere, chair of the Cumberland County Commissioners, who was in attendance along with Commissioner Glenn Adams and Fayetteville City Council member Stephon Ferguson. “When we invest in our community, the returns last generations. One million dollars over 17 years is not just a number. It is a legacy this entire community can be proud of.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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