Women's Red Apple Foundation Scholarship Luncheon

About the event

The Women's Red Apple Foundation, founded only a few years ago, has an amazing goal....to provide scholarships to women in need. As the organization has grown, their scholarship giving has also grown. However, the need is limitless, as more and more women are going to college, many doing it later in life, to get gainfully employed. Throughout the year the Women's Red Apple Foundation has a series of small fundraising events to grow the scholarship fund. They also have a scholarship submission process where interested women can apply to receive a scholarship. Once the entry deadline is closed, a committee of judges reviews all the submission to determine who will receive scholarships. This year they had over 115 scholarship requests. I know the judges had a hard time narrowing it down.

In June, they have a scholarship luncheon to give away the scholarship to the finalists. They gave out 25 scholarships this year along with a laptop donated by Toshiba Business Solutions. It's always such a great event because the speeches from some of the winners are so heartfelt. Some of winners have received scholarship multiple years in a row and have really put the money to good use. I always love to hear how accomplished all of these women are!

This year's event was held at Benvenuto's in Boynton Beach. It was beautifully decorated by the Women's Red Apple Foundation team. Guests received an apple slicer (how clever is that!?)

The uplights were pretty challenging, as they were LED lights and they were at FULL power. They made everyone and everything look pink/purple. Cell phone pictures were not good. LOL. Thankfully my lighting game is TOP NOTCH, so I was able to overpower the LEDs and get some beautifully lit photos with lots of color! I used 2 off camera flashes and one on camera flash and quite a bit of white balancing and color correction afterwards to get a great look.

Decor, Auction, and Guests

Guests were treated to a beautifully decorated room, a silent auction with tons of great items, a shopping table courtesy of Kendra Scott, and a 360 photobooth by MDP Party Planners. All the scholarship winners got a gift bag and a custom sash to wear at the event to honor their achievements. The food at Benvenuto is DELISH! If you've never been, you should check it out. It was newly remodeled only a few years ago and the staff is great!

Speeches and Awards

The event featured:

• A welcome and prayer by Theresa LePore
• President, Margaret Montalvo, gave some foundation updates and thanked the sponsors
• The amazing Emcee, Tania Rogers (from WPTV), got the scholarship presentations underway
• Suzanne Turner and Jane Bloom did a wonderful Call To The Heart, where some generous donations were made
• Longtime supporter, Denise Albritton, did her infamous reading of "Phenomenal Woman" by Maya Angelou
• The event concluded with the announcement of the liquor basket giveaway, which Shanon Materio was thrilled to win (party at her house!).

Congratulations to the entire Foundation and event committee for doing an outstanding job, as always!

If you are passionate about helping women succeed in life, please consider making a donation to the Women's Red Apple Foundation. Your donation will be used to help a very deserving woman reach her educational goals. For more info, please visit www.womensredapplefoundation.org