Submitted by Carol A. Clark on March 25, 2017 - 10:29am
On behalf of 100+ Women Who Care, UWNNM Executive Director Kristy Ortega, right, presents a donation check to BSMA Vice President Ryn Herrmann, left, and BSMA Secretary KayLinda Crawford Friday at the Bradbury Science Museum. Courtesy photo
COMMUNITY News:
100+ Women Who Care, the Los Alamos group of women who strive to have a positive impact in the community without the time-consuming effort associated with fundraising, gathered recently for their first quarterly meeting of 2017 at project Y in Central Park Square.
The group chose to award its first quarter funds to the Bradbury Science Museum Association (BSMA) to assist with its Educational Outreach Program.
BSMA is a local nonprofit organization formed in December 2015. The BSMA has the sole mission of raising money for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education outreach in northern New Mexico – by providing field trip transportation, workshops, teacher development opportunities, special STEM related events and more. (The BSMA is not part of the Bradbury Science Museum or Los Alamos National Laboratory and does not receive funding from the museum or LANL.)
The BSMA will use the funds to create more STEM education field trip opportunities for students in northern New Mexico who need assistance traveling to Los Alamos. Most recently, thanks to a transportation grant from Los Alamos National Bank, the BSMA achieved a STEM education outreach goal when 90 students from El Camino Real Academy visited the Bradbury Science Museum. (The LANB transportation grant is specified to provide transportation for the lowest-income schools in the surrounding area.)
These field trips have a significant impact on students and their teachers. El Camino Real Academy science teacher Katherine Bueler shared these thoughts with the BSMA after her school's Feb. 15, 2017 field trip:
"Thank goodness LANB paid for the buses to get us here! In New Mexico, 8th grade is about U.S. history and physical science, and this field trip is critical to our curriculum. It has gotten quite difficult to get middle school students, who are finally academically ready, out of the Santa Fe city limits to the wonderful museums and parks in northern New Mexico because sources of transportation funding have been disappearing. We depend on Gordon's cryogenics demonstration and all that the students can see at this museum."
About 100+ Women Who Care
The 100+ Women Who Care mission is to reach out and help the community by collecting contributions for local nonprofits. All organizations up for consideration are in the Los Alamos area. The idea is to keep it local and have an impact that can be seen in the local community. The group meets four times per year and each member commits to donating $100 per meeting or commits that total as a team of two or four women.
For more information about 100+ Women Who Care in Los Alamos, contact Kristy Ortega at 505.663.3891 or visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/902262189863796/
