Tallahassee has had a charitable group called One-Hundred-Plus Women for a few years. But now several men have decided to start a similar group of their own.
One of those men is named Jim Wylie. He said the whole idea came from his aquaintence with the Tallahassee woman who started the original group.
"Virginia Glass is a long time friend of mine. I actually lived in her neighborhood until I moved to Westminster Oaks about 5 months ago. So when Virginia Glass was recruiting my wife to be a member of the 100 Women, I said, 'Virginia, maybe there ought to be a group for men.' And she looked at me with that twinkle in her eye that only Virginia has and said, 'Well, maybe you should start one.'"
Wylie took up that challenge. Although he acknowledged that, while the women are now closing in on 300 members, their male counterparts have yet to reach the magic one-hundred mark. But, he insisted, the ladies had a head start.
"We're moving a little slower. I think a lot of women joined Virginia and a lot of men will be joining us as they find out about it."
Because the thing, said Wylie, is that no matter the chromosome makeup of the members, the 100+ organizations all work the same way: they generate funds for local human service non-profits.
"How else can you come together only 4 times a year and give only $100 and then give that money back to our community? We're not raising it for ourselves. We're not a separate 501c3. The checks are made out to the charities and we just have a mechanism in place that facilitates giving in Tallahassee/Leon County."
Only one thing, he said, is missing.
"We need more members for the members to nominate charities that we can give this money away to."
Interested guys should shoot Jim an email.
"Our next meeting will be right before Thanksgiving. So we'd encourage your listeners to reach out to me and others to become part of this organization. My email is: fjameswylie@gmail.com."
