Spotlight: Helen Gallo

Posted on 3/9/16 by Megan Sahillioglu

STAT BOX

VP Northeast Vice President of Winebow

Speaking at the ShePartakes Women in Wine event on 3/29 at BRIX in the South End

Helen has been working in the wine industry for over thirty years. As a veteran of the trade who explored wine producing regions around the world, Helen enjoys sharing her knowledge and passion for wine with a variety of audiences— restaurants, retailers, consumers, wine educators, and journalists….

Helen is also a founding board member of Boston University’s Elizabeth Bishop Wine Resource Center. In January 2009, the Italian Trade Commission recognized Helen as a Gold Award Honoree for her longtime commitment and contribution to the appreciation of Italian wine in the United States. Helen’s expertise also extends to the culinary realm; she frequently consults on food and wine pairings, and is working toward a Masters in Gastronomy at Boston University.

Make sure you say hello to Helen at Women in Wine on 3/29 where she will be speaking.

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ShePartakes has launched!

Posted on 3/9/16 by Megan Sahillioglu

We launched ShePartakes with an orgasmic eleven course lunch at O Ya – attended by a fascinating mix of SheGives women, as well as women active in the Boston region’s food, wine and hospitality industries. Our guests included: Haley Fortier – from the forthcoming haley.henry wine bar, Valerie Gurdal – owner of Formaggio Kitchen, Amy Fischer – Director of Marketing and Events for Boston Common Magazine, Helen Gallo – Senior VP Northeast, Winebow and  Kate Urekew – Founder of Revel Experiences.

Our Host, Nancy Cushman – co-owner of Cushman Concepts (O Ya + Hojoko) started our intimate conversation about women in Boston;s restaurant scene by sharing the story of the launch of O Ya. “The women who are part of Boston’s restaurant culture are extremely generous, welcoming and supportive” and that tradition — of women inspiring and celebrating other women — is at the crux of ShePartakes!

Check out even more photos from the launch by scrolling through the gallery below.
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Don’t miss our next intimate lunch {Sugar + Spice} w. Ana Sortun (James Beard Award Winner!) at Oleana. Get Tix Here! 

Meet the mastermind behind O Ya –
and the other Cushman Concepts – Nancy Cushman!

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Nancy Cushman’s experience includes the creation of the highly acclaimed, award-winning O Ya restaurant Nancy’s passion for sake was sparked in Chicago. After her first sake experience, she became fascinated with it and made studying sake a passion, completing the Sake Professional Course in Japan with the world’s foremost sake expert. In 2007, she opened O Ya, a contemporary Japanese restaurant, with her husband Tim Cushman.

Chef Tim and Nancy ​Cushman have expanded their restaurant group to New York City. In 2014, they opened Roof at Park South, a seasonal rooftop cocktail bar with a 360 degree view of the NYC skyline from the top floor of the Park South Hotel. In 2015, they opened a second o ya in Manhattan and a new Japanese Tavern called Hojoko in Boston’s Fenway Neighborhood.

O Ya has received numerous awards, including being named by the New York Times’ Frank Bruni as the #1 new restaurant in the U.S. outside of New York. In 2012, Nancy travelled back to Japan to complete the Advanced Sake Professional Course and is now one of less than 100 people in the world to have this certification.  In 2014, Boston Magazine ranked o ya the #1 restaurant in Boston. O Ya us Boston’s most impossible reservation to get and highly sought after for their Japanese-inspired cuisine and sake menu.

Thanks Nancy (+ Team) for hosting such a memorable launch to ShePartakes!

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Innercity Weightlifting Founder Jon Feinman Featured on TheEditorial.com

Posted on 2/5/16 by Jessica Price

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Photo from TheEditorial.com

Heidi Legg of TheEditorial.com sat down with Innercity Weightlifting founder Jon Feinman for an illuminating interview as part of their new Young Blood series. In it, Feinman discusses the challenges and successes that ICW has faced since its founding in 2010, and his goals for the future. Check out the interview here!

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ShePartakes Featured in the Boston Globe!

Posted on 2/4/16 by Jessica Price

SheGives was featured in the Boston Globe this morning! Sacha Pfeiffer highlights some of our ShePartakes events to celebrate women chefs in the Boston Area, including Monday’s sold-out luncheon with chef Nancy Cushman. Check out the article here.

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Women More Likely to Give, and More Likely to Give More

Posted on 2/1/16 by Jessica Price
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Illustration by Serge Bloch, from the Wall Street Journal

Here’s a fascinating short read from the Wall Street Journal. Research at the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy shows that women give more than their male peers at all income levels, even though women have fewer available resources.  And women and men give for different reasons.  Women tend to be more altruistic and empathetic than men – to give to help others, whereas men tend to give when the appeal frames the donation as being in the man’s self interest or a a way of maintaining the status quo.

Check out the article here.  There’s a lot to chew on from this article – but for now we’ll just leave it at that.

Article by Kirstan Barnett.
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Hate Planks But Looove College Bound Dorchester…?!

Posted on 1/29/16 by Jessica Price

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Laura Gassner Otting (SheGives Founding Board Member amongst many other incredible titles like Founder, Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group, Board of Directors College Bound Dorchester) prompted us with this question: Hate Planks but Love College Bound Dorchester? She’s spearheading a Plank Competition to support College Bound Dorchester, one of our original slate of nonprofits, and has challenged us to form a SheGives Plank Team.  You can support college track programming for some of the toughest-to-reach kids in a community where less than one-quarter of the population has a college degree – all while getting beach body ready for summer weather – which by the looks of it outside, could be any month now?!

The concept is simple: Each person donates a minimum of $10.  We start on Monday, February 1 with 20 seconds, from wherever we want to plank — it’s totally virtual — and add a little more time each day.  On the last day, you see how long you can hold it.  Half of the proceeds go to College Bound Dorchester, a quarter go to whichever planker holds for the longest overall, and a quarter goes to captain of the team with the most overall minutes.  More plankers means more money for College Bound! To sign up, read about the challenge, the rules and where to send your $$$ click here | Read more about CBD here.

Article by Kirstan Barnett.

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WhoIsShe? SheGives Member Tamsen Webster

Posted on 1/18/16 by Sarah Kess

STAT BOX

SVP, Executive Communications and Coaching, Oratium; Executive Producer, TEDxCambridge

Grew up in the Philippines, Connecticut, Hawaii, San Diego, but (mostly) in Virginia Beach, VA -- Navy kid!

Mom/Stepmom to three boys, aged 11, 7, and 5

Can score a baseball game, thanks to being the Manager of the Varsity Boys' Baseball Team in high school

Worked for Weight Watchers for 15 years (13 years as a leader) after losing 50 pounds back in the late 1990s.

We know that Laura Gassner Otting brought you into SheGives. What do you like best about Laura?

Laura’s fearless. That’s what I love most about her. She sees something she likes or wants or thinks needs to happen, and she just does it. She also manages to do it with style and flair. She is the very definition of a dynamo.

What causes are near and dear to your heart?

Where I’m most interested is in organizations that help people realize their potential. The event at InnerCity Weightlifting was awesome—when the first student spoke about the impact of ICW, I was literally in tears. I just thought, “It’s amazing what can happen here.” That’s the kind of thing I love. I like to call it the power of possibility. You have to show someone what’s possible, and once they see what’s possible, there’s usually very little that gets in their way of getting there. InnerCity Weightlifting really speaks to me because it’s a way for kids to a) see that there’s another option b) see that there’s a clear path that works with who they are to achieving that other option. I’m a fan of anything that does that.

Is there a book/movie/play that has had a tremendous impact on you?

I’d say one of the most enduring pieces of art that did have an effect on me was a Stephen Sondheim musical, Sunday in the Park with George.

Probably one of my very favorite songs from the musical is a song called “Move On” and the lyrics go: “Stop worrying where you’re going/Move on/If you can know where you’re going/You’ve gone/Just keep moving on”

The whole song is just perfect for me. You just keep going. You might not know if what you’re doing is new or different, but I love the line: “Stop worrying it your vision is new/Let others make that decision-They usually do/You keep moving on.”

That’s been very formative— that spirit of how to approach life.

Who would be invited to your ideal dinner party?

Dorothy Parker, first and foremost. I’d also invite Diane von Furstenberg, Mark Twain, Martha Graham, Hans Rosling, who is this economist I love. My husband, of course.  Oh, and Ella Fitzgerald. She needs to be there. We’d need some entertainment.

What is your favorite trip you’ve ever taken?

That would be hard to choose. Each trip that I’ve taken has a different, awesome memory attached to it.

My favorite “see the world in new ways” trip was a trip I took with my family over the holidays when I was still in college. It was to Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Bali.

My father had been in the Navy; my parents had gone to Hong Kong when he was stationed in Japan, and they loved it. They had quite literally saved up their entire lives to take us with them on this trip back to Hong Kong. It was also the last trip my sister and I, along with our parents, took as just a family of four—it was the last trip before there were boyfriends and husbands.

Each of the cities we visited was just a completely foreign experience to anything I had seen before. I mean, Hong Kong was like landing in Blade Runner. It was the coolest trip and was so formative.

I also have so many memories tied up in New York—that’s where my husband and I got married, and that’s where we escape to if we need an escape. New York to me is essentially like a neighborhood of Boston. New Yorkers would be horrified to hear me say that. But to my husband and I, it’s like “should we go out to dinner in the North End or should we take a trip to New York?”

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SheGives Members Break a Sweat at InnerCity Weightlifting

Posted on 1/13/16 by Jessica Price
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SheGives members gathered in Kendall Square in Cambridge on Monday to participate in a workout and to listen to Jon Feinman, Founder and Executive Director of InnerCity Weightlifting (ICW), discuss his organization and the positive changes it is making in Boston. The Kendall Square ICW is a small gym tucked into a corner of the Square, but already it has made a big impact. Its goal is to keep at-risk youth off the streets and out of jails, while giving them the opportunity to develop skills and connections for future employment.

After some light stretching and strength training exercises, Feinman began the talk with an alarming statistic: less than 1% of Boston’s youth are responsible for 70% of the gun violence in the Boston area. He added that cities with the highest crime rates tend to be the ones that have the highest levels of segregation. The young people his organization attracts often come from households that have incomes of less than $10,000 a year, and they struggle daily with the poverty and violence in their communities. These are the youths who are “pushed to the outside, where there is no opportunity,” Feinman said.

Feinman, who grew up in a middle class home in Amherst, sought to address these issues by opening InnerCity Weightlifting in 2010. ICW attracts at-risk youth to the gym by first gaining their trust, “not the other way around,” Feinman said. The organization then helps them to make positive changes and learn valuable personal training skills, all while providing them with financial and educational resources and a place where, Feinman says, “they don’t have to look over their shoulders.” These are all vital parts of ICW’s Student Apprenticeship Program, in which students gain job experience and have the opportunity to earn a certification with the National Academy of Sports Medicine. They can then get hired at ICW, or they can apply their personal training skills to a position at another facility.

Feinman also created ICW to create personal and professional connections between different members of the community; students can then use these networks at ICW for career advancement. The relationships formed also give students confidence and a sense of hope for the future. Mac, a trainer at the Kendall Square location, described ICW as “like a big brother,” that gave him the “guidance and structure” that he needed to get his life on track. Eric, another trainer at the Kendall Square location, was grateful to ICW’s donors and supporters. “I’m making a decent living because of all of your support,” he said.

Thanks to the generosity of donors, InnerCity Weightlifting now operates in two facilities–the Kendall Square location opened in May and the other is in Dorchester. ICW currently has 156 students, but Feinman plans to expand in 2016: “What’s exciting about 2016,” Feinman said, “is that we’re trying to double our staff, and increase the number of students and clients we serve.” It recently met a $50,000 matching goal, which was matched by the Devonshire Foundation. In addition to expanding the number of personnel and students, Feinman hopes to use the new funds to open two new sites in the Boston area, specifically in areas near the boundaries between the wealthy and the at-risk.

Feinman’s ambitions, however, are grander than the city of Boston. Eric and Mac both mentioned another cornerstone of Feinman’s philosophy: “breaking down barriers.” By connecting different members of the Boston community, Feinman hopes to foster connections that will help create a “national shift in perception.” The long-term goal is to expand into other cities by 2019; Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles are prime targets due to their high levels of segregation. His method is very simple, Feinman said: “For all the complicated solutions, the one that seems to work the best…is understanding. When people know each other…everything looks different. That’s ultimately what we do.”

You can learn more about InnerCity Weightlifting by visiting their web site. You can also follow them on Twitter or Facebook for information on how to get involved.

Check out even more photos from the evening by scrolling through the gallery below. 

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SheGives Members Get Educated on Safe Skin Care at Follain

Posted on 12/2/15 by Jessica Price

shegivesfollain730Over twenty SheGives members and friends attended Monday night’s Festive@Follain event in Beacon Hill, where they shopped, learned all about the healthy beauty products that Follain—which is Gaelic for “healthy, wholesome, and sound”—offers, and discussed the issues facing the beauty industry today.

Walking into Follain’s Beacon Hill location, one immediately feels welcomed by the calm, relaxed environment and the eager customer service reps, who, according to Founder and CEO Tara Foley, are all taught with a 300-page training manual when hired. Each is abundantly knowledgeable about the chemicals found in our everyday beauty products.

Foley says her primary goal for the store is to share this knowledge with the public. “Every time someone walks in the door, we know they’ve been educated,” she says. She will begin talking to women by asking them how many products they use a day, and if they are aware of the lack of federal regulation of the chemicals in those products. In some cases, women will walk in with a makeup bag full of products and walk out having swapped each product for a safe option.

Foley began educating SheGives members and guests Monday night by talking about the harmful chemicals that can appear in common skincare products in the United States. There are many chemicals that are banned in other countries, she says, but they continue to be used in the United States. According to Foley, these chemicals can cause health problems when they bio-accumulate, or become concentrated in the body. “Our skin doesn’t have a liver to digest stuff like that, so it goes right into our bloodstream,” Foley said. She also cited a direct link between the chemicals found in many deodorants and breast cancer.

Her solution? “Safer products.” Foley became passionate about finding safer beauty products in 2009, when she started reviewing products on her blog. At that time, she says, there were not enough brands to open a store. After reviewing the stores in the area that included safe products, she received positive feedback and decided to quit her job and move to France to work on an organic lavender farm. “I spent the next four years on a journey learning about skincare, learning about sustainability, learning about business,” she said. Upon her return to the United States, she enrolled in an MBA program at Babson College and, after graduating, opened her first store in the south end of Boston in 2013, despite her professors’ assertions that opening a brick-and-mortar store was “a terrible idea.”

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She now has four stores that carry products from 47 brands. All products are screened to ensure that they are safe and environmentally sustainable, and all products are made in the U.S. and are not tested on animals. But Foley’s only getting started. “This is a growing movement,” says Foley. “A third of these brands didn’t exist in 2009.” And the issue has been getting attention: on November 29 of this year, columnist Nicholas Kristof posted an opinion piece in the New York Times comparing the skincare industry to the tobacco industry in that both have powerful lobbies that resist legislative change.

Foley seeks to make her customers more aware of this issue. “Our goal is to shift a mindset on skincare products,” says Foley. Many women, she says, come into the store after being affected in some way by the negative consequences of these products, and she wants to start educating people before this happens. If you want to start using safer skin care products, you can make an appointment at any of their locations, attend a makeup tutorial, and follow them on social media for other events. You can also read Tara Foley’s blog and learn more about their products at the Follain web site.

Check out even more photos from the evening by scrolling through the gallery below.  

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All photos courtesy of SLY Photography

 

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Boston Herald Covers Lovin’ Spoonfuls Tailgate Party

Posted on 11/24/15 by Jessica Price
(Boston, MA 112215 ) Thomas M. Menino Award for Leadership honoree Andrew Zimmern poses for a photograph with Lovin' Spoonfuls Executive Director Ashley Stanley after the award presentation during the Ultimate Tailgate Party hosted by Lovin' Spoonfuls at Black Falcon Terminal in Boston, Massachusetts November 22, 2015. Staff Photo by Chitose Suzuki

Photo: Chitose Suzuki of the Boston Herald

Lovin’ Spoonfuls is in the news! The Boston Herald covered Sunday night’s Ultimate Tailgate Party, where over $200,000 was raised. You can read the full article here.

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