The Program Board honored outstanding women serving the GW community at its first Women’s History Month Charity Auction Dinner in the Marvin Center Ballroom Saturday.
“(This event) honors our female ancestors who have suffered and persevered for their beliefs,” PB Political Affairs Chair Mei-i Zien, the organizer of the event, wrote in the program.
Three awards recognized outstanding women in the GW community.
Scheherazade Rehman, a professor in the international business department, accepted the faculty award. Her program joins the Elliott School of International Affairs with the School of Business and Public Management.
Rehman was nominated by political science professor Michael Sodaro, who was unable to attend but wrote, “She is an exceptional role model for men and women in the male-dominated field of international business.”
“I’m honored,” Rehman said. “It’s been a long hard road – but it’s been fun.”
D.C. Reads volunteer Jessica Rosgaard presented the staff award to Martha Kreiner, the campus coordinator for D.C. Reads, which recruits GW work study students to tutor in the D.C. area twice a week.
“I am privileged to work with so many dedicated people and this means a lot,” Kreiner said.
Presidential Administrative Fellow Rodney Salinas presented the student award to Pamela Montano Eclar, a midshipman for Navy ROTC, the historian of the National Society of Black Engineers and the historian of the Philippine Cultural Society. She is also working on the Filipino Intercollegiate Networking Dialogue Conference.
The event’s auction raised more than $1,200 for Suited for a Change, Zien said.
This non-profit, D.C.-based organization provides professional clothing, shoes, purses, jewelry, seminars and job training for women with low incomes trying to join the workforce, said Claudia Askew, co-founder of Suited for Change.
She said the organization helps women making the transition from welfare to work.
“You can’t imagine how good it feels to see a woman put on a suit that she thought she could never have.” Askew said. “It makes her feel so special and makes her able to hold her head up high.”
Student leaders of past, present and future donated their faces for a pie to be thrown at them by the highest bidder in J Street at Wednesday’s election night party.
Master of ceremonies Anthony Rizzuto, PB secretary, received the highest bid at $25. Six people, mostly candidates in the upcoming elections, did not receive bids.
PB executive chair candidates Brian Nathanson and Mike Jewsbury decided to bid $20 – and the winner of the election will get a pie in the face from the loser.
All items up for silent auction were given starting bids and estimated value prices, however some items were sold at prices lower than the starting bid.
“I guess we did not have the right kind of crowd,” Zien said. “We did not know how the crowd would receive some of the (items up for auction) and those were the things that sold at low prices.”
Most of the items up for auction were donated by several organizations, including the Hard Rock Cafe, the Park Hyatt Health Club, the Taipei Economic-Cultural Representative Office, clothing stores, hotels and on-campus groups.
The GW basketball teams signed basketballs, which were sold for $1 for the women’s and $5 for the men’s. Sterling silver earrings sold for $3, and the 1998 Cherry Tree yearbook with a full-page ad in the sports section sold for $10.
The most expensive bid was $380 for a weekend stay at the Hay Adams Hotel, which included an autographed picture of Bob Dole.
A weekend stay at the One Washington Circle Hotel sold for $116; a Titanic memorabilia set including the soundtrack, an autographed picture of Leonardo DiCaprio and an official movie poster sold for $51; and dinner for two at Garrett’s sold for $43.
