TELLICO VILLAGE, Tenn. — The Yacht Club at Tellico Village was buzzing with excitement and anticipation from all parties as 100 Women Who Care gathered for its final quarterly meeting of 2025 on Oct. 29.

The 100 Women Who Care heard from three — but ultimately voted on one — nonprofit organizations to give their pooled donation of $18,700. The hope is that the money will act as a springboard for the underprivileged, a means to get them back on their feet and well on their way to a new lease on life.

‘WE DON’T HAVE A LIMIT TO WHAT WE HELP WITH’


The fourth-quarter winner was Fresh Start Outreach Ministry, a nonprofit organization serving Monroe and McMinn counties focused on providing key resources for families and individuals who have hit hard times and are looking for a way to get back on their feet fast.

That aid can reveal itself in a number of different ways for the group. … Whether its providing basic food and essential supplies, providing financial and utility assistance to those who can’t afford it themselves, providing warming shelters and warm clothing during cold months, as well as meeting a litany of other needs like transportation or sometimes housing if available at their shelter.

Mandy Butera, the group’s president, said they’ve even supplied items like prescription glasses to those whose impaired vision may mean the difference between instability and comfortability.

“We don’t have a limit to what we help with,” Butera said.

The group currently has one shelter in Sweetwater, and is in the midst of expanding their reach to a more diverse range of individuals in the coming months.

Butera said that the money received will go a long way toward making that dream a reality.

“My thing is the women’s shelter,” Butera said. “There’s nothing around for women. So we’re going to use the money to extend the shelter to house women.

“It’s a big honor just to be nominated and to show all of the hard work paying off. But it’s even a bigger honor to be awarded because then I feel like what I said touched [the 100 Women Who Care organization], and they understand the needs in our community.”

TRANSPORTATION NEEDS, FOOD PANTRY UPKEEP & MORE

But the money will go toward a lot more than brick and mortar achievements, Butera explained. Those dollars will also go directly into the gas tank of their bus that transports individuals using their services to things like medical appointments and job interviews they may not otherwise be able to get to on their own.

The funds will also help stock their food pantry, which the group’s president said is in need of constant attention.

It’s a big check, and for a group that relies almost entirely on volunteer manpower and money, Butera said it’s able to be spread in some really important directions.

“We could not do what we do without community support,” Butera explained. “Every single penny we get is from the community.”

The ceremony and its subsequent donation marks the three-year anniversary of 100 Women Who Care gathering to pledge funds for good causes, with proceeds staying local to the area and prioritizing groups from Loudon and Monroe counties.

The group, which has around 210 women currently rostered, boasts more than $260,000 donations to charitable organizations such as the Adopt-A-Class program, the Good Samaritan Center of Loudon County, IVA’s Place, the Tellico Village Volunteer Fire Department and many more.

Each quarter, the group hears from three different organizations that give a “pitch” and field questions from the crowd as to how the money will be distributed if received … as well as who it will impact once gifted to the organization.

If groups nominated don’t win, there’s a year waiting period before they can be re-entered into the pool and that window extends to three years for groups who walk home with the big check in hand.

Most organizations never leave empty-handed, however, as once the winner is announced in the main room of the Yacht Club you can witness hundreds of checkbooks being pulled out and scribbled onto as women make additional donations to groups that resonated with them.

Organizations like Shangri-La Therapeutic Academy of Riding (STAR) or Sweetwater Area Ministries (SAM), who both presented alongside Fresh Start, were recipients of at least a few extra donations on the evening.

100 Women Who Care also puts immense value in the follow-up report — inviting past winners to return a year after their donation was awarded to discuss how the money was used and what tangible impacts it had in the community.

This quarter, that group was the Loudon County Sheriff’s Benevolent Fund, with Loudon County Sheriff Jimmy Davis and Mike Thornton, who have helped to lead a program that assists officers and their families meet needs and benefits not covered by the Loudon County Sheriff’s Office.

The benefits can be received by full-time law enforcement officers, children or spouses of a deputy who was killed in the line of duty, or any child or spouse of current law enforcement officers in the LCSO.

The funds have helped with everything from getting a full-time officer to pursue higher education, as well as providing assistance to the family of the late Sgt. Chris Jenkins, who was killed in the line of duty in 2022.

Sheriff Davis said that Loudon County’s program is one of the only true benevolence funds for police officers in the state of Tennessee.

To learn more about 100 Women Who Care, or to potentially join the organization, women can go to https://www.grapevine.org/giving-circle/8y7hjzq/100WWCEastTNFoothills, or email the group at 100WWCEastTNFoothills@gmail.com.